Labor Party calls for full employment by law
February 1997

From the Labor Party Call for Economic Justice:

Amend the Constitution to guarantee everyone a job at a living wage.

Corporate America is systematically destroying millions of decent paying jobs for working people. At the same time, the rich and powerful are leading an assault on the public sector and demanding cutbacks in government jobs that provide services for us all. As a result, there are not enough good jobs to go around and our public services are crumbling.

Nearly one in four workers are either unemployed, involuntarily working part-time, or are working full-time at poverty-level wages.

Since World War II, the government has been committed on paper to a full employment economy. But corporate Americn and its army of pliable politicians have made a mockery of that idea. In the name of creating jobs, they give the rich and powerful more tax breaks, more subsidies, and less government regulation. But trickle-down economics does not work for us. It only works for them.

The more subsidies and tax breaks for corporations the politicians give away, the more jobs that are destroyed through mergers, runaway investments, automation, and subcontracting.

These give-aways and concessions must stop.

First and foremost, everyone, both in the public and private sectors, needs a guarantee of a right to a job at a living wage--one that pays above poverty-level wages and is indexed to inflation. And in today's world that comes to a minimum of about $10/hour.

We want this right written directly into the Constitution.

The Declaration of Independence affirmed our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Preamble to the Constitution promised "to establish Justice, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

But for working people all this means nothing if we don't have the right to a job.

(You can join the Labor Party for $20/year. Write The Labor Party, P.O. Box 53177, Washington, D.C. 20009. www.igc.apc.org/lpa/)