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FREEDOMWAYS          SECOND QUARTER 1980

and the Nazi Party.  Such organizations, whose recent deeds have demonstrated that they will not stop short of murder, have become especially dangerous today.  At a time when many white people are confused and disoriented by the ravages of unemployment and inflation, racist and demagogic appeals can furnish unenlightened whites with easy scapegoats for their own miserable conditions.
  The conditions of U.S. workers today are indeed miserable.  Not since the Great Depression of the 1930's have working people been faced with such extensive and brutal assaults.  Almost daily, it seems, we read new reports about corporations' plans to close down more plants.  When plants shut down or relocate in areas where the labor movement is weak, countless numbers of workers are thrown into the streets, their homes are repossessed and their families are often forced to go on welfare.  A recent study conducted by the Progressive Alliance revealed that between 1969 and 1976, at least 15 million jobs were destroyed as a direct result of plant shutdowns.*  The Communist Party calls for stringent legal measures prohibiting monopolies from closing down their operations in utter disregard of the human pain these shutdowns cause.
  As we campaign during this election period, we are attempting to demystify the problem of unemployment in general.  Unemployment is not a necessary evil destined to persistently plague our society.  Youth - especially young people in racially and nationally oppressed communities - do not have to resign themselves to futures of forced idleness.  As Gus Hall points out, we can take $100 billion from the windfall profits of the corporations to provide jobs for the nation's youth and special affirmative action programs for young people from black, Latino, Asian Pacific and Native American communities.
  Moreover, there is a sure way to create the millions of jobs for all workers presently unemployed and underemployed: Cut the work day from 8 hours to 6 with no cut in pay.  In raising this slogan as a central theme of our campaign, we are carrying out a legacy of working-class struggle forged by those who first fought for the 10-hour day with no cut in pay and those who gave their lives to the fight for the 8-hour day.  Jobs can be created for every man and woman in this society - but only if the power of the monopolies is forcefully challenged and severely curtailed.
  As women enter the labor force in ever increasing numbers, they swell the ranks of the unemployed - and especially if they are women of color - in disproportionate numbers.  Women, thus, have a special stake in this fight for jobs.  The gaping wage differential, which has actually grown larger over the last decade, must be closed.
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*New York Times; Sunday, April 13, 1980.

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