This is an excerpt from an interview with Staughton Lynd that appeared in The Progressive (February, 1994). It is reprinted with permission. The interviewer was Jane Slaughter, the director of Labor Notes.—The Editors
Jane Slaughter: And the final thing you’re working on?
Staughton Lynd: Finally, there’s the question of creating jobs. I’ve just become possessed by the hypocrisy of the Clinton Administration’s jobs rhetoric. I believe we’re in a period like the early 1960s. You have a Democratic President who makes idealistic and compassionate noises. This guy was elected to create jobs. But in reality, his program is to help corporations cut jobs. The profit-maximizing companies today are downsizing. And the Clinton Administration is pushing “training”—which means you and I learning each other’s jobs, so next year one of us will be gone. The “jointness” that [Secretary of Labor] Robert Reich is pushing means, the boss says: “We’re going to lay off 30 percent of you, and the union can decide who.”