Stewart Alexander: Creating Good Paying Jobs Unobtainable with the Democrats and Republicans

By Veronica Nowakowski

The October 2011 jobs report was released on Friday, announcing the news that the official unemployment rate fell from 9.1% to 9.0%. In other news, wages in the private sector went up 5 cents an hour, and have increased 1.8% over the past 12 months. To compare, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ released the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) in October reporting that the cost of living has risen 3.6% in approximately the same time period. In real terms, that is a 1.7% pay cut for workers over the past 12 months.

“We aren’t making economic progress,” says Stewart Alexander, Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party USA, “we are simply going through a long term process of replacing poorly paying jobs with even worse jobs while corporate profits soar. The only ‘change’ Obama has given us jingles in our pockets.”

The Socialist Party USA’s Vice Presidential Candidate, Alejandro Mendoza, had this to say: “The way unemployment is measured officially does not grab at the real unemployment rate anyway. It does not take into account those who want to work but have given up on finding meaningful employment or those who are underemployed and still cannot make a living while working part-time. When you have an unemployment crisis on this level and timescale, people lose hope and stop being counted.”

The Alexander/Mendoza Campaign calls for full employment and for everyone to have a livable wage of at least $15 an hour. Stewart Alexander had recently come out calling for unemployment benefits to be extended indefinitely after Fox News had mangled his stance as being against unemployment benefits.

“I was never against unemployment benefits,” says Alexander, “I was, and still am, against the artificial lack of jobs created by modern capitalism. People should not have to rely on unemployment; the jobs should be there, but they’re clearly not. This is a failure of capitalism, not the unemployed. If you did what you were supposed to and find yourself without a job, don’t blame yourself, blame the system. Certainly, benefits should be out there for those the system does fail.”

“We cannot simply rely on the private sector,” adds Mendoza. “The government is supposed to be our collective will and we do, collectively, have the capital to create jobs. Capitalist politicians say that the government can’t create jobs; we say they just won’t allow it. Around 14% of the workforce is public sector workers and it was higher only recently. Those are jobs. We need more of them, not less. We spend billions of dollars to incentivize the private sector to create a handful of jobs. We could create more and better jobs, producing for the people, not profits that end up in some rich guy’s pocket, if we only tried.”

The campaign wants to create a socialist system based on economic democracy, where workers and the public at large have an active voice in both the day to day workings of economic life and the long-term economic direction of the country. They contrast this with the autocracy of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin, the social democratic mixed economies of Europe which are being dragged down by their private sectors, and the corporate autocracy currently in place in the United States.

“Socialism cannot be socialism without economic democracy,” explains Alexander. “Collective control requires democracy… real democracy. The people want jobs, and good paying jobs at that. If we want that, we can’t rely on the good will of the greedy; we need to create it for ourselves. We can have 0% unemployment. We just have to stop electing individuals who represent corporations and start electing individuals who represent actual people and who are willing to take action in defense of our collective interests. Corporations aren’t people and they aren’t superheroes either. They cannot, and more importantly, they will not save us.”

Find more articles: Stewart Alexander for President; Stewart Alexander 2012; Alexander/Mendoza 2012

Stewart Alexander / Alex Mendoza 2012 – Socialist Party USA
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stewart-Alexander-Alex-Mendoza-2012-Socialist-Party-USA/305242179487567

Presidential Candidate Alexander Wants Unemployment Benefits Extended Indefinitely: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/30/18696084.php

Fox News interview, Neil Cavuto and Stewart Alexander. See interview: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4309798/socialist-big-wig-calling-for-end-to-unemployment-benefits/