Christopher W. Shaw - First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat

PRAISE FOR CHRISTOPHER W. SHAWS FIRST CLASS: THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, DEMOCRACY, AND THE CORPORATE THREAT

Christopher W. Shaws First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat makes a passionate and well-argued case for a healthy USPS. Shaw organizes his methodical argument around decades of attacks on the USPS; in doing so, he effectively refutes the flawed (and often anti-democratic) cases for privatization and deregulation. The USPS is essential for a democratic American society; thank goodness we have this new book from Christopher W. Shaw explaining why.

DANNY CAINE, author of Save the USPS and owner of the Raven Book Store

In gripping detail, Christopher W. Shaws First Class tells you whos trying to sabotage the national treasure that is the U.S. Postal Service and why (hint: corporate greed). Shaws clarion call to protect the postal service explains whats at stake for our communities, our democracy, and our economy. While he celebrates USPS history, Shaws gaze is primarily forward-looking. In a time of community fracture and corporate predation, he argues, a first-class post office of the future can bring communities together and offer exploitation-free banking and other services.

ROBERT WEISSMAN, president of Public Citizen

Christopher Shaw makes the case for the importance of the Postal Service to democracy in the United States. He argues compellingly that we should be looking to rebuild it, rather than tear it down and privatize it.

DEAN BAKER, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research

The Save the Post Office movement has long needed a definitive manifesto, and now it has one. Christopher Shaws First Class shows how special interests, along with anti-government and anti-union ideologues... justify cost-cutting measures like outsourcing, closing post offices and slowing down the mail. Piece by piece, an essential national infrastructure is being dismantled without our consent. Shaw makes an eloquent case for why the post office is worth saving, and why, for the sake of American democracy, it must be saved.

STEVE HUTKINS, professor of English at New York University (retired) and founder/editor of savethepostoffice.com

Shaws excellent analysis of the Postal Service and its vital role in American democracy couldnt be more timely. As the current Postmaster General is about to implement a ten-year plan that will eliminate all airmail service, greatly reduce delivery times, and cut hours and available services at post offices, it is important to be reminded that a fully functional postal service is essential for elections, for delivery of life-saving medicines, for assistance when communities are dislocated in times of disaster, and for rural community identity. First Class should serve as a clarion call for Americans to halt the dismantling, and to instead preserve and enhance the institution that can bind the nation together.

RUTH Y. GOLDWAY, retired chair and commissioner, U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission, responsible for the Forever stamp

Christopher Shaw reveals the U.S. Postal Services historic contributions to the welfare of all Americans, from operating an essential communication and transportation network, to pioneering public banking, to functioning as a linchpin of elections. While the Postal Services enemies assert its inevitable demise, Shaw presents hope for a rejuvenated public service that plays an integral part of a democratic future.

ROSEANN DEMORO, former executive director of National Nurses United

Copyright 2021 by Christopher W. Shaw

Foreword 2021 by Ralph Nader

Published in association with the Center for Study of Responsive Law.

All Rights Reserved.

Open Media Series Editor: Greg Ruggiero

Cover: Mingovits Design

ISBN: 978-0-87286-877-9

eISBN: 978-0-87286-855-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shaw, Christopher W., author. | Nader, Ralph, writer of foreword.

Title: First class : the U.S. Postal Service, democracy, and the corporate threat / by Christopher W. Shaw ; foreword by Ralph Nader.

Description: San Francisco : City Lights Books, [2021] | Series: Open media series | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021013804 | ISBN 9780872868779 (trade paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: United States Postal Service--History. | Postal service--United States--History. | Postal service--Deregulation--United States. | Postal service--United States--Reorganization.

Classification: LCC HE6371 .S497 2021 | DDC 383/.4973--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013804

City Lights Books are published at the City Lights Bookstore

261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133

www.citylights.com

FOREWORD

by Ralph Nader

The preventable plight of our U.S. Postal Service is an important issue for all Americans. When President Donald J. Trumps donor and henchman Louis DeJoy became postmaster general in 2020 and proceeded to dismantle the agency, millions of citizens participated in demonstrations that revealed a deep civic commitment to preserving the peoples post office. While DeJoy triggered a crisis that immediately threatened the presidential election process, attacks on the Postal Service have been an ongoing problem for decades. The anti-postal campaigns of corporate interests have remained a continuing source of frustration to those of us who have observed the Postal Services decline due to unimaginative management, a deck stacked to favor profit-driven entities such as FedEx and UPS, and unfair financial obligations imposed by Congress.

The Postal Service is facing a manufactured financial crisis that is primarily the result of a congressional mandate dating back to 2006, which required the agency to pre-fund the next seventy-five years of retiree health benefits in one decade. This pre-payment requirement is something that no other federal government agency or private corporation attempts to donot to mention that there is no actuarial justification for such an accelerated payment schedule. The pre-funding requirement effectively forces the Postal Service to fund retiree health benefits for future employees who have not even been born yet. Despite these facts, Congress has refused to correct the host of problems resulting from its requirements.

In fact, the congressional mandate delivers Trojan horses that fulfill a number of purposes. One is to deliver more profit to parasitic private corporations. Another is to deliver real estate, after closing post offices, to developers and their brokers. There are more than 30,000 post offices that are community outlets, nonprofit outlets, gathering places, spaces where federal information about citizen needs and rights can be posted, where people can talk and meet as well as get postal services. Postal officials do not want to acknowledge the intangibles that post offices provide to the community. The discussions that would not otherwise occur. Hi Joe, how are things? one resident says to a man walking up the steps. Whats the latest? We have all heard these neighborly exchanges before. The Red Sox won again, says one patron to another. Oh, theres a town meeting next week, a resident reminds her neighbor. Are you going to go? What kind of price do you place on conversations like these?

The need for postal reform is not just a matter of endangered post offices, disappearing blue mailboxes, slow mail delivery, or the fight to maintain delivery on Saturday, important as these issues are. The Postal Service is a fundamental institution that binds the country together. It can and should be updated and freed from the shackles of corporations. Our first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin, was known for his can-do verve and his appreciation of efficiency and innovation. As a stand-alone structure, he never thought post offices would mutate into a counter or kiosk inside a Staples storeor some other big-box store or shopping mallas recent postmasters general have urged and advertised.