1984-02 February IBEW Journal.pdf - International Brotherhood of ...

Address by Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale
To the 15th Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO
Thursday, October 6, 1983
Hollywood, Fla.
Thank you vcry much, Lane, for that
vcry kmd Introduction. It 's an honor to
be Introduced by one of the labor Sialesmen
of the world and onc of the gUlIltS
of our lime, my dear friend, Lane Ki rkland.
To those who make up the General
Board of the AFL·CIO, and If I may slIlglc
OUt oncdcJcgation- mydear fnend, D3VC
Roc, and the delega tes from my beloved
state of Mmnesota- thank you, thank
you, my fnends, for 101OIOg me 10 thiS
campaign and for demonstrating yOUT
confidence In my candidacy and In my
upconung PreSIdency.
As I came mto the hall and shook y OUT
hands, I was struck by how many of you
I've worked with all my life. We 've been
together all of these years. We'll be to·
gether 10 IhlS cam p:lIgn, and we'll be
together In makmg Amenca work agaIn.
I've come before you many, many tImes,
but this ti me It'S dIffe rent. ThIS time I'm
coming before you as the candidate who
wil l be nominated and elected Presldem
of the Umted States.
Help Rebuild Am eri u
Today I'm asking you to laID my national
campaIgn to rcbulld Amenca. Your
coumry needs you ag:ll n. You r hands
bUIlt America_ You r struggle changed our
coumry. Today there are millions of
Amencans who may never hold a ulllon
card who stand In you r debt- the children
111 schools, the semors in dIgn it y,
the mmoriu es In the mIddle class and
not m the back of the bus.
In fac t, today evcry Amen can who
holds a safe job, works deccm hours, and
cams decent pay IS standmg on your
shoulders.
Yesterday thc world was remtndcd agam
of the Importance of free umons to a free
nallon when the Nobel Peace Pnze was
awarded to Lech Walesa fo r hIS fight on
behalf of the unconquercd 10ngll1g of all
people for peace and freedom. And that
IS why I'm fo r free Unions, not lust tn
Poland but In the Umted States of Amer­
Ica.
That IS why when thiS Administration
says what ou r nation needs IS aumanfree
nation, I tell thcm what we need IS
a nation of free umons.
As everyone in ttllS room knows, 1984
IS an elecuon that we dare not lose. The
quesllon before us today IS not what I
can do for you or you can do for me, but
what we can do togethcr for our country.
The question IS not whether you WlO
or Monrlale wms, but whether America
WinS again.
When I grcw up, It was always assumed
that each gencrallon would do a llttlc
16 I IBEW JOURNAL I FEBRUARY 1984
bn better than the one beforc. But today,
for the first lime, Amcn cans arc not sure
that this wil l be true for their children.
A generatlOll ago, our country stocked
the shelves of the world. NOW, It 'S the
other way around. Once our country felt
sclf·sufficlcnt, now we feel vulncrablc to
cartels. Once our country made room for
our kids, toda y they're afraId of bemg
shut OUt.
Mr. Reagan has a thcory about why
we havc slipped. He thinks It 'S because
Amencan workers arc lazy, so hc WClghS
thc help-wanted ads as though millions
of Amencans would rather get handouts
than paychecks. He tries to ta)( unemployment
msurancc to "dlscouragc" un·
employment. And he puts us through
twO ycars of double-digit receSSIOns as
though pUnishIng you IS good for our
country.
He IS dead wrong.
Look around thiS convention hall. You
don't sec any sign saym&. "GIve us welfare."
You don 't hear Amencans saymg.
"\ Ve want someone to take care of us_"
What you do hear Amencans saymg IS
thIS: " We want to work. We want a Job.
We want to have a chance to work for
ourselves and our family, and to stand
on our own two fect and to contnbutc
10 ou r country 's renewal. " That IS what
the workmg mcn and women of this
country arc as kmg for.
And we're ready to build the strongest,
mOSt productive economy In the world
again. That's what our campaign IS all
about. We 're ready to work fo r America,
and I'm ready 10 be the PrcSident who
putS America back to work.
The time has come to reSlOre, restructu
re and renew the Amencan economy_
To those who say we can't do It, I would
rcmmd you that thiS IS the country that
rebUilt Wcstem Europe; thiS IS the country
that rebUilt Japan .
And now IS the time for us 10 rebuild
the United SlatCS of America.
Undo Reaganomics
To do so we must first undo ReagllO'
omlcs_ We can dig our way out of one
term of ReaganomIcs, but four more
years will mcan that our kIds may never
sce an Amenca as confident and hopeful
as we did. Unless we act for the rest of
the 20th century, Mr. Reagan 's 5200
bllllOo deficits Will clamp a cClling on
our economy_ We may never sustalll
long-tenn economIc growth. Real mtercst
rates won 't fall . Young fanulles won 't
be able to have affordable housmg. Housmg
starts wen't last. plants won 't bc
modernized. New business won't find
capJlal. Our currency values will be w3y
au[ of line, and one am ot SIX workers,
those who depend upon exports, WIll be
an endangered species. Marc farmcrs wil l
be rumed. Exports will keep plunging.
Imports will keep being sucked m, and
our kids will pay the interest on the 51 "
tri llion that Mr. Reagan borrowed for the
rest of their lives.
We should be getting ready for the nc)(t
century and not mortgagmg It. We should
be heipmg workers to acquIre new skills,
not helpmg cooglomerates to acqulJe
new compames. We should be deepemng
our harbors, not our tax havens_ And we ~
should be shehenng Amen can families, ,
not corpor3te profits.
It 's no sccret what Amencans want
from the economy. We want Jobs, low
mllation, reasonablc interest rates, faIT
taxes, and steady, long·term growth. I
will bUI ld thIS campaIgn on my pl3n to "l
achievc those objectives, and here It IS:
FlTst, I wil l InSiSt on a senSible budget
for our country. I wilJ chop the deficits
down, rebu ild the revenue base, and with
a responSIble fiscal pohcy I will lOSISt
that the Federal Reserve Board proVIde
civlhzed mterest rates that promote long- j
term economiC growth_
Second, I will demand a strong new
trade poltcy fo r our country. Much of our
future IS trade_ I will match other COUIltries'
export subsidies product·for-product
and dollar-for-dolJar. I will prcss our
multinationals 10 keep those hIgh-quality
jobs, our fu ture, here at home. I wdl
te ll our trade compctltors that they must .i
open their markets as Wide to us as wc
open ours to them.
Third, I WI ll mvest III our future agam.
I will create a capital budget to rebuild
our highways, our bndgcs, our CItieS, our
port5--0ur mnastructmc. I WIll strengthen
our schools and msist on standards. I "
will get our edge back III sClcnce and
research, and J will make certam that
thiS n..:)(t genemllon of AmeTlcans IS
posltlvcly the best educated, the best
trained, and the best eqUipped III the
hIstory of ou r country.
Industria l Renewal
Fourth, I WIll bnng buslncss and labor
lOgether 10 work for IIldustnal renewal.
I will ask everyone to bnng somethmg
to the table. To the managcment, I will
sa)': " Invest agam III people and plants,
not paper assets and wasteful mergers." "I
To workers, I Will say: "Let 's put quality
and productiVity first." To all Amen cans,
I Will say: " I WIll be nght there at the
table mysclf." I won't take a nap while
our industri3l base sli des. I'll bc with
you all the W3y. I won't blame govern·
ment. I'll use It. Govern ment docs not ,