Now view the situation against the larger economic back drop in which inflation has outpaced salaries for the first time in fourteen years. This in effect equates to lower wages for working people. The result is erosion in the living standard of working class people across the board. During this same period of time the economy has expanded at a four percent rate.

Meanwhile, corporate profits are soaring to record levels because management has squeezed significantly more production from the workers, without raising their wages. In addition, businesses—even the most profitable among them—are paying fewer benefits to their employees, thereby placing yet another financial hardship upon them. As evidence of this, pay rose only 2.4 percent in 2004, while benefit costs jumped seven percent. The result is less income in the pockets of the workers, and more money into the bank accounts of the employers.

It is clearly a big bonanza for business whenever workers increase productivity, without a corresponding increase in wages, with the result that wages are no longer keeping pace with inflation. Furthermore, this is occurring as CEO salaries rise astronomically and exponentially. Thus the fat cats on Wall Street are reaping enormous profits, as always, on the backs of the workers who produce the wealth. In effect, the work force is being raped by their employers, and only a small percentage of them have union representation.

The decline of labor unions is two fold. Business, with the aide of the commercial media, has been enormously successful in portraying unions as the culprit of the mass exodus of American jobs to other countries. The claim is that union wages increase the cost of products so much that American companies cannot compete in the global market. This is nothing more than propaganda. Corporate profits, especially CEO salaries, increase whenever cheaper sources of labor are found. Remember that corporate profits are soaring. The real culprit responsible for the exportation of jobs is corporate greed. The pervasive exportation of jobs adversely affects the work force globally by driving down wages, and creating the deplorable working conditions known as sweat shops.

At home, it results in widespread job loss, which impacts local economies as well as families. Abroad, it results in slave wages, deplorable working conditions, environmental degradation, and sweat shops. The effect is to drive down wages in the global economy, while simultaneously increasing corporate profits. Wal-Mart, the largest corporation on earth, is the most egregious example of how global economics hurts local economies and exploits cheap labor markets. It is NAFTA and GATT, not unions that are exporting jobs to countries like China, Sri Lanka and Thailand—to the detriment of workers everywhere.

The second prong of the problem stems from the unions themselves. Most unions have become bureaucracies that closely resemble the corporations they purport to oppose. When unions compromised and capitulated to corporate demands, in effect, they jumped into bed with management and abandoned the workers they are supposed to represent. Too many union reps are more concerned about their personal welfare than they are with the needs of the workers. The result is a precipitous decline in union membership, loss of trust from the rank and file, and feelings of betrayal. Corporate profits are shooting through the roof; worker productivity is increasing sharply, but real wages are on the decline. What is wrong with this picture?

If working class people are ever to receive their fair share of the wealth they produce for their employers, they must organize on a grand scale. They must form more powerful unions that represent the workers by electing workers, not bureaucrats, to union offices. Unions were at the height of their powers when they were most militant and strongly advocated on behalf of the workers; when they did not cut deals with the company. They had leverage when they called general strikes, when members of all unions walked off the job in support of their brethren in trades other than their own. The strike is labor’s most powerful weapon. It has always been so. Yet strikes are infrequently utilized these days.

Labor needs a new breed of organizers who understand labor history, as well as the history of the corporate exploitation of workers. We need militant organizers who see employers as the enemy they are. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. New unions have to be built by the rank and file. They must adopt a tough, aggressive approach to representing the workers.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Wobblies, had it right. Especially in this era of economic globalization, we need to organize the work force on a global scale. One Big Union. This affords the best opportunity to protect workers from the corporate predators they are forced to work for. It is also the best way to counter the injurious effects of globalization upon working people, and the planet. The IWW still exists as a mere ghost of its old self. We could revive it. It deserves our support.

Finally, we must make anti-union political candidates pay a great price for their betrayal of the working class. This means that none of us can afford to vote Republican. We must create a political atmosphere that is favorable to workers by developing a medium that values people above profits. United, the people truly cannot be defeated. There can be no justice anywhere until there is justice everywhere. Workers across the planet are connected by their common struggle for justice, a living wage, reasonable hours, and a decent work place.

