Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1973. július-december (27. évfolyam, 27-50. szám)
1973-11-22 / 45. szám
Thursday, Nov. 22. 1973. A, AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO CET INTO POLITICS. Pres. Fitzgerald advised delegates at District 2 Council that until workers take a full role in political action the country will continue to suffer from the kind of corruption now so evident. At left. Dist. 2 Pres. James Kane. DISTRICT 2 COUNCIL DELEGATES (above) at their meeting in Pittsfield, Mass. Fi tzgerald tells District 2• oustmg muon not eiiough io clemi up politics PITTSFIELD, Mass. — So long as working people don't assume the role in legislative and political action that they are entitled to, UE Pres. Albert J. Fitzgerald told the union’s District 2 Council meeting here on October 26, the country will continue to be victimized by crooked politicians like Agnew. “We have to go deeper than merely replacing one crook with another,” Brother Fitzgerald said. “We have to go beyond Watergate and the burglaries. Nixon has his estate in Florida, another in San Clemente. He’s a millionaire, now. If he’s impeached or resigns, and I support such action, it bothers me where we go from there.” The UE officer called attention to the record of Rep. Gerald Ford, the proposed replacement for Agnew as vice president. Ford he noted, has beeen a 100 percent supporter of Nixon. He justified the Vietnam war, the criminal bombings of Cambodia, marshalled the votes to uphold the veto of the minimum wage law. “Elect him vice president and you get an exact duplicate of Nixon.” Citing examples of corruption and bribery in previous Administrations, Pres. Fitzgerald declared that what’s wrong with the country is not Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower but the way the system works. “It makes it possible for men to get elected to office and end up as millionaires.” In the cities you have governors, and mayors who spend huge fortunes to get elected to jobs which pay far less than they spend to get them.” He cited one recent case of a politician boasting that the post he sought paid $40,000 but that it was worth $100,000 a year. The failure of working people to vote plays a big part in perpetuating this political condition, Fitzgerald stated. “Fewer people voted in the 1972 election than ever before in the history of this country and the bulk of those who don’t vote are working people and their families. Employers, bankers, insurance company executives vote.” LABOR’S ROLE While he recognized that the country needs a party based on labor and supported by other sections of the population, Pres. Fitzgerald said that realistically speaking this won’t be built in the next three years largely because very few trade union leaders would go along. “They are an integral part of the present system,” he told the delegates. “Think back and realize who helped Nixon and Agnew get elected. The AFL-CIO executive board voted unanimously to remain neutral in the last election. That meant they were actively supporting Nixon.” With the labor party not in the cards for the immediate future, Pres. Fitzgerald saw the necessity of workers starting to elect to public office in the cities and towns they live in, trade union people as selectment, city councilmen and mayors. He spoke of the New England industrial communities where UE and other unions have thousands upon thousands of members and yet they continue to elect “a bunch of lawyers or businessmen.” v Out of such rank and file activity, he continued, will eventually come a party based on labor. He recalled that when, 10 years ago, he said that our country was morally wrong in being in the Vietnam war and committting crimes against humanity, there were few who supported him. But eventually as the opposition of students and then rank and file workers to that war took hold, many labor leaders joined in the movement to end it. Labor is a “sleeping giant” in political potential, Pres. Fitzgerald declared. Unless you participate in the political activity of the country, “don’t complain about crooks in office, about wars and inflation.” The delegates rose to give him a standing ovation and as the UE president come off the platform many came up to thank him for his strong speech. On this page we are reprinting a number of articles from the U.E. News, the official organ of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. This trade union happens to be one of the few that truly represent their membership. If the AFL-CIO would follow the same policies, the trade union movement would play a proper role on the econo mic and political fronts. Chain Grocer Profits Rise by 529 Percent R ecord corporate profits in the second quarter of the year have now been outdistanced by record profits in the third quarter. A survey of 566 companies, the Wall Street journal reports, shows that after-tax profits in the third quarter were 32.6 percent higher than they were in the same period a year earlier. Second quarter proits rose 31.6 percent over the previous year. Leading the pack in higher profits, as might be expected, were chain grocers whose profits rose by an outstanding 529 percent. Producers of petroleum products surveyed by the journal showed a 60 percent net profit rise despite the cry from that secion of industry of how the oil companies were suffering because of shortages the mideast war and price controls. The automobile industry’s profits were up by 35.4 percent. In the electrical equipment- electronics industry there was a rise of over 17 percent Profits of the U.S. Steel Corporation in the first nine months of 1973 were 182.5 percent higher than a year earlier but the company complained that they weren't high enough. Another survey, by the U.S. News & World Report, of 1,160 leading corporations showed that their third quarter profits after taxes had risen to 9.8 billion dollars as compared to 7.6 billions a year ago Despite this, the magazine says that businessmen are complaining that their profits represent “a smaller slice of the economic pie than in past periods of prosperity.” As profits continue to soar month after month, wages of working people are being eroded. By August, real wages of workers had dropped by $2.03 a week from what they were in August, 1972. Rising profits, rising prices and declining purchasing power of the masses of the people are laying the basis for a new recession. Many independent economists are predicting that a recession will hit the countiy next year. Administration economists would see in a recession a chance to “cool off” the economy -—in other words, to take more money away from working people.
