The recent upsurge in militant class struggle, as seen in Greece, Egypt, Spain, England, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Pakistan, and the United States, is a heartening development. Over the last two months, the trade union movement in New York City has moved thousands of its members to participate in its Labor Day march and at various rallies connected to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). This display of the potential power of the working class has encouraged still more organized workers.
Black, Latino, Asian and white workers from scores of unions, in both the public and private sectors, have made what appears to be a statement of solidarity and unity. Once you get past surface appearances, however, the essence of this activity is something very different. Progressive Labor Party was present at the Labor Day march and lifted the struggle level by raising questions like:
What was the focus of the unions’ Labor Day march? Did it aim to stop the racist threat of public hospital closings at Brookdale in Brooklyn or Peninsula General in Queens? Such a fight would do much to stop the erosion of desperately needed medical care in the predominately black and Latino communities that these hospitals serve — and the layoffs that these closings would require. PL’ers have supported these struggles by joining picket lines and demonstrations at the hospitals, along with our coworkers and friends. Our solidarity efforts, communist ideas and CHALLENGE were warmly received by rank-and-file hospital workers, many of whom have become our friends.
It would have been great if the Labor Day march had taken a stand against the racist crisis of unemployment that grips every segment of the working class at an “actual” rate (including underemployed and “marginally attached” workers) of more than 21 percent (shadowstats.com). We say that unemployment is racist because black, Latino and immigrant youth are victimized by joblessness by a multiple of three times the overall rate. But the union “leaders” have no plan to fight either health care cuts or massive, racist unemployment.
What if workers organized to force the New York City Central Labor Council (NYCLC) to call for a citywide general strike to stop the layoffs of some 800 public school support workers? The struggle led by PL earlier this year at the John Jay High School campus in Brooklyn showed how students, teachers and parents could be won to unite and militantly confront the racist Department of Education.
What if such a general strike had demanded an end to the imperialist oil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? If the NYCLC organized such a strike, we would begin to see real working-class power in action. Instead, we saw calls for patriotism and support for U. S. imperialism via signs “remembering” those who died on 9/11.
If the Labor Day march had been intended to build real working-class unity, it wouldn’t have stopped at East 66th street. It would have continued into Central Park and joined striking restaurant workers at the Central Park Boathouse as the PL did. Plers built support for this strike in the weeks before Labor Day and leafleted that march to guarantee that many marchers, including those we brought, would indeed show their solidarity with the strikers. The valiant, mainly women immigrant restaurant workers were able to win union recognition and a contract. Still, a massive outpouring of marchers into the park would have helped build unity and fought racism, sexism and anti-immigrant sentiments. From this New York restaurant to a Chicago library to a California grocery chain, PL has sought to build solidarity campaigns to fan the embers of working-class struggle. In the process, we have met wonderful people who are excited by our revolutionary communist ideas.
What if workers demanded that instead of marching up 5th Avenue, past the luxury buildings housing the richest 1% of New York, we had marched in the working-class areas of Brooklyn where the 99% live? What if we had rallied in front of the Flatbush Gardens housing complex where unionized workers have been locked out since last November? Or if we had joined the picket lines at Long Island University, where teachers were on strike and in opposition to tying any raise to tuition increases? Then we could have been built worker-student unity!
What if Verizon workers in the Communication Workers of America, who had joined the OWS activities by rallying in front of Verizon Corporate headquarters on October 21, had instead renewed their strike against Verizon? Then they would have harnessed the anger stoked by OWS against a corporation that amassed $22.5 billion in profits and paid its top five executives $258 million in the last four years — while moving to slash worker benefits, sick leave and raising health insurance costs and eliminating job security. What if the 110,000 members of the American Federation Of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 37, whose contract expired a year and a half ago, went out on strike for a new contract and to restore cuts and laid-off workers? Then these workers would be taking on the fascist Taylor Law. The spark of OWS would have led to sharper class struggle.
The reason these things haven’t happened is because the unions’ role is to maintain capitalism! The leaders mimic the bosses by demanding obscene salaries. A case in point: Gerald McIntee, International President of AFSCME, was paid $479,328 in 2009. AFSCME’s District Council (DC) 37 head, Lillian Roberts, earned $343,467, or about 10 times the average wage of DC 37 members.
To fight New York State’s Taylor Law or the wave of anti-union laws passed in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere, the unions would need to break the bosses’ laws and expose their rigged system. Instead, they channel workers’ anger and frustration into the voting booth.
In 2008, the unions’ political action committees spent more than $80 million on federal elections and elected their “friends” to the White House and Congress. Having “won,” they then failed to get their top issue passed, the “card check” method for organizing new bargaining units. This proves yet again that governing power is not determined by elections but rather serves the interests of the ruling class, regardless of which party wins the latest contest.
When a spark like OWS seems to challenge the hold the bosses have over our lives, the union honchos, ever faithful to their friends in high places, organize through coalitions like “stronger for all” to blunt the energy and anger of OWS protesters and to deliver the union rank and file into the waiting arms of the bosses’ “Demopublican” party operatives. Year after year, we are urged by union leaders to vote for lesser-evil candidates (usually Democrats), who promise us fewer cuts and more crumbs. The reality is seen in the current debate in Washington, which is between catastrophic or merely disastrous cuts in services that workers need. Workers choose only one thing in these elections: who will be their oppressor.
Progressive Labor Party has a different plan. We understand that workers create all wealth. We know that under capitalism, the value they produce is stolen from them every day. We want to use the power and fighting unity of the working class to destroy the capitalist system. While we support the necessary fights that workers wage for better wages and benefits, we understand that under the bosses’ system, every reformist gain that is won can be taken back from us. The process of building Progressive Labor Party in these fights strengthens our class’s ability to fight back today as well as preparing us for the bigger fight to come.
That is the fight for communism, a system where the working class takes power, and where everything produced is for the use and benefit of the working class. A society where racism and sexism are outlawed. A system where there is no immigrant/citizen divide, and no more rich and poor.
Get off the bosses’ treadmill and join us in building a society that can truly serve our needs! Join Progressive Labor Party. Read and distribute CHALLENGE. Build for communist revolution!
