WHAT DOES A PERSON DESERVE BY BEING A PERSON?

We respect UAW members tremendously for having the courage to stand up to General Motors in the strike this summer to prevent them from using non-union labor. For GM to want men who weld for hours in temperatures as high as 120 degrees and who are meeting contracted quotas to risk their well-being and put out 20% more for the sake of profits is crazy. We cheered when we read this comment by a union official in Flint : “If they want to go in there, put the welding equipment on, and show us they can do that same job and do it day after day—then, I guess we’d look into that.” ( Michigan Live , 6/29/98 )

We are so grateful to have learned from Aesthetic Realism, the education founded in 1941 by the great American historian and poet Eli Siegel, that there is an explanation for “outsourcing,” “downsizing”—in plain talk, the taking of jobs from unionized American workers.

Mr. Siegel explained in a series of lectures beginning in 1970 that profit economics is based on contempt for people. He defined contempt as “the addition to self through the lessening of something else,” and he showed that it is as ordinary as a husband not listening to his wife when she’s talking, and is the cause of all injustice on a national and international scale. It is the way of seeing had by George III of England towards the Founding Fathers and the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies. He saw the first Americans as there to serve Britain , just as GM bosses see their employees in terms of how much money they can get out of them, not as people like themselves who deserve respect. GM tried to twist the facts by claiming it was an illegal strike—but health issues, safety issues, quotas at individual plants like Flint, come down to the same contempt on the part of GM as their push to use cheap non-unionized labor wherever they can get it, without giving a damn about the cost to their employees, their families and communities.

Contempt for working people is behind what an economist at Comerica Bank said about the UAW’s criticism of GM as putting “America Last” : “Forget this ‘America Last’ crap. GM’s only obligation should be to its share holders, and nobody else.” ( Flint Journal , 6/24/98 ) This is outrageous and absurd. The shareholders didn’t build a single Chevrolet in all their lives. As drivers of GM vehicles, and as union members, we are grateful to the men and women of the UAW who did build them, not to the shareholders, who pick up profits they didn’t earn and make cars more expensive for everyone. Eli Siegel explained: “The most important thing in industry is the person who does the industry, which is the worker….Labor is the only source of wealth. There is no other source, except land, the raw material. “ ( Goodbye Profit System: Update, Definition Press, 1982)

UAW members’ objection to how they are seen is beautiful. We were so moved to read on the Internet how people all over the country supported the Flint strike, including the UAW workers it hurt most, even though it has brought great hardship to them, especially in places like Parma and across Ohio where so many people were laid off. In Ohio , Alabama , and Texas laid off UAW members received no unemployment benefits from the state - NOTHING. During the strike, laid-off Lordstown , Ohio GM employee Lynette McKnight said, “We have no money coming in. Bills are due and the rent will be due.” Despite that, she said about the Flint workers, and we admire her so much: “They’re fighting for our jobs to stay here. I feel it was the right decision.” Ellen Reiss, the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, commenting on last year’s victorious UPS strike said something we love, and which we feel applies to the UAW strike:

The UPS strike was beautiful—was like Bunker Hill—because it took a stand against something millions of Americans have hated but felt they couldn’t take a stand against….The people of America, whatever party they vote for, deeply hate the basis of our economy; they hate being seen and used contemptuously, for profit….This feeling is patriotic. As Mr. Siegel pointed out, “There is nothing about the profit system in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.” Seeing people as means for profit was un-American to begin with; it’s the way of seeing that’s behind slavery. (The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known #1273)

Eli Siegel saw that the only way economics can work now in America is for it to be based on good will instead of contempt. Ellen Reiss gives beautiful form to the economic ethics we need when she writes:

When the jobs of America are owned by the people who work at the jobs—when the wealth Americans produce from the American earth and American factories and offices with American thought and hands, goes to the people of America—there will suddenly be plenty of jobs and plenty of respectful compensation for people’s work, even as most people spend less time at those jobs. That is, once the gigantic, unethical, completely unnecessary factor of profits for someone who didn’t earn them is removed from our economy, enough can be produced in America with people happily working perhaps a 4-hour day or a 3-day week, for everyone to be employed who wishes to be, and for everyone to have a good income. ( The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known #1293)

America needs to be asking this question by Eli Siegel: “What does a person deserve by being a person?” When it is honestly answered, the UAW members and all Americans will get the justice they deserve.

Aesthetic Realism, a not-for-profit educational foundation, is taught in public seminars, classes, and individual consultations in New York City and by telephone. Find out more by calling 212 777 4490 or go to www.AestheticRealism.org on the Internet.