American Nightmare: Return of the Luddites

“At this moment nothing but the army preserves us from that most dreadful of all calamities, an insurrection of the poor against the rich…”

Street children sleeping in Mulberry Street, Manhattan (1890) Jacob Riis photo (Wikipedia)

(CALGARY, Alberta) - The Luddites of the early 19th century in England have been given a bum rap. The term is now used to refer to people who are against progress or resist change, which was not the case, at all.

The Luddites of the early 19th century were desperate English workers. The Poor Law had been passed in 1601 and frequently amended, offering some help to the destitute. It was administered by parish officials who typically gathered the poor into workhouses, financed by a tax on householders who typically complained that their payments were wasted on ne’er do wells and promoted reckless fertility. The rate of relief was adjusted to supplement wages inadequate to meet the absolute minimums for survival.

Some employers took advantage of this situation to keep wages low. Workers began to revolt. Forbidden by law to organize (the case in much of America, today), they secretly organized; forbidden by law to strike, they struck and when defeated, struck again. (This may be the progress of OWS) The revolt was led not by factory workers but by the home workers who were subjected to “hosiers”, who leased them frames and sold them raw material, then bought the finished products all at prices controlled by the hosiers. This was onerous enough, but they soon came to realize that their livelihoods would soon be replaced by automation in the form of multiple, power-driven factory looms. The movement spread from Nottinghamshire across England until half of England lived in fear, remembering the Terror of the French Revolution only a decade or so before. The poet Robert Southey wrote:

“At this moment nothing but the army preserves us from that most dreadful of all calamities, an insurrection of the poor against the rich…”

(The real issue of the Luddites was not progress, but too rapid progress.)

This looks increasingly like the situation in America today. The Luddites were displaced by the new machines; Americans have been displaced primarily by outsourcing. Forty percent of American profits come from financial services.

The Census Bureau released a new measure of poverty earlier this month which found 51 million people with incomes less than 50% above the poverty line!. All told, that puts 100 millions Americans, one in three, in that zone of insecurity called the “near poor”.

Trudi J. Renwick, the Census Bureau’s chief poverty statistician says: “There are more people struggling than the official numbers show.” Robert Rector, at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, politicizes the situation. “I don’t have any objection to this measure if you use the term ‘low-income,’” he said. “But the emotionally charged terms ‘poor’ or ‘near poor’ clearly suggest to most people a level of material hardship that doesn’t exist. It is deliberately used to mislead people.”

Tell that to the tens of millions of people who live paycheque to paycheque where “one bad bill can wipe you out”. Not even to mention an unexpected medical expense.

While all this is going on, the top 1% of Americans take in 24% of the national income. President Obama appointed a 12-member bipartisan committee to find ways to reduce the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years. Republicans on the committee argue that this should happen with tax cuts only. Democrats are trying to frame the Republicans as protectors of the super-rich while the Republicans are shouting about “class warfare”.

Does America have a social contract?

Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard bankruptcy-law professor; the former head of the TARP oversight program, and a Democrat running for Ted Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts. She was a registered Republican until she was 46. She now talks about the “social-contract”—a topic few democrats raise and something the Republicans deny. She says:

“You built a factory out there? Good for you, but I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did…you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential aspirant is running on the slogan "Believe in America". Many are now wondering: What is there left to believe in?

The picture above of 1890s street children is ancient history. Or is it? Instead of Robert Southey’s army, the rich of America are depending on police in riot gear to defend them against the Occupy Wall Street crowd. But how long before enough of those police realize that they, too, are part of the 99%?

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Daniel Johnson as a teenager aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He also reads 100+ online articles per week. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.

He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog.

As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places.

Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a wide variety of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.

It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.

In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)

Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.

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