PSYCHICBABBLE(sm)
by Marcy J. Gordon
New Moon in Aries 1996 Issue
New Beginnings in Social Activism
Introduction
Greetings USED KARMA readers! Now that spring is underway we can experience the renewal of planetary energies in our own bodies and spirits. We cleansed and released old emotional issues while the Sun was in Pisces, and began anew with the new solar year marked by the Sun in fiery Aries. Last month the Sun's conjunction with Mars awakened new insights into personal and social power, as illustrated by the pugnacious strike at General Motors that shut down 75% of that industrial giant's business operations in March.
This month the mighty Saturn entered Aries on April 8. Saturn, the great awakener through challenge, hardship and difficulty, affords us greater self-reliance during its foray through Aries. Saturn in Aries teaches us the importance of discipline and responsibility in creating the true freedom that comes with confidence in our own skills and abilities, along with the enthusiasm that enables us to persevere in the face of strife for the realization of our highest ideals. It also gifts us with strong powers of concentration.
Accelerating Societal Changes
Reasonable people are wondering how a blatantly racist, anti-Semitic, fascist dictator wanna-be like Pat Buchanan has managed to achieve such a broad populist appeal, especially to working-class Democrats. Many Buchanan supporters were espousing the progressive social rhetoric of Senator Tom Harkin back in 1992. Why would Democrats embrace Buchanan? Because Buchanan is the only candidate in the 1996 presidential race who has addressed the prime issues currently troubling ordinary working people in America today: jobs and job security. Buchanan correctly points out that NAFTA and GATT have born out dire leftist predictions of massive job losses and plunging living standards while diminishing America's economic power in global markets.
Those of you who read the January issue of this column may recall my prediction that 1996 will be “a Technicolor reprise” of the social activism of the 1960s. The April 1, 1996 issue of The Nation ran a fascinating article by David Moberg about renewed labor organizing efforts currently being instigated by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. That body has created and funded The Organizing Institute, a center dedicated to training union organizers. Moberg concludes that “[t]imes are ripe for a labor renaissance, using dramatically more aggressive approaches against hostile employers and unfriendly laws.”
Individuals in increasing numbers are waking up to the fact that they can control their working lives and obtain a more active voice in management of the very companies whose commercial success depends so heavily upon their labors. How can this work? Consider the following hypothetical example.
One of the most oppressed labor groups in this country consists of secretarial and other clerical support staff (receptionists, typists, paralegals, etc.), both temporary and permanent. Many of these workers are women with families. Many of these people work for bosses who frequently demand long days and late working hours, even though a disproportionate number of these workers are single parents with young children. The irony is that many of these workers' male bosses have children of their own that are cared for by wives that do not work. One would think that people who are parents themselves would be sympathetic to the plight of their support staff who are also parents, yet they are not. Why? Because too many managers and executives do not see clerical workers as people.
I once worked for a law firm where a senior partner told me that “secretaries are like machines.” The shocking part of this statement is that this man truly believes this assertion. He genuinely does not perceive his firm's support staff as human beings with human problems and human needs. Many clerical workers are women who report to domineering (and sometimes abusive) people who not only ignore their workers' personal needs, but fully expect them to not have needs. The vast majority of these workers currently believe they are obliged to tolerate subhuman working conditions, regular verbal abuse and inadequate pay. While many of the abusers are men, an increasing number of them are women. The Goddess blushes with shame for these women who are so out of touch with the power of their feminine powers of nurturing and compassion! These women believe that in order to succeed in the corporate world they must become as heartless and unfeeling as the male management class. This fallacy must be dispelled and will be dispelled as Mars and Saturn continue their ride on the Ram.
Clerical workers have never been organized into a union because they have never believed in their own power! They have been oppressed so long they take mistreatment as a fact of life. Yet this attitude is surprising in light of the true amount of power clerical personnel actually wield in major companies and professional firms (law, medicine, accounting, etc.) Despite advances in data processing, and despite the increasing ranks of younger persons who can use computers to prepare their own documents, the vast majority of corporate managers, executives and professionals still rely heavily on secretaries and typists to generate their work.
Given their value in the workplace, these clerical workers should be appreciated for the importance and difficulty of their work, remunerated fairly and treated with the respect they deserve. So why aren't they? Because both the oppressors and the oppressed have gotten so accustomed to the status quo that they have all become totally unconscious of the fact that change is possible. With Sun, Mars and Saturn in Aries, such change is not only possible, it is a teleological necessity.
Visualize the following scenario. Suppose clerical personnel, both permanent and temporary, organized unions in New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Now suppose these three unions coordinated a wildcat strike. The lack of clerical personnel in these three major cities would be enough to shut down all U.S. mercantile and stock exchanges, along with several major law firms transacting business domestically and internationally. Even if the strike lasted half a day, it would substantially cripple business both here and abroad. Would corporate and professional America take their clerical workers' demands seriously? You bet they would!
