Opinion / Columnist
MDC-T's monkey approach myopic
11 May 2012 at 08:10hrs | Views
British premier David Cameron announces that British aid would go to those who support homosexuality, Morgan Tsvangirai wakes up singing the "virtues" of sodomy. Barack Obama announces he backs same-sex marriages, the MDC-T component of Copac and their donor partners relentlessly try to smuggle homosexuality into the draft constitution.
Obama announces his re-election campaign would be predicated on "creating jobs". Tsvangirai wakes up talking about a "jobs programme" as an alternative to indigenisation and economic empowerment.
Are these coincidences or it's the case of the puppet aping the moves of the puppeteer? You be the judge. To understand the MDC-T rhetoric, one has to read the lips of the party's masters. On Tuesday, US president Barack Obama made his first speech on economic policy since the official start of his re-election campaign, calling on Congress to enact a list of corporate handouts in the name of "creating jobs."
Meanwhile, as a result of legislation signed by Obama earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of people are being thrown off unemployment rolls due to the expiration of extended federal benefits. In California alone, 93 000 workers will lose benefits on Saturday.
In this context, Obama's jobs programme bears the hallmarks of a political farce, and Tsvangirai should stand put on notice. Three of Obama's five proposals are simply tax handouts for businesses. One would create a 10 percent income tax credit for companies that "create new jobs" in 2012, and the second would expand the current tax subsidy for "investments in clean energy manufacturing."
Only one of his proposals is not a hand out to corporations. As such, it is predictably trivial: He called for a program that would put 20 000 military veterans to work on an environmental conservation program over five years and provide an "online training program" in "the fundamentals of small business ownership" for 10 000 veterans. Obama also called for a government tax cut to corporations that "in-source" jobs to the United States. It would allow corporations to write off all of their costs for setting up production facilities in the US, plus provide a tax credit of 20 percent on investment in the country.
This is of a piece with Obama's entire economic program, which has aimed to drive down wages to the point where workers in the United States can be exploited more cheaply than those in countries such as China and Mexico. As Obama put it, "American workers are becoming more efficient, companies are becoming more and more competitive, so for a lot of businesses, it's now starting to make sense to bring jobs back home." By "efficiency," Obama means nothing more than the increased exploitation of the American workforce as a result of the economic crisis. Even though the workforce has shrunk by millions of people during the recession, industrial output has surpassed 2007 levels.
The lack of any meaningful measures to deal with the unemployment crisis is part of this program. Far from seeing unemployment as a social evil, the administration, together with the corporations it represents, has used mass unemployment to drive down wages, slash benefits, and impose workplace speedups.
As a result, corporate profits are at their highest levels in history, while the labour force participation rate is down to its lowest level since the 1980s.
Amid mass unemployment and growing poverty, both Romney and Obama sing the praises of the profit system and propose no policies that are not direct handouts to major corporations and the super-rich.
An entirely different response is required. Against the anti-democratic political set-up and the capitalist system it defends, the working class must advance its own, socialist program. Immediate measures must be taken to put people to work. This includes a multi-trillion dollar public works program to rebuild infrastructure and meet all the needs of a complex society.
Therefore focusing on jobs at the expense of indigenisation and empowerment is a tired yarn. It has not worked for Tsvangirai's masters, and will certainly not work here.
More so who told Tsvangirai that empowerment doesn't create jobs? A case of being content with the milk not ownership of the cow!
Obama announces his re-election campaign would be predicated on "creating jobs". Tsvangirai wakes up talking about a "jobs programme" as an alternative to indigenisation and economic empowerment.
Are these coincidences or it's the case of the puppet aping the moves of the puppeteer? You be the judge. To understand the MDC-T rhetoric, one has to read the lips of the party's masters. On Tuesday, US president Barack Obama made his first speech on economic policy since the official start of his re-election campaign, calling on Congress to enact a list of corporate handouts in the name of "creating jobs."
Meanwhile, as a result of legislation signed by Obama earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of people are being thrown off unemployment rolls due to the expiration of extended federal benefits. In California alone, 93 000 workers will lose benefits on Saturday.
In this context, Obama's jobs programme bears the hallmarks of a political farce, and Tsvangirai should stand put on notice. Three of Obama's five proposals are simply tax handouts for businesses. One would create a 10 percent income tax credit for companies that "create new jobs" in 2012, and the second would expand the current tax subsidy for "investments in clean energy manufacturing."
Only one of his proposals is not a hand out to corporations. As such, it is predictably trivial: He called for a program that would put 20 000 military veterans to work on an environmental conservation program over five years and provide an "online training program" in "the fundamentals of small business ownership" for 10 000 veterans. Obama also called for a government tax cut to corporations that "in-source" jobs to the United States. It would allow corporations to write off all of their costs for setting up production facilities in the US, plus provide a tax credit of 20 percent on investment in the country.
This is of a piece with Obama's entire economic program, which has aimed to drive down wages to the point where workers in the United States can be exploited more cheaply than those in countries such as China and Mexico. As Obama put it, "American workers are becoming more efficient, companies are becoming more and more competitive, so for a lot of businesses, it's now starting to make sense to bring jobs back home." By "efficiency," Obama means nothing more than the increased exploitation of the American workforce as a result of the economic crisis. Even though the workforce has shrunk by millions of people during the recession, industrial output has surpassed 2007 levels.
The lack of any meaningful measures to deal with the unemployment crisis is part of this program. Far from seeing unemployment as a social evil, the administration, together with the corporations it represents, has used mass unemployment to drive down wages, slash benefits, and impose workplace speedups.
As a result, corporate profits are at their highest levels in history, while the labour force participation rate is down to its lowest level since the 1980s.
Amid mass unemployment and growing poverty, both Romney and Obama sing the praises of the profit system and propose no policies that are not direct handouts to major corporations and the super-rich.
An entirely different response is required. Against the anti-democratic political set-up and the capitalist system it defends, the working class must advance its own, socialist program. Immediate measures must be taken to put people to work. This includes a multi-trillion dollar public works program to rebuild infrastructure and meet all the needs of a complex society.
Therefore focusing on jobs at the expense of indigenisation and empowerment is a tired yarn. It has not worked for Tsvangirai's masters, and will certainly not work here.
More so who told Tsvangirai that empowerment doesn't create jobs? A case of being content with the milk not ownership of the cow!
Source - zimpapers
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