AFL-Slow and Steady...
Goodman, Morton
AFL—Slow and Steady... Convention Sessions Cover Wages, International Labor Issues By Morton Goodman New Orleans lMllW ORLEANS is a boem town with the tempo ef Meereolc charm and hospitality...
...Tbi report of the Executive Council is proof that the Federation has not been swsyed by these fsstmoving times but is still the good and staid go-tosaecling housewife, who nevertheless gets the marketing Asm and the cooking on the table...
...The best example of this is the splendid report of the resolutions committee at the Boston convention last year, by far the strongest condemnation of discrimination against Negroes ever adopted by the Federation...
...The liquor tax is an example...
...Support for a permanent FEPC ia being sought in a number of resolutions...
...The Federal government can keep the total rate of spending at the right level if it accepts this as one of the important functions of its financial transactions...
...its objectives, nevertheless raises some criticisms...
...We will demand that those responsible for this cruel war pay the penalty—with their lives, if necessary...
...And even if there is no attempt to achieve a current bi/anclng of the budget by such a choke between different taxes, the budget will indirectly get to be I danced in the long run, as we shall see later, if Functional Finance guards the economy against the ills of unemployment and inflation...
...This may seem strange, but that is the effect of the tax, and there is no sense in doing anything if we do not want to bring about its effects...
...This brings to the fore a fundamental conflict between the Functional Finance policy ef preventing depressions and inlations and the traditional policy of balancing the budget...
...But before we can even consider policy clearly, we must be able to think about taxes apart from government spending...
...The Executive Council, while commending the purpose of the FEPC and supporting...
...The government budget might not be balanced...
...IN financial transactions consist of spending money, borrowing money (and repaying it), and raising taxes...
...The feeling here is that race hatreds cannot be legislated out of existence, but they can be educated out of existence...
...There would be no sense in "functional" tax adjustment if the dollars taken away from me to make me spend less were spent by the government instead, or if the government had to spend less whenever my spending was encouraged by a reduction in my taxes...
...The Federal Government can thus permanently prevent all depressions and inflations by simply adjusting its tax policy so as to keep the total rate of spending at the right level...
...by the ILGWU...
...If I pay more in taxes, 1 must spend less...
...This article will consider the "functional" use of taxes...
...Th«f only respectable note in town is the convention ef the AFL in session at the' Municipal Auditorium daring the day and in corridors of the Roosevelt Hotel at night...
...And then we can test the reasonableness of a tax by whether it works or functions in accordance with our aims...
...Functional" taxation is flatly opposed by the powerful tradition of balancing the budget by keeping taxes just equal to government spending, and the two policies cannot be reconciled...
...TaXKS can he levied on transactions at on individual...
...a tax on a transaction is reasonable if we vidual...
...This is augmented' by William Green in his opening address to the convention but the lack of interest in the question is indicated by it—one introduced by the International Typographical Union, and the other (as might be expected...
...Ail this presages a return to the militancy and the freedom of action ef the pre war period...
...The AFL, of course, w ill not accept equal billing with those "who have left the house of labor" (Bill Green), nor in it willing to accept the inclusion of labor organizations which •re not free trade unions...
...But another such congress has been called and opens its sessions in London on December 4 of this year with a CIO committee of Hillman Rieve and R. J. Thomas in attendance...
...If I pay less in taxes, I can spend more...
...The convention got under way Monday morning...
...An individual ehonld he, taxed only to the degree that we want to make him poorer...
...It is possible to apply Functional Finance and still balance the budget by appropriate choice between different kinds of taxes...
...Two resolutions deal wifh the question of the postwar international labor movement...
...If the total rate of spending is too high, Functional Finance calls for more taxation to avoid inflation...
...If the government wants to make people spend less, it can simply take some money away from the spenders hy heavier taxation...
...These are the first two principles of full employment...
...If the total rate of spending is too low, Functional Finance calls for a reduction in taxes to prevent unemployment...
...and third, that a large scale unionization drive be launched to extend these increases to Ion-skilled and Hon union workers...
...One (ILGWU) treats only of the reorganization of the International Federation of Trade.Unions, and the other (Poughkeepsie Trades and Labor Council) goes a little further by proposing that the AFL call a conference of the original 1FTU affiliates in America as soon as possible to plan the rebuilding of the IFTU...
...The Executive Council's approach to the whole question is interesting: it opposed participation in the June, 1943, conference called by the British Trades Union Congress for the reasons discussed above but considers the whole matter closed since that conference was postponed...
