SHORT TAKES ON IMPORTANT STORIES #7

Here are short takes on three important stories that have gotten little attention in the mainstream media. Each provides a quick summary of the story, a hint as to why it’s important, and a link to more information. They range from encouraging responsibility in the media to a major victory for workers to the corruption of our economy and politics by a billionaire.

STORY #1: I urge you to sign the Media and Democracy Project’s open letter to news organizations demanding that they cover the upcoming elections in a substantive and meaningful way while making the threats to democracy clear and actively exposing and discrediting disinformation. The Media and Democracy Project describes itself as a non-partisan, grassroots, civic organization engaging in actions in support of more informative, diverse, independent, and pro-democracy media operating in the public interest. It is urging news organizations to follow a detailed set of guidelines summarized by these three principles: [1]

1.      Cover elections like they matter more than sports scores (stop the “horse race” analysis).

2.      Make the threats to democracy clear.

3.      Protect Americans from disinformation.

STORY #2: In a stunning victory for workers, 73% of Volkswagen workers at a Chattanooga TN plant voted to join the United Auto Workers union (2,628 to 985). This is the first major successful union vote in the South and the first at a foreign-owned auto plant in the U.S. (However, every other VW plant in the world is unionized indicating how far behind the U.S. is in supporting workers and the middle class.) Not only had plant management opposed the union, but six southern state governors had issued a joint statement attacking unionization as a threat to liberty and freedom.

This is major step in the rebirth of the labor movement, which had been languishing since 1980. Public approval of labor unions is close to 70%, the highest level in 50 years. The last couple of years have seen a resurgence of union organizing and successful bargaining efforts, including by Hollywood writers, UPS employees, health care workers, university employees, and auto workers, among others.

In the 1950s, one out of every three private sector workers belonged to a union. Today, it’s only one out of every 16 workers. This decline in union membership has caused a decline in the bargaining power of workers, the reduction of wages and benefits, and the decline of the middle class. Corporate America’s war on unions and on workers included changes in government policies that supported unionization, global trade agreements that pitted American workers against foreign labor, and financial deregulation that allowed corporate takeovers, private equity’s vulture capitalism, and abuse of bankruptcy laws to undermine workers and their benefits, particularly retirement benefits. [2]

STORY #3: The ability of billionaires to corrupt our political and economic systems was in evidence as former president Trump reversed himself on whether TikTok should be banned in the U.S. after a recent meeting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire who owns 15% of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Byte Dance. Yass’s investment company is also the biggest institutional investor in the shell company that merged with Trump’s Truth Social online media company. This merger provided Trump with a windfall profit at a time when he apparently badly needs cash. [3]

As-of March 2024, Yass is also this election cycle’s biggest donor to non-candidate, Republican-affiliated Political Action Committees, having given over $46 million. [4] Yass is also a big donor to right-wing groups in Israel that have supported Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken Israel’s democracy and Palestinian’s rights.

[1]      Hubbell, R., 4/15/24, “Biden’s steady hand, part II,” Today’s Edition Newsletter (https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/bidens-steady-hand-part-ii)

[2]      Reich, R., 4/22/24, “The stunning rebirth of the American labor movement,” Robert Reich’s daily blog (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-rebirth-of-the-american-labor)

[3]      Kuttner, R., 3/27/24, “The corrupt trifecta of Yass, Trump, and Netanyahu,” The American Prospect blog (https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-03-27-corrupt-trifecta-yass-trump-netanyahu/)

[4]      Open Secrets, retrieved 3/28/24, “2024 top donors to outside spending groups, “ (https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/top_donors/2024)