Dear labor and human rights activists, Let's take this historical opportunity to raise some issues of substance in the halls of US Labor. Muffy Freedom Socialist • Vol. 26, No. 5 • October-November 2005
Editorial AFL-CIO: schism at the top creates rare opening for the rank and file At this year’s 50th anniversary convention of the AFL- CIO in July, two union heads — Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union and James Hoffa of the Teamsters — walked out, vowing to create a “new labor movement.” Their vehicle, the Change to Win Coalition, has now attracted several more unions. Total defections so far: one quarter of the AFL-CIO’s membership. The noise Stern and Hoffa made on their way out, as they slammed the door on the House of Labor’s long dominant union federation, was spectacular. But if you listened carefully, you could hear another sound: that of a precious window of opportunity opening for labor’s ranks. It’s no secret that the U.S. labor movement is in serious trouble. At its historic high in 1954, it claimed 33 percent of all workers as union members. Today, that figure is 12.5 percent. Several factors caused the decline: technological changes that allowed industries to eliminate union jobs; the economic shift from manufacturing to the service sector and information technology; the deliberate offshoring of good-paying jobs; and a legal and political system in thrall to union-busting corporations. Capping the problem, though, was the failure of labor leaders, bound hand and foot to the Democratic Party, to fight. Hurt the worst by this betrayal were the women, people of color, and immigrants left without union protection in the harsh new employment landscape in which they predominate. The gutsy California nurses Association, which recently won a historic showdown against California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, was one of the first organizations outside the AFL-CIO to criticize the plans of the Change to Win Coalition. CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro pointed out the lack of rank-and-file involvement in developing the coalition’s platform. She aptly characterized Change to Win’s proposals as merely “structural and bureaucratic,” and not different in substance from what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney promotes. Both Change to Win and the AFL, for example, are on board with the “ labor-management partnerships” that are a prime tool in the dismantling of a century’s worth of workers’ gains. Most important, DeMoro chastised the coalition for not initiating a discussion about official labor’s uncritical support for the Democratic Party and the need for working people to build their own, genuinely independent political party. (See www.calnurse.org/?Action=Content&id=1026 for DeMoro’s full statement.) The bottom line: despite Andy Stern’s calls for spending less union money on politicians and more on organizing fresh members, his new baby is merely a clone of its parent in every way that counts. The breakaway coalition wants to use increased union numbers simply to obtain more clout with the politicians. The same motivation is behind Stern’s undemocratic plans to force smaller unions into mergers to create super-unions. However, as misguided as the split certainly is, change is in the air. Long-simmering issues are boiling over in discussions in internet forums, living rooms, and union halls. This is the time for labor activists to fight to control the direction of their movement. But fast motion is needed, before the moment passes. Serious union members know that labor will only be revitalized from the bottom up. They should start now to build rank-and-file caucuses in their unions that would press for democracy on the union floor, independence from the capitalist political parties, and international solidarity among working people facing the same problems and corporate enemy. Such caucuses, even beginning with two or three people, could call for revising union constitutions to require rank-and-file voting on future disaffiliations or mergers and to diversify leadership by ensuring that women and people of color are represented on local and national executive boards. They could decry raids by one union of another. They could push for setting the salaries of their officials no higher than the best-paid workers in their bargaining unit and ending union subsidies to boss-party politicians. And they could demand that more money be spent for organizing and for strikes, mandating that their leaders defy unjust injunctions and anti-labor laws. Striking union members such as those at Northwest Airlines and Boeing deserve and need a movement that will back their cause with united power and a determination to win. The window is open for union members in the trenches to build the power of the labor movement in the only way possible: by taking that power into their own hands. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 1.2 million kids a year are victims of human trafficking. 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