...The great majority of AFL affiliates do not discriminate against Negroes...
...We suggest readers clip these short articles and save them...
...What is significsnt ia that the boys down here are preparing for a fight on other than the congressional front The Council recommends first that all AFL affiliate* ¦take a concerted drive for wage increases for all workers...
...A. P. Lerner of the New School of Social Research, is discussing basic economic issues of the day in terms that will be intelligible to the layman...
...Jetting these three financial instruments to function so as to safeguard the economy from depressions and inflations is called Functional Finance...
...It seems to be very hard to avoid the unconscious (and unwarranted) assumption that taxes and government spending somehow must move together...
...They are the culprits...
...This last effect is the one with which we sre now concerned...
...Jobs and Dollars 3. Full Employment and Taxation By Abba P. Lerner [In this seiles of non-technical notes, Prof...
...The conclusion is obvious...
...That part of the report which deals with wages is perhaps the most interesting and certainly the soundest Item a trade union viewpoint...
...Only if we can consider changes in taxes which are not accompanied by changes in government spending csn we see what are the effects of the taxes by themselves and avoid mixing these up with the effects of changes in government spending...
...Across the way from my haul, horse-rooms via with each other, and a walk threstgh Royal Street in the evening is accompanied by the tinkle of saloon pianos, jingle of glasses and the disheartening clunk of the slot machines...
...To make people spend more, it need only lower taxes...
...The Council Report cites s number of instsnces where the FEPC csused the termination of government contracts because of discrimination...
...Two delegates of the British Trades Union Congress will address this convention and since one of them is a member of the British Communist Party, their attitude on this question can be anticipated...
...In an address after his arrival here—given before the Building Trades Department - President William Creen blasted proposals to punish the entire (ierman people after the war for the crimes committed by their rulers...
...We may wish to make an individual poorer because we think great inequalities of income or wealth are anti-social, or because we want to fight inflation by making the individual spend less...
...Convention Sessions Cover Wages, International Labor Issues By Morton Goodman New Orleans lMllW ORLEANS is a boem town with the tempo ef Meereolc charm and hospitality quickened by thousands el meney-essy defense workers and the soldiers and sailors from nearby camps...
...The Executive Council reports that »o new negotiations with the CIO have taken place since the last convention but it does make a plea for unity in the postwar period...
...Such changes in government spending, while they might keep the budget balanced, would offset the effects of the changes in my spending so that the whole business would be silly...
...This second objection >s sound: any cooperation with state-controlled Isbor organizations means the beginning of ,the abandonment of basic principle...
...second, that legislative action be taken to lift the 40t> per hour floor of the Wage and Hour Law...
...But it is shocking to think anyone fighting for freedom would demand that men freed from totalitarianism should spend the balance of their lives in slavery...
...The Poughkeepsie resolution takes these factors into account since the original charter members of the IFTU do not include either the CIO or Russian unions...
...The two obstacles in the way of ¦AFL support of the London Labor Conference is the inclusion of the CIO and the Soviet Labor Unions in the invitation...
...There is considerable danger that union contracts also may be set aside for the same reason, and what is even more dangerous is the possible established precedent of government interference in union affairs...
...Since we are considering these changes in taxation quite apart from government spending, this means that the tax revenues can become greater or less than government spending...
...For the next several days the 600 delegates will be listening to msny speeches delivered by s galaxy from Madam Perkins to General Somervell...
...We have also seen that only the Federal Government can he expected to assume responsibility for keeping the total rate of spending from going too high or too low...
...The question of labor unity will liktly not be settled at this convention...
...Add to this the fact that within the AFL there are fewer unions than ever before which have such discriminatory policies...
...He assailed particulaily suggestions that (ierman workers should be assigned to forced labor In rebuilding the devastated countries of Europe, Green condemned the British Trades Union Congress for supporting sueh a scheme...
...Nobody will get down to business until the end of the week...
...They will form a useful primer of modern economics.] tyf E have seen that whenever not enough money is being spent on goods anil services we have unemployment, and whenever we spend tuo much money we have inflation...
...The Federation's efforts Is- eats in the lifting of the 15% ceiling of the Little ftsrf Formula sre too well known to be repeated now...
...The conflict, however, is not quite as sharp ss this might suggest...
...A tax on a transaction is reasonable if we effect of the tax...
Vol. 27 • December 1944 • No. 48