If we do nothing, our employers will continue to exploit us. Real wages will continue to decline. Our employers will demand more from us while paying less. The corporate CEOs, the managers, and the corporate investors on Wall Street will continue to prey upon us. Workers must have more self respect than to allow this trend to continue. We have only our chains to lose.

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net

In this USA Today story about how politicians have refused to adequately fund public pension commitments, Alaska Republican state representative Bert Stedman calls for massive cuts to state worker pensions, claiming "If we don't act now, we're going to have social conflict in the future between the haves and the have-nots — those with government pensions and those without." That's exactly the frame the right-wing wants us to see these issues in: the supposedly evil "haves" are those workers who secure a decent retirement, and they are the ones supposedly harming the "have-nots." Not surprisingly, this exact frame is parroted on Fox News, most recently with Neil Cavuto hosting a show shamelessly regurgitating the concept that workers with decent retirement benefits are evil. Because let's be clear - when conservatives berate so-called "class warfare" they are berating any effort by the middle class to better itself, but are fully in support of having the economic elite wage a class war on everyone else, or using their power to manufacture a class war between the poor and the middle class.

But really, what a lie it all is. Beyond the fact that this line of reasoning on pensions actually asks us to treat pension cuts as a virtue and secure retirement as evil, there are the actual economic realities of what's actually going on. For instance, one paragraph before the Alaska Republican made his ridiculous comment, USA Today noted that "average annual benefits for retired state and local workers grew 37% to $19,875 from 2000 to 2004." That's right - we're actually expected to believe there is a crisis because between 2000 and 2004 the average state/local workers' annual pension grew from $14,507 (just above the poverty line) to $19,875. Worse, we're expected to believe that these people earning less than $20,000 a year in their retirement are the evil "haves" who are hurting the have-nots. And we're led to believe that state governments who made these pension promises can't possibly be asked to make good on them because it would cost too much - even as states continue to give away hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to already-wealthy multinational corporations (see Wal-Mart and Goldman Sachs for two good examples).

Of course, we're not expected to actually look at the real "haves" who are destroying this country - the executives who have run their companies into the ground, slashed workers wages and benefits, all while pocketing massive bonuses for themselves. Just look at yesterday's New York Times story about United Airlines. As the company has secured $4 billion in wage/benefit cuts from workers, 400 of its top executives who ran the company into bankruptcy are giving themselves roughly $500 million in bonuses. Same thing with Delphi - as the company demands massive wage/benefit cuts, the Wall Street Journal notes executives who ran the company into bankruptcy have crafted a plan to give themselves "as much as 10% of the restructured company and $90 million in bonuses."

These are the real "haves" who are destroying this country - not government workers who earn, on average, less than $20,000 in annual retirement benefits. These are the real "haves" who are being allowed to wage a merciless class war on ordinary Americans. And every time you hear a politician blame ordinary citizens for the country's economic decline remember that what they are really doing is trying to deflect attention from the behavior of their Big Money campaign donors who are the real cause of our problems.

In December 2005, Evo Morales buried seven challengers -- taking 54 percent of the vote -- in what the New York Times referred to as "the most important election since Bolivia's transition from dictatorship to democracy a generation ago." His platform appealed to the poor, including farmers whose main source of income, coca plants, caused them to suffer brutal treatment at the hands of U.S. drug agents. Although U.S. politicians and the media have denounced coca because it is used to produce cocaine, the fact is that it is extremely important in the Andes as a legal remedy for altitude sickness, digestive problems and other illnesses.

Evo Morales is the latest in a long list of democratically elected Latin American presidents whose primary appeal is their opposition to U.S., IMF and World Bank policies that favor foreign corporations with reputations for exploiting natural resources and local labor. Bolivia joins the ranks of previously pro-American countries that have recently turned against Washington and Wall Street, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Argentina's President Kirchner recently announced what has been hailed as an "anti-IMF rebellion." He paid off nearly $10 billion in IMF debt in order to get out from under a burden that, he said, "caused poverty and pain among the Argentine people."

Venezuela's President Chavez has become a popular spokesman for anti-U.S. sentiments around the world.

Ecuador's President Gutierrez was thrown out of office by a popular grass-roots uprising when he capitulated to economic hitman threats and bribes, and went against his campaign promises to force U.S. oil companies to pay more to the Ecuadorian people for Ecuadorian oil. An Ecuadorian friend told me, "If a democratically elected official does not honor his campaign promises, democracy demands that we replace him."

