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"A ferment is bubbling up in US society. It is a ferment partly born of the crisis of the US capitalist class, who has largely lost control over its presidency; a ferment born of the out-of-control attacks of the racist and fascist lunatics; a ferment born of desperation on the part of sections of the working class. That ferment was most recently visible in the massive counter-demonstrations against the fascists, first in Boston and then in San Francisco and Berkeley. Beneath the Surface It’s important to bear in mind that process when we survey the state of affairs of the unions this Labor Day. That’s because what we see, if viewed in isolation, can be pretty depressing. Nevertheless, in order to see things clearly, and in order to be able to play a role in producing the necessary changes, we have to be brutally clear headed about this state of affairs. And what a year it’s been since Labor Day 2016! Who would have expected that in a year from then we’d be living under a Trump presidency, complete with a revived fascist movement? Not one that is about to become a mass force, but one that is a serious threat nevertheless. Nissan Defeat One of the most prominent events for the unions was the defeat of the UAW organizing drive at the Nissan auto plant in Canton, Mississippi. There, the leadership followed the pattern set through their failed organizing drive in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2014. In that instance, they reportedly signed a “neutrality agreement” which committing the union to helping VW “maintain and where possible enhance the const advantages and other competitive advantages.” In other words, the UAW was going to help VW keep the wages low. You couldn’t have a better example of the labor/management collaboration strategy – a strategy that is driving the unions and the working class in general right over a cliff. Having learned absolutely nothing from that defeat, the UAW leadership took a similar approach in the case of the recent Nissan organizing drive. Evidently they were unable to obtain such a “neutrality agreement” so what they did was pitch the organizing drive as a continuation of the civil rights movement of the 1960s (since most of the workers at the plant are black) instead of a fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions. Meanwhile, they put forward the slogan “Pro Nissan; pro union”. (See photos.) The message of this slogan is that the union is not an organization through which workers can fight the employer for better wages and conditions. How could anything different be posed, though, since the top pay for more recently hired workers under the UAW’s two-tier agreement at other plants in the North is around $20 per hour, which is below the wage for Nissan workers in Canton!" https://oaklandsocialist.com/2017/09/02/labor-day-2017-change-it-must-so-change-it-will/ -- "No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them." Asata Shakur Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com and // www.facebook.com/WorkersIntlNetwork?ref=stream _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
