AFL-CIO COUNCIL MEETING
Why not seize the time?
By Milt
Neidenberg
The AFL-CIO Executive Council, representing 70 international
unions, has just concluded a week-long winter session in Miami.
Its deliberations came at a critical juncture for the millions
of workers it represents.
A worldwide economic and political storm is beginning to
wash up on U.S. shores. While Wall Street and Washington gloat
over economic growth and global domination, they also display a
growing fear that they can't control the worldwide crisis and
that the good times can quickly be reversed.
They are well aware of boom-and-bust cycles. The United
States is still in a boom cycle. However, volatility continues
around the globe. This crisis has exacted a heavy toll on the
workers and the oppressed in the rest of the world.
In the February 1999 issue of America @ Work, the AFL-CIO's
monthly magazine, President John J. Sweeney lays out the
fallout in graphic terms in his column "Out Front." Writing
shortly before the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, Sweeney
described the obscene accumulation of wealth at the expense of
the masses of workers:
"Here in America, the wealthiest 10 percent of people
control 70 percent of all our wealth. Worldwide, the richest
three people have assets that exceed the combined gross
domestic product of the 48 least developed countries, according
to the UN's Human Development Report 1998. The world's richest
225--the biggest share of whom live here in the United
States--have wealth equaling the annual income of the poorest
47 percent of the world's people (2.5 billion souls).
"Less than 4 percent of the wealth of these 225 could
provide basic education and health care, women's reproductive
health services and adequate food, safe water and nutrition for
everyone in need on the planet. ... America has five times more
billionaires now than it had in 1989 but 4 million more poor
children."
He could have added that President Bill Clinton has boasted
a budget surplus of $112 billion for the coming year. The bulk
of this surplus is earmarked to beef up the Pentagon's war
drive and pay down Wall Street's debt service.
Seize the time
The corporate tycoons and bankers are awash in profits.
Those labor leaders who gathered in sunny Miami would be the
first to agree that the most favorable time for the labor
movement to grow and make bold demands on employers is during a
period such as this.
The Executive Council meeting didn't consider what
opportunities exist to initiate bold and creative strategy and
tactics that would inspire the millions of low-paid workers,
primarily people of color and women. They focused mainly on the
2000 elections.
Sweeney reported that the federation had approved a $40
million budget to elect "friends of labor"--Democrats and those
Republicans who support the AFL-CIO's agenda. Democratic
leaders--minus President Clinton--showed up to exhort and
encourage them in this direction, with promises of legislative
support.
Should this relationship between the labor movement and the
Democratic Party be a top priority, taking up much of the
council's valuable time? Isn't it true that the Clinton
administration has generally moved to the right? Isn't Wall
Street's upbeat mood due to its confidence in Clinton's support
for its policies?
Has Clinton tried to intervene through his executive powers
to restrain U.S. corporations from the mega-merger frenzy that
results in laying off workers, shutting down plants and
exporting them to low-wage countries? Absolutely not.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the percentage
of workers in unions continues to decline, despite the
AFL-CIO's splendid organizing efforts that have recruited
475,000 new members. Sweeney emphasized that the AFL-CIO will
mount a national campaign to spotlight U.S corporations that
are trampling illegally on workers' right to form unions,
outsourcing jobs to non-union companies and illegally firing
thousands of workers each year who try to organize.
Can Clinton blame the Republican majority in Congress for
all the problems the AFL-CIO faces?
It's a no-win situation for the labor movement to tie its
future to the interests of Democrats. The council needed to
work toward an independent course to mobilize and inspire the
members. It lost a golden opportunity.
If a recession or downturn in the economy takes place, if
the bubble bursts in the Wall Street markets as many experts
and forecasters are predicting, the labor movement will face an
entirely different set of circumstances. This will inevitably
be accompanied by the most reactionary intervention of the
capitalist state against the workers.
The primary issues the council took up were saving Social
Security and Medicare, raising the minimum wage, organizing the
unorganized and demanding a bill of health rights for workers
exploited by greedy HMOs. They have redefined these struggles
as a civil-rights movement to draw in allies from the oppressed
communities and other liberal and progressive forces.
Support oppressed workers
All this is to the good. But unfortunately it falls far
short of the overall needs of the poorer and more oppressed
workers--those victimized daily by police terror, immigrant
bashing, the racist judicial system, the prisons and their
vicious exploitation of labor within the walls.
A class-wide mobilization of the rank and file against the
assault on people of color and their issues is needed. That
kind of unity would begin to change the relationship of
forces.
There have been flashes of strike struggles. The Teamsters'
success against United Parcel Service in the summer of 1997.
Last summer's General Motors strike by two small UAW locals
that shut down a giant industrial empire. The recent sick-out
by a small independent union of pilots that cost American
Airlines millions of dollars and brought it to the bargaining
table.
They all show a lesson: Only bold and creative tactics will
get the attention of the bosses to settle many of the labor
movement's grievances and raise class consciousness.
The boom cycle of capitalist prosperity and profits is still
in progress. There is still time to develop tactics and
strategy. Time to confront the bosses and their lackeys in
Washington. Time to move the workers and their allies to strike
out in an independent direction.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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