In the past year, a rising tide of people throughout the world has been rebelling against policies they see as unjust. This has occurred in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as in the United States, where New York transit workers fought to defend their economic well-being. As one transit worker told me, "We're sick of being told that our families must sacrifice while huge corporations and their executives receive tax breaks."

This rebellion is facilitated by the internet, cell phones and satellite dishes. People in places once considered remote are increasingly aware of statistics such as these:

* Transnational corporations have taken control of much of the production and trade in developing countries: For example, 40 percent of the world's coffee is traded by just four companies; the top 30 supermarket chains control almost one-third of worldwide grocery sales.

- A trade surplus of $1 billion for developing countries in the 1970s turned into an $11 billion deficit by 2001.

- The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world's population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995.

- Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations; of those, 47 are U.S.-based.

- The overall share of federal taxes paid by U.S. corporations is now less than 10 percent, down from 21 percent in 2001 and over 50 percent during World War II; one-third of America's largest and most profitable corporations paid zero taxes -- or actually received credits -- in at least one of the last three years (according to Forbes magazine).

- Back in 1980 the average American chief executive earned 40 times as much as the average manufacturing employee. For the top tier of American CEOs, the ratio is now 475:1 and would be vastly greater if assets, in addition to income, were taken into account. By way of comparison, the ratio in Britain is 24:1, in France 15:1, in Sweden 13:1.

- Pre-Civil War slaves received room and board; wages paid by the sweatshops that today serve many U.S. industries will not cover the most basic needs.

Unrest in New York and Latin America, as well as in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East are harbingers of the difficulties that will haunt future generations -- unless we take heed. They serve notice that if we want a peaceful and prosperous future for our children, we must recognize basic human needs; we must insist that all people -- not just those at the top -- have the right to justice and dignity. Bolivian voters, NYC transit workers and democratically elected presidents of other countries are warning us that the bottom line of the corporate balance sheet is not the final statement upon which our society will ultimately be graded.

John Perkins is the author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." His website is johnperkins.org.

Buffett, head of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., also disclosed his purchase of Business Wire, a privately held distributor of press releases, for an undisclosed amount.

San Francisco-based Business Wire will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, whose other holdings include the insurer Geico Corp. as well as stakes in American Express, Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola.

Business Wire competes with PR Newswire to distribute company regulatory filings and press releases to investors and the news media.

The U.S. trade deficit for the first 11 months of 2005 totalled $661.8 billion US, surpassing the previous annual record of $617.6 billion US set in 2004. Economists say when December figures are included, the final deficit for 2005 will top $710 billion US. Buffett said he expects it to top $700 billion US this year.

"That's $2 billion US a day. We are like a super rich family that owns a farm the size of Texas. You sell off a little bit of the farm and you don't see it," he said.

Fifteen years ago, the U.S. had no trade deficit with China, he said. "Now it's $200 billion. If we don't change the course, the rest of the world could own $15 trillion of us. That's pretty substantial. That's equal to the value of all American stock," Buffett said.

"That's the big danger. Our national debt does not bother me. Our public debt is not at a crazy level," he said.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

Privacy advocates have been increasingly scrutinizing Google's practices as the company expands its offerings to include e-mail, driving directions, photo-sharing, instant messaging and Web journals.

Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests. Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given cheap storage costs.

The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.

The 1998 Child Online Protection Act would have required adults to use access codes or other ways of registering before they could see objectionable material online, and it would have punished violators with fines up to $50,000 or jail time. The high court ruled that technology such as filtering software may better protect children.

The matter is now before a federal court in Pennsylvania, and the government wants the Google data to help argue that the law is more effective than software in protecting children from porn.

The Mountain View-based company told The San Jose Mercury News that it opposes releasing the information because it would violate the privacy rights of its users and would reveal company trade secrets.

Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's efforts "vigorously."

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching," Wong said.

A top international model is using social software and cell phones to give high fashion an air of high tech.

Anina, who struts her stuff on European catwalks and magazine covers, is a self-proclaimed geek and entrepreneur on a mission to turn the fashion industry inside out using an array of mobile gadgets and websites.