The tenants in New York City office buildings did not appreciate the hard work performed by their office maintenance workers until those unions (32B-32J) went out on strike. The fact that those workers were willing to stand on picket lines in the coldest part of a winter that broke all existing New York City snowfall records sent a clear message to landlords and corporate tenants that these formerly docile workers were not to be denied or ignored. Likewise, the GM workers are using their collective power to pressure management into taking their needs and demands seriously.
It is interesting to note in this context Ross Perot's history with GM. Back in the 1980s GM acquired Perot's flagship company, Electronic Data Systems. Perot received a seat on GM's board as part of this merger. However, this marriage did not work out as planned and Perot ultimately dissolved his association with GM. The reason for Perot's dissatisfaction was the constant fights he had with the other GM board members over GM's atrocious treatment of its workers. At the time of his resignation, Perot publicly denounced GM's board for their lack of sensitivity to worker needs and quality of life. Naturally GM's board thought Perot was some kind of Martian for even raising the issue of employee concerns at GM board meetings. Now GM is reaping its well-deserved karma for this lack of basic sensitivity, caring and respect.
So what does all this have to do with the Sun, Mars and Saturn in Aries? I predict that other workers, both union and non-union alike, will take encouragement from the GM strike and other labor disputes around the country. The Aries energy infused into these powerful planets helps people to feel and better understand their own power, both individually and collectively. Look for more workers to demand a better quality of life, even if it means leaving the corporate world to start their own businesses, collectives, self-help groups and other enterprises.
The safety people used to feel in a corporate job has given way to tension and anxiety about the future. What are the true costs of all this job stress and anxiety? For one thing, there is tremendous loss of worker productivity. How can anyone work productively when they are in a constant state of fear? In addition, there is a devastating effect on the American family. How can people plan their lives when they do not know whether they will be receiving a paycheck six months from now? How can people explain to their children why they cannot have the things they took for granted as part of their lifestyle last year?
Obviously the politicians are not going to get us out of this crisis. Neither are corporate managers who focus only on the stock price and increased profits through massive cuts in labor and employee services and benefits. Anyone who knows anything about Wall Street knows that a company's stock price bears absolutely no relation to the actual financial health of a company. Since the compensation of senior managers in corporate America is tied to the stock price (in the form of stock and stock options), it is obvious to any six-year-old that these managers are acting in their own, not the corporation's, best interest. They use their own wealth and their friends' wealth to manipulate stock prices. Corporate CEOs take home millions of dollars in compensation and give themselves outrageous pay increases in years when their companies lost money. The only possible solution is for American workers to empower themselves through increased individual and collective bargaining.
Why is it that the broadcast media and mainstream commercial press do not make more of a fuss over the executive greed that is destroying the lives of the average American citizen? Why does the media spam us with exposés on ethnic cleansing, but starve us for the spam on financial cleansing? Because they are owned by large and uncaring conglomerates that make outrageous profits on the backs of mistreated workers. Alternative publications, such as The Nation and The Progressive are always struggling for funds to enable them to print what little truth we do receive in this great country of ours, while the mighty media forces seek to disparage the insistent voice of political dissent.
Now the battle is on for who will control the Internet. Recently I attended a conference at Columbia University entitled “The Impact of Cybercommunications on Telecommunications.” The first panel discussed the future telecommunications infrastructure of the Internet. The panel discussed emerging technologies and the power of large companies (such as Microsoft and AT&T) that are attempting to dominate the medium. They hazarded guesses as to which technologies and companies are likely to emerge as the winners, and predicted that small service providers will be forced out of business by the big players.
During the question period I challenged the panel on their assumption that one technology or one small group of large companies will dominate the Internet's telecommunications infrastructure. I pointed out that the Internet is a lifeform. Because the Internet is a lifeform, it will expand to occupy all available telecommunications technologies -- twisted pair and fiber optic telephone lines, cable television, wireless cable, satellite and whatever gets invented next week. As a lifeform, the Internet will seek the path of least regulation. I predicted the emergence of new international legal structures to address the business exigencies arising from the commercial potential of this wonderful medium. Governments will cooperate to create legislation for the existence of transnational corporations. That is, the Internet will oblige the forces of social control on this planet to create global business organizations that exist all over the planet instead of in one or more countries. One body of transnational law will emerge to address the existential realities of global business in cyberspace.
The conjunction of the Sun, Mars and Saturn will light the spark of a widespread societal commitment to self-determination, as well as the powerful realization that we are all global citizens. Mars and Saturn will remain in Aries for months after the Sun leaves that sign, thus increasing and maintaining the intensity of the Ram's passion for truth, innovation and total freedom. We must demand respect for ourselves, for the other lifeforms with whom we share this planet, and for the natural resources of the Earth itself.
Copyright 1996 Marcy J. Gordon. All rights reserved. The author wants you to know you are free to copy and distribute this article for noncommercial purposes, provided you reproduce it in its entirety and credit the author. For permission to reprint selected portions, please contact the author at mgordon@pipeline.com.