Unity can strengthen the working class

To help strengthen the working class towards the goal of making revolution, we have to be concerned with building class-consciousness. Who are you? You are a worker! We must also increase the amount of workers who are organized into unions, community organizations, anti-war and social justice organizations, etc.

But, most importantly, we must consider unity. We must unify our class, especially with those sectors within our class who face increased oppression from the ruling class, like women, Black, Brown, Asian, Native, immigrant, Arab and Muslim, and lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) workers.

We can have great working-class organizations and a high level of class-consciousness, but without unity it means nothing, like a brain disconnected from the spine.

How do we build class-consciousness and organization among our class? Some may think that all we have to do is convince workers that they are members of the working class and all of their issues should be framed narrowly within that definition, so that Black, Latin@ or Asian workers and their experiences here in the U.S. are not tied to the history of the nations of Africa, Latin America, South and East Asia. They are simply workers and we need not concern ourselves with those other national oppression issues that they as a people are always protesting about.

In terms of strengthening organizations, some may think that here in the U.S. all we have to do is make our unions more capable of winning better wages from an employer, even at the expense of international solidarity.

If both of these examples of building class-consciousness and super-efficient organizations are carried out, would that build unity within our class? Would it build unity even just here in the U.S.? I know from experience that Black workers in general will not unite with anyone who ignores or refuses to accept our leadership regarding our own struggles for national liberation and against racism.

Regarding the union example, what if--as a hypothetical case--by agreeing to ignore the demands of, say, Coca-Cola workers in Colombia, the Teamsters who transport killer Coca-Cola here gain great benefits and wages for their members. Has that weakened or strengthened solidarity? This solidarity will be necessary when that company decides a year later to put the squeeze on the union members' health care benefits that far outweighs any gains made the previous year.

As Fred Goldstein's document points out, because of new technological changes affecting production and the placement of billions of new workers at the disposal of imperialist monopoly corporations, competition within the international working class will intensify and so will the need for solidarity.

One important thing to remember about unity is that you can’t come together by dividing. That seems like it shouldn’t have to be said, but there are those who think they are building working class unity by excluding certain sectors of the working class.

After 9/11, fighting for Palestinian rights or the rights of Muslim people became much more difficult and you could probably, at that time, build a bigger anti-war rally with moderate and Democratic Party folks if you kept those issues off the table. Those sections of the anti-war movement that were very focused on bringing in more so-called middle-class moderates and getting Democratic Party approval and much less concerned about appealing to the working class pursued that tactic. However, this makes the ruling class feel more empowered since they now know how to make the movement more defensive and meek. They will keep playing the same tune that encourages the movement to pick off and cast out pieces of itself, since every time it does so, the movement gets weaker.

Why does it get weaker? Well, in the case of sacrificing the issues of solidarity with Palestinian and Muslim people at a demonstration, the anti-war movement would lose a very important, leading sector of the international class struggle against imperialism, along with their allies.

Fortunately, sections of the anti-war movement, like the Troops Out Now Coalition, in which Workers World Party members are very proud to be involved, will not sacrifice the issue of Palestine or the Jena 6 or Katrina for the sake of building a so-called broader and bigger demonstration, even if it means one or more key moderate groups, that could help build a bigger demonstration, refuse to participate under those principled conditions.

During the September demonstrations everything the Troops Out Now Coalition presented, from literature to placards to banners to the backdrop on stage, from Washington to Los Angeles, had a clear message of solidarity reaching out to all of the most targeted sections of our working class. We should remember that numbers at a demonstration don’t necessarily correlate to the amount of unity that demonstration builds.

In 1980 there was a demonstration of 1 million people in Central Park to stop the production of nuclear weapons. Palestine was not allowed to be brought up. And, given all the cutbacks at that time and their disproportionate effect on Black people in this country, it would have been easy to reach out to the Black communities by addressing those issues that would build solidarity and build their participation.

However, that opportunity was also lost. I was there and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember much representation of the Black community there.

Perhaps if that anti-nuke movement built that demonstration by tying the money spent on nukes and the military to the severe cutbacks in especially oppressed communities, then maybe the makeup of the demonstration would have been different and perhaps mean more than just one huge demonstration in Central Park. Perhaps this could have contributed to the building of a real working-class movement that could actually influence U.S. nuclear policy.

Evidence of what a more working-class movement can do can be found by looking at the demonstrations starting on March 25, 2006, in Los Angeles that sparked the May Day rallies for immigrant rights.

Responding to a severely repressive anti-immigrant bill, HR4437, that passed easily through the Democratic House and was due to hit the Senate floor, a demonstration and one-day work boycott of over a million people occurred in Los Angeles--and that was basically the last you heard of that bill going to the Senate.

Why was the bill basically dropped? How could one demo have such an effect on the legislature, without lobbying? The numbers were basically the same as the Central Park demo.

Well, when those immigrant workers boycotted, billions were lost in profits. Why? Because the work they provided was indispensable in terms of making profit.

If managers or supervisors or accountants refuse to go to work for a day, it will undoubtedly affect profits and slow down production. But when those workers who bag and check out the groceries or cut the meat or change the bed pans or wash the dishes or load the trucks go out for a day, then profits come to a screeching halt.

So, in order to strengthen our class we must build class-consciousness and organization in a way that also builds unity. And today's realities of the class struggle make that even more essential.

Otherwise scapegoating, racism and opportunism will lead to severe divisions within our class that will weaken us and force the labor movement back decades.

Danger of division between workers is especially clear in regard to immigrant workers being scapegoated now. These workers were forced into this country to look for the livelihood that was stolen from them due to U.S. economic policies like NAFTA.

Immigrant workers also face the same "invisibility" that Ralph Ellison wrote about in his book, "The Invisible Man," referring to how Black people and their lives and struggle are dismissed by many white progressives as unimportant.

This is why many in the anti-war movement ignored the issue of that repressive bill HR4437, despite the protests and anger of immigrants, documented and undocumented alike.

When a section of your class is being threatened like this, however, as a working-class organization you must respond.

Our Party takes this struggle very seriously and that is why the coalition that initiated the March 25th demonstration in Los Angeles and the May 1st demonstrations for immigrant rights that followed every year has in its steering committee members of our Party. We are and will continue to be at the ready when attacks against our class occur. We will try to build solidarity and organizational support or whatever we can do to strengthen the working class as a whole.

The immigrant rights struggle and Black struggle for liberation and basic democratic rights in this country have many similarities. Unity among Black and Brown workers is a natural thing. This is why the ruling class tries so hard to keep us divided. And this is why we must constantly try to bring these struggles together.

During the Jena 6 rally on September 20 there were national demonstrations and in Los Angeles we made sure to facilitate getting Latin@ M25 coalition representatives on the stage to speak to the 99-percent Black crowd in the heart of the Black community in South Central to express solidarity.

Building working-class unity is important.

This is why we jumped into the UFCW grocery workers' strike four years ago in Los Angeles to build community support and solidarity. For our efforts our members received a plaque from the union and, like the major forces in the immigrant movement, we are seen as a trusted ally committed to our class.

A revolutionary party is useless if it can't be seen as a trusted ally in the eyes of especially the most oppressed workers. How do you build that trust? By showing that you put the needs of the movement over everything else, including the needs of your own organization if necessary.

If what I'm saying resonates with your mind and your heart, let me tell you that everything you've heard from all of the comrades is meant sincerely. So if this sounds right to you and you want to join a revolutionary party that is beholden to our working class, is responsible to our working class and is determined to strengthen the working class for the purpose of creating a revolution in this country, then this is the place for you.

---

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php