Anina is one of the star attractions this week at Les Blogs 2.0, a Paris conference that has drawn speakers and delegates from around the world to debate the future of weblogs.

The Paris-based redhead, who is as much preoccupied with hard drives as haute couture, regularly uses her cell to blog pictures and journal entries from shows, hair appointments and photo shoots.

She recently started the 360 Fashion project to give similar tools to designers, photographers and other fashionistas. A network of 15 cohorts across the world is now using online journals to open a window on the inner workings of the tough-to-crack business, and Anina says that is just the start.

"The media portray models as dumb objects, which is not my experience at all," she said.

"Models are super-mobile people because we travel the world," she added. "I blog using my mobile about a hundred times a day because, in my work, I'm absolutely not anywhere near a computer. Fashion is a mystery to many people. Now, like voyeurs, they can see what's happening in the industry."

Anina, who is addressing the Les Blogs conference on social technologies, believes her parallel expertise in both shoes and Bluetooth can help shape the future of communications technology for females in particular -- 360 Fashion bloggers have already seen an upturn in business since joining the project.

"When I'm fed up with photo shoots, I run away to code," said the Colorado-born model, who learned Unix at school and credits her computer-engineer brothers as inspiration.

"I am what they call an 'advanced user,'" she said. "I like to see how systems work.... I'm hacking fashion, I suppose."

Participants in 360 Fashion, which was launched during Paris Fashion Week in October and is sponsored by Nokia and blog software maker Six Apart, include designer Erin Featherstone and model agency WS2M.

The diary entries and pictures they post between shots or while partying give onlookers a glimpse behind the scenes of the glam international model set -- and drag the industry into the 21st century.

"Fashion has always been reluctant to use technology," said WS2M President Lionel Dejean. "But, as it becomes fashionable to take pictures or videos with the phone, blogs offer new ways for providing advice to aspiring models and for them to get scouted and start a career."

Les Blogs 2.0 organizer Loic Le Meur, Six Apart's vice president in Europe, said: "Generally, the fashion world is not very much into the web. Anina represents the traditional fashion world moving towards the future. She is unique because she is a geek model; she converts all her friends."

That makes high fashion more accessible to clothes-conscious young women, said Le Meur, adding that an associated online trend in which talented amateur designers group to customize cheap, unbranded garments threatens to unravel the established fashion world in the same way podcasting and weblogs are challenging mass media.

Les Blogs 2.0 will hear the latest ideas for blogs from politicians, venture capitalists and representatives of websites like Yahoo and Technorati.

Worldwide sales of personal computers (PCs) rose to 218.5 million units in 2005 from 189.5 million in 2004, according to preliminary data from market research group Gartner.

Shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa grew 17.1 percent to 72.7 million units, overtaking the United States which grew 7.5 percent to 67 million. In 2004, the United States still slightly exceeded Europe, both regions taking about 62 million units.

The fastest growth in 2005 was in Asia Pacific and Latin America where units sales increased 26 percent to 42.8 million and 14.7 million respectively.

Dell continued to grow more than the industry average, as its worldwide PC shipments grew 18.6 percent in 2005. Its global market share ended at 16.8 percent, up from 16.4 percent.

"However, Dell's worldwide growth rate started to slow down in the second half of 2005. During the fourth quarter, Dell's growth slightly exceeded the worldwide average, and it gained more from overseas markets," Gartner said in a statement.

Global number two Hewlett-Packard lost a little bit of ground to its closest rivals as its market share slipped to 14.5 percent in 2005 from 14.6 percent in 2004.

Third placed Lenovo from China, which took over IBM's PC operations, increased its market share to 6.9 percent from 6.8 percent, and Acer from Taiwan expanded to 4.6 percent market share from 3.4 percent in 2004.

Fujitsu and Fujitsu-Siemens remained steady at 3.8 percent, and were overtaken by Acer.

In the United States, fourth-quarter results confirmed that the U.S. professional market replacement cycle has peaked. "Both small and midsize business and enterprise markets showed softness in demand," Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa said.

In general, shipments of portable computers were growing fast and desktop computers were not, and Gartner said many shipped PCs were still sitting in warehouses.

"Concerns over inventory continue to exist. With the exception of Hewlett-Packard, all the vendors increased their average days of inventory over 2004, rising for some of them by more than a third," it said.