The New York Times had an article today on the "stark differences" between the party platforms.  The section on Labor was in the middle, after abortion, same sex marriage, medicare and social security and before Taxes, Climate Change and Israel.  The Reoublican position was unabashed reaction on virtually all  questions.  But the position on labor deserves special mention.   

But the Republican position on Labor is essentially all out capitalist class, in effect a call for the final destruction of the American trade union movement

 The Democrats portray their position in   what one might call liberal-labor glittering generalities,  stating that "the right to organize and collectively bargain is a fundamental American value...We will continue to fight for the right of all workers to organize and join a union"  they don't say how they will achieve that goal, except to say that "we oppose the attacks on collective bargaining that Republican governors and state legislatures are mounting in states around the country."

The Republicans however  don't only deal with conservative business generalities  They  have a concrete plan to achieve their goals.  "We, they state, " support the rights of states to  enact right to work laws and encourage them to do so. Ultimately, we support a national right to work law to promote worker freedom andto promote greater economic liberty." 

Think of that.   IT would probably bring oganized workers back to the late 19th century, when less than 3% of workers were trade unions, strikes were routinely broken with employer and local, state and federal violence,  and wages and hours legislation, workman's compensation did not exist and there were no restrictions on child labor. 

This is the "worker freedom" the Republican platform calls for, "cradle to the grave capitalism" with the assurance that the great majority of working people will have shorter lives, much less effective liberty, and spend their lives less in the pursuit of happiness but in attempts to run away from misery.

What is so remarkable about this platform plank , beyond its arrogance, is  its open declaration to  destroy all of the gains that the trade union movement has made over the last eighty years.  When the then young rightwing Republican Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, called for a "National  Right to Work law" in 1954, even the majority of his fellow rightwing Republicans were afraid to touch that with a ten foot pole.  Rightwing Republican attempts to enact state right to work laws in industrial states have gone down to defeat over and over again and usually taken the entire Republican  ticket with them.  What this platform plank shows is that the Republicans believe that they can with impunity destroy the trade union movement in pursuit of their twisted dream of capitalist utopia.   

In that regard they also state that "We salute the Republican governors and state legislators who have save their states from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws concerning public employee unions.   We urge elected officials across the country to follow their lead in order to avoid state and local defaults on their obligations and the collapse of services to the public."

A recent chart posted by the AFL-CIO  through its website noted that in 1960 membership in U.S. and Canadian unions about the same.  Today,  there are 11.8 percent of the U.S. work force in trade unions and 29.7 perenct  of the Canadian work force.  The AFL-CI0 makes the point that the difference is "employer opposition.  This of course is true. 

The AFL-CIO then makes the point  that Canadian workers have card check recognition, which means that when a majority of workers have signed cards the union has to be recognized.  Here in the U.S. this is often a first step as employers can then delay recognition  and mobilize anti union campaigns. Canadian workers also have first contract arbitration, which compels employers to negotiate with new unions in reality; in the  U.S. labor law does require employers to "bargain in good faith" but the reality, as anyone who has been involved in trade union actiion knows too well, that "good faith" agreements are often broken, impasses created, in an attempt to either break the union or make it appear weak and helpless in the eyes of workers.

The AFL-CI0 is fighting for these two elemental rights that Canadian workers have for American workers.  All  supporters of labor should urge Democratic candidates in the elections to stand up and fight for these  to elemental rights. 

 The Democratic platform from 1948 to 1984 had a plank calling for the repeal of section 14b of the Taft-Hartley law, which gave states the right to enact anti-union shop "right to work"legislation.  While of course it was never repealed, what that plank called for belongs back in the campaign, in order to educate the working families to the dangers that the Republican campaign represents.

New Jersey reduced to the level of Mississippi. Illinois indistinguishable from Alabama.  California as Arizona with an ocean.  Michigan as Northern Florida. Wisconsin as Utah, at best. Pennsylvania as a wasteland between two slum cities  This  is the the dystopia that the Republican's capitalist Utopia would  in all likelihood produce.

In 1948, the Democrats had a clunky campaign song, "Don't let them take it away," which they used against both the Republicans and also the Progressive Party presidential candidate, former Vice President Henry Wallace.  Unfortunately, the cold war produced a far reaching stagnation for labor  prevented whatever chance the Democrats had to fulfill their promises to repeal Taft-Hartley, enact National Health Care legislation, housing legislation, and other major pro working class reforms, if they won the election(which on that platform they did). 

Even though a great deal has been "taken away" over the last thirty years and very little given back  What the Republicans call for is literally to take away pretty much all that is left,  every gain made by labor since 1933, along with the all that has been positive in the Obama administration. 

That is why this is such a crucial election. The Republicans  are serious about fulfilling their threats.  And, no one should believe that they will not do so unless they are defeated in November