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By: Tormod Ytrehus / LO Media
– It is easier to close in Norway than in the US The Norwegian model has more of the American dream, he says. to the Free Trade Union Movement.
It has not always been this way. In 1950, the future looked promising for the middle class in the United States, which was getting richer and richer, while it has almost disappeared 70 years later. What happened?
In NRK’s UXA series, Thomas Seltzer has analyzed the development. He points to the decline in the number of union members as a major reason the American dream could die.
In this interview, he points to union crushing, lobbying and the financial crisis as some of the factors that led the United States into the chaos that would create Trump.
November 3, new president of the USA.
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America is going to hell
The American dream can be seen as a contract, Seltzer explains: a contract that says that in America you will have a better life if you work hard and your children will have an even better life than you.
– But it has changed, he says.
Among Americans born in 1940, nearly all earned higher incomes than their parents. If we skip to those born in 1984, this only applies to half.
– The contract is broken, says Seltzer.
– America is going to hell, but America is also going very fast. Look at the stock market! America is by far the largest money machine in the world. Huge wealth is being created in the United States.
In the late 1970s, differences in income distribution began to widen. During the same period, the number of union members was cut in half, to one in ten Americans.
– Is it random or a connection? I think there is a connection, says Seltzer.
Without strong unions, values are naturally skewed and the American dream disappears over the horizon.
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Broken professional pipe
Why are there fewer members in a union? Seltzer points to a strike in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan ordered the federal hiring of air traffic controllers to return to work.
When they refused, he laid off 11,000 employees and set an example that also inspired many private employers.
– That’s how he destroyed the attack weapon. There are constant strikes in the United States, but it’s always up to you that you could lose your job, says Seltzer.
It also highlights state “right to work” laws. These are rules that prevent “union workshops” where everyone must pay a membership fee to the union that negotiates wages.
– It is a very effective way to crush the trade union movement, he says.
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Community
Fagrørsla is in the blood. Seltzer has a father who was a union steward for the Teamsters, the union for transportation workers in the United States.
When the Norwegian left criticizes American cultural imperialism, the father’s response is:
– Then they have to stop going on the May 1 train, because that is what we invented. Then they can stop being members of LO, because that’s what we invented, Seltzer imitates.
He notes that Martin Tranmæl learned organizational work, strategy, and ideology as a young painter in the United States in the early 20th century. The first year he lived in Seltzer’s old hometown of Superior, Wisconsin. He took the lessons home to build the labor movement in Norway.
– The Norwegian model is actually the result of the American dream, my Seltzer.
He disagrees with the story that poor Americans are selfish hoping to get rich. For example, most people want the government to provide health services to everyone regardless of income, according to opinion polls.
– Americans are fans of community solutions, but America is also an oligarchy where money controls politics.
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Nails in the coffin
Take out two nails in the coffin of the American dream. One was the Citizens United ruling of the United States Supreme Court in 2010, which completely opens up to money in politics. And then there was the financial crisis.
When he was in the United States six years ago, he noticed that several friends had lost their spirits. His friend explained that he had not been to the dentist since the financial crisis of 2008.
– When the teeth of the middle class start to rot, then it’s an economic system that has failed, says Seltzer.
During the financial crisis, banks seized the homes of borrowers who could not pay their installments. Later, they received rescue packages from the state in the trillion dollar class. First the banks took people’s houses, then they took the tax money.
– It is the largest transfer of wealth from ordinary people to an economic elite in world history, says Seltzer.
– Betrayal is a democratic problem and it means that people no longer trust the system.
The financial crisis could occur because Bill Clinton in 1999 eliminated the Glass-Steagall laws that regulated banking, says Seltzer.
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Trump fram for Clinton
The Clintons must also bear much of the blame for Donald Trump being president in 2016, Seltzer says, after the former industrial states tipped the elections in their favor.
– If you go to a lot of the old industrial cities, the steel cities in the US, Bernie Sanders is more popular than Trump. But they voted for Trump, because it was about not voting for Hillary, says Seltzer.
Hillary Clinton has a past as a member of the board of directors of Walmart, which is known for its low wages, owned by the sugar-rich Walton family, with close ties to the Clintons.
Husband Bill Clinton is also not popular with former industrial workers. As president, he introduced the NAFTA free trade agreement in 1994 and dragged China into the WTO in 2001.
Later, hundreds of thousands of jobs disappeared in Mexico and millions in China.
Trump has criticized free trade agreements and has mentioned the opioid crisis that has affected de-industrialized parts of the United States.
– Other than that, it has failed, says Seltzer, and refers to Trump’s deregulations and tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest.
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Brother bernie
He believes his opponent Joe Biden will win the presidential election, even though Seltzer doesn’t have high expectations. Biden is a former senator from the Delaware tax haven, and throughout his career he has had major credit card companies behind him.
– It’s the money that rules, says Seltzer.
He is himself a US citizen and has voted in the state of Wisconsin. It doesn’t mean who, but it reveals:
– I voted for Bernie in the primaries, both gongs. I’m a “Bernie Bridge,” no question about that.
Bernie Sanders is known for referring to Scandinavian countries like Norway when he talks about social assistance schemes like free health and education services. When Thomas Seltzer and his family moved to Norway from the United States in the 1970s, he thought it was a dull, gray country.
– It was like arriving in a rural community in the Soviet Union, he said.
– But the Norwegian model has been good for my life. I think it’s good that my daughter Ellinor can grow up in Norway.
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