Hillary Clinton no friend of working class: Analyst
Low-skilled workers in the United States have increasingly failed to earn a living wage due to corporate greed in the country, an issue that American politicians only address during election campaigns, says a political analyst.
“The minimum wage in the US has lagged behind costs of living for decades and it sentences millions of people to poverty even as they are working full-time jobs,” Daniel Patrick Welch told Press TV on Thursday.
The analyst was speaking about the “Fight for 15” nationwide campaign which seeks wage hikes at low-paying fast food restaurants.
On Tuesday, the three-year-old nationwide labor movement held its largest demonstration to date, when thousands of fast-food workers went on a one-day strike in 270 American cities.
The movement has so far been endorsed by Democratic US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
“It is definitely a good thing that there is this push, especially in fast-food industry, where you have deep pockets, these enormous international corporations that are taking in record profits,” Welch said.
The analyst said that protests of this magnitude show the extent of social disparity in the US, where “you have this enormous gulf between the haves and have nots, and people who have full time jobs are not even able to survive.”
However, Welch was skeptical of the Democratic candidates' push for the fulfillment of the cause, describing it as a pretentious move intended to attract more votes for the 2016 presidential elections.
“The Democratic Party always rushes to the support of workers and pretends to be pro-union in times of the electoral cycle,” he said.
The pundit criticized Sanders for “throwing the towel” in his race with Clinton, despite being an avid advocate for the $15 hourly wage.
“Hillary, for her part, is no friend of the working class and never has been,” Welch said. “So to jump on this issue which she knows is not going to go anywhere in Congress is cynical, at best.”
“The election cycle will bring this out in the candidates and it doesn’t mean anything,” he added.
The analyst said that organizers of pro-labor movements need to shift their focus and adopt a global policy for their struggle.
“American unions have to organize on behalf of their own, but recognize where it fits in to the global struggle, because you can’t have a high minimum wage here without allowing your members and your ideology to see beyond US borders, otherwise it is just taking a bigger slice of your own pie,” Welch noted.
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