A Few Big Ideas - Thanks UAW

by William Greider

As a young reporter many years ago, I came across a book of speeches and essays by Walter Reuther and it opened my mind to America's greater possibilities. Reuther, I knew, was the courageous leader who led the struggle to create the United Auto Workers. I discovered he was also a visionary thinker, a man who understood this country deeply and produced many large ideas about what it could become.

In that spirit of optimism, I have written a new book -- The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy -- that tries to convey some large ideas for our time, goals some people are already pursuing that can alter American capitalism in order to allow more fulfilling lives for all, a more equitable and humane society. If we are so wealthy as a nation, why do so many Americans feel stressed and desperate in their everyday obligations? If we are truly free, why are people so confined by the terms imposed upon them, especially in their work? Let me share several of the big ideas that speak to those questions.

Organized labor is under siege, as we all know, and I won't dwell on the familiar details. To rearrange power in America, we need to think anew about the deeper sources of inequity embedded in the economic system, beyond politics and government. To put it bluntly, the U.S. employment system continues to operate on an arrangement inherited from feudalism -- the "master-servant relationship." A few people -- the insiders who control the company -- give the orders and everyone else is obliged to follow them, no questions asked, no chance usually even to question any decisions. Unions protect the rights of employees, but most Americans must still surrender a portion of themselves everyday at the factory gate or the office door.

Elaine Bernard, a trade-union veteran who teaches at Harvard, put it this way: "As power is presently distributed, workplaces are factories of authoritarianism polluting our democracy. Citizens cannot spend eight hours a day obeying orders and being shut out of important decisions affecting them, and then be expected to engage in robust, critical dialogue about the structure of our society." Restoring a vibrant democracy in this country might begin at work, rather than in elections.

The solution lies in workers who "own their own work." That means a company in which all of the workers have the status of "insiders" themselves, with a real voice in decision-making and an owner's share in the profits as well as an owner's responsibility for effective performance. This is difficult to achieve, of course, but a minority of Americans have done so, sometimes with help from labor unions including the UAW. The idea is not as exotic as it sounds. It exists for roughly ten million workers in employee-owned companies.

Or think of lawyers and doctors who are partners in their own firms, participating democratically in making strategic decisions and in sharing the returns among themselves. Professional partnerships are intended to protect the ethical obligations of lawyers and doctors. But what about all other non-professional workers? Do they not have ethical values and the right to defend them?

Accomplishing this great reform will obviously be a long and difficult road, especially within very large industrial corporations. Like landmark reforms won by the labor movement in Reuther's day, progress cannot occur without lots of conversation and argument. Above all, it requires shrewd, strategic collective action by those who understand the goal and are willing to commit their energies to changing the future. If we cannot reach this new arrangement for ourselves, we can achieve it for our children and our grandchildren. Let us at least begin talking about the possibilities.

Here is another big idea: people must find ways to take control of their own capital and invest in enterprises that are aligned with their true values, instead of the destructive practices of everyday business and finance. This too is possible, as some pioneers are already demonstrating. They do not sacrifice returns on their savings, but they do refuse to finance companies that do damage to workers or communities or the environment as a sly way to boost profits. The center of gravity in U.S. financial markets is not a handful of very wealthy investors. It is the broad ranks of working Americans whose retirement savings are parked in pension funds, mutual funds and other fiduciary institutions that together own 60 percent of the 1,000 largest companies in America. Workers should ask whether that "working capital" is invested in their long-term future or in the narrow, often brutal interests of Wall Street financiers.

One more big idea: industrial capitalism must undergo a dramatic transformation in design and production in order to reduce (and eventually eliminate) its destructive impact on nature. That means changing everything from agricultural chemicals to automobile design. Engineers and scientists who know the ecological dangers are convinced that such an overhaul is possible without sacrificing prosperity and indeed would create millions of new jobs. American companies that resist this challenge are thinking short-term, refusing to innovate and inviting their eventual demise when competitors steal the lead. If Walter Reuther were alive, I am convinced he would be a leading voice for ecology-minded industrial reforms, knowing that the future of American auto workers -- and the planet -- will depend on this new thinking.

Change is always difficult and profound change requires a radical kind of patience -- years, even decades, of experiment and struggle. But this is how America was made and the labor movement too. My reporting tells me the pioneering spirit is still alive in the country and among the people, including especially in the labor movement. For all its obstacles and setbacks, labor may once again make itself the vanguard for transforming the nation.

William Greider writes for "The Nation" and is author of many books including "Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy." For more, check out his new web site -- williamgreider.com.