Amidst the struggles going on today, fighting workers can present the need for the labor movement to lead a social movement for government-funded lifetime health, disability, retirement, and dependent's coverage for all.

Democratic and Republican Party politicians do the opposite. They present Social Security as an individual retirement plan, rather than a social conquest of a class--the working class and its allies. That is why Albert Gore's hypocritical posturing in defense of workers and his proposal to open up individual pension accounts reinforces the government's assault, carried out to the furthest extent under the Clinton-Gore administration. Both the Democrats and Republicans are pushing plans to "invest" a portion of Social Security funds, to be done either by the government or by individuals. They raise the specter of Social Security insolvency and dangle the investment illusion as a way for all working people to have a secure future.

It is impossible to defend Social Security, as various liberals, spokespeople for the labor officialdom, and middle-class radicals attempt to do, by trying to refute arguments that an individual--especially those from the propertied or middle classes, but also better-off workers--can do better with his or her retirement savings. Surely that can be true in many individual cases. But it has nothing to do with social security. Just the opposite.

All working people need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with working and retired union mine workers in their fight to win government funding to defend the employer-financed cradle-to-grave health benefits the coal operators are steadily eroding. We should extend unstinting solidarity to the United Mine Workers' strikes against the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Co., in which mine workers are defending health-care gains and setting an example in the process.

The miners' struggles help point out how "fringe" benefits that depend on the profits of the bosses in particular industries and companies do not meet the pressing social needs of the working class as a whole and our toiling allies. They are vulnerable to assaults or outright cancellation--even for those layers of workers who have won these benefits, as we've seen in one industry after another over the past decade.

Social Security, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and a range of other entitlements were concessions granted by the ruling class in face of enormous battles by working people in the 1930s, and greatly reinforced by the struggle for Black rights and women's rights in the 1960s and '70s. These struggles cut across the ability of the super-wealthy minority to degrade the value of workers' lives and subvert class solidarity. Through the renewed struggles today, fighting workers can reject the framework of the Democrats and Republicans and chart a course to build a social movement to demand government-funded lifetime health, disability, retirement, and dependent's coverage for all be an unquestioned social right.  
 
 
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