Susan Green Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main Page


Susan Green

Ceilings? On Houses, Yes! On Wages, NO!

(29 September 1941)


From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 39, 29 September 1941, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).



Labor is interested in ceilings – BUT NOT IN CEILINGS ON WAGES!

The workers have an interest in apartments and homes with HIGH CEILINGS and plenty of windows.

But the workers cannot get such basic necessities when a ceiling is put on wages and THAT IS WHAT THE BOSS POLITICIANS ARE TALKING ABOUT NOW.

Another kind of ceiling that the workers are definitely concerned about is a CEILING ON PROFITS.

The war has only begun AND ALREADY THE BOSS PROFITS ARE ASCENDING INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

Let the Washington big-wigs clip the wings of war profits. WAGES must do SOME SOARING to shorten that long distance between the average worker and the good things of life.

There is a federal law declaring that labor IS NOT a commodity or article of commerce. In fact, a number of state statutes use the same sweet words. Such laws are so much eyewash.

When the warlords discuss putting ceiling on the prices of steel, oil, cotton wheat and hogs, they include the commodity LABOR.

According to the economic laws of the exploiting capitalist system, LABOR POWER IS A COMMODITY – without any buts, ands or ifs.

The war-wizards in the Capital talk about put ting ceilings on all prices – not only on the price of man’s capacity to labor.

THE WORKERS ARE FROM MISSOURI!

What has Leon Henderson been doing for these many months IF NOT FIXING PRICES?

But the result of all the “fixing” is that month by month the cost of living leaps to new heights. HENDERSON HIMSELF ADMITS PRICES CLIMBED BY 17 PER CENT ABOVE PRE-WAR LEVELS.

Has the commodity, labor, done as well?

Only in the basic war industries – WHERE THE GOVERNMENT AND THE BOSSES WERE COMPELLED BY MILITANT·STRIKES TO PLACATE THE WORKERS – have wages gone up to an average – NOT OF 17 PER CENT – BUT A MEAGER 10 PER CENT

Many, hundreds of thousands of workers have received only negligible increases – MANY HAVE RECEIVED NONE AT ALL SINCE THE WAR BEGAN.

YES, THE WORKERS ARE FROM MISSOURI.

When any “fixing” is to be done, IT ALWAYS TURNS OUT ALL RIGHT FOR THE BOSSES AND NOT SO HOT FOR THE WORKERS.

Nobody could argue that it isn’t being fixed pretty well for the bosses – WHEN THEY CAN REPORT WAR BOOTY ANYWHERE FROM ONE HUNDRED TO THREE THOUSAND PER CENT ABOVE PRE-WAR PICKINGS.

NO, THANK YOU – NO CEILINGS ON WAGES!

PUT YOUR CEILINGS ON PROFITS, YOU WAR-WIZARDS!

The worker is not exactly tickled pink with his status as a commodity along with hogs, wheat, cotton, oil, steel. He does not think it fun for human beings to be tossed about on the billowing waves of the profit-controlled market.

During the depression, when the bosses were not buying labor power, WORKERS HAD TO EKE OUT A MISERABLE EXISTENCE ON A SUB-HUMAN LEVEL.

Now, when there is a better seller’s market for labor power, THE BOSS POLITICIANS WANT TO PUT A CEILING ON WAGES!

The worker is also not exactly tickled pink about the war for the benefit of the exploiting capitalist system – that system which puts him in the same economic category as hogs.

But this war between the international bandits – which the workers hate and do not want to fight – has FOR THE TIME BEING undeniably created a better market for labor. THE WORKERS ARE WISE TO THE SCOUNDRELS WHO WANT TO PUT A CEILING ON WAGES NOW!

Old Lady Nature is not concerned with the fact that under capitalism labor is a commodity. According to the laws of nature, THE WORKERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS.

Today the worker’s family is in good health.

Next month there may be sickness and death. The size of his family increases. His children grow up. Their needs grow up, too. There are a hundred and one exigencies of human life that require MORE AND MORE MONEY.

THERE IS NO CEILING ON HUMAN NEEDS! Human needs must not be lost sight of in the deafening clamor the boss war-makers are raising.

In the coming period of mounting living costs, burdensome taxes, compulsory “savings,” increased “social security payments,” HUMAN NEEDS WILL BE LOST IN THE SHUFFLE – IF THE WORKERS DO NOT KEEP THE RIGHT TO DEMAND AND FIGHT FOR MORE WAGES!

LET THE CEILINGS BE PUT ON THE ONE HUNDRED TO THREE THOUSAND PER CENT WAR PROFITS!

NO CEILINGS ON WAGES!


Susan Green Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers’ Index  |   ETOL Main Page

Last updated: 26 August 2014