AFL-CIO council meets, resolves, but shows no oomph
But genuine anti-war current emerges in labor's ranks
By Milt Neidenberg
Retired Teamster
On the eve of the U.S. war against the Iraqi people, a war
that could change the face of the globe, the AFL-CIO Executive
Council held its annual winter session Feb. 24-27 in balmy
Hollywood, Fla., not far from where George W. Bush stole the
2000 presidential election.
The Executive Council passed a resolution expressing
reservations about the war--a historic first--but the language
was timid, especially given the breadth of mass opposition here
and around the world.
The 65 affiliated unions face staggering crises and
tumultuous events exploding around the labor movement.
War preparations have diverted hundreds of billions of
desperately needed dollars from social programs--Medicare,
Medicaid, Social Security. In the last two years more than 2
million jobs have permanently disappeared. Household incomes
for workers and their families have dropped precipitously.
The U.S. Constitution has been shredded by repressive laws
such as the Patriot Act, which have wiped out decades of
civil-rights and civil-liberties legislation so precious to the
13 million union members.
The Bush administration has declared all-out war against
organized labor, backing employers who violate labor laws.
"We can't grow through the National Labor Relations Board.
... It takes three years to resolve an organizing campaign,"
said Stewart Acuff, the new AFL-CIO director of organizing.
The Executive Council conference participants spent much
time discussing strategies about how to organize the
unorganized. One idea was floated to get around the slow NLRB
union recognition process: election by card check, a simple and
democratic voting process. However, employers would have to
agree to be neutral. Highly unlikely.
The unorganized, who make up the overwhelming mass of the
multinational working class, are anxious and willing to
struggle for the right to join a union. They are the working
poor--predominately people of color, women and immigrants--who
are being driven onto food lines and into the streets for lack
of decent wages and housing.
A recent survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found
that half of all U.S. workers would vote for a union in their
work place if given a chance. Yet only 13.2 percent of the
workers are organized. The time is ripe for a major struggle
against intransigent bosses.
Wooing Democrats: futile and unproductive
At the conference, AFL-CIO leaders passed many resolutions
against Bush's relentless attack on labor's rights. How ever,
there was no clear strategy for fighting back, no plan for
organizing the multinational rank-and-file work force of
millions.
Instead, these leaders spent much precious time discussing
strategy for the 2004 presidential election. And once again it
was Democratic presidential candidates who took front and
center stage. The politicians lounged around in the luxurious
Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, a 39-story seafront hotel,
where they were wined and dined by AFL-CIO leaders.
This wooing of Democratic hopefuls is a futile ritual,
proven unproductive over the years.
Former President Bill Clinton's national security advisor,
Sanford R. Berger, and Clinton's special Middle East envoy,
Dennis B. Ross, were invited to participate in the Executive
Council's decision to prepare an anti-war resolution, which
passed in the final days of the four-day conference.
The smell of the Democratic Party was pervasive. The labor
federation agreed unanimously that Hussein is a "demagog and
despot," but said the best way to disarm him is "in concert
with a broad international coalition of allies and with the
sanction of the United Nations."
This language is certainly in sharp contrast to the
overwhelming support the labor movement gave to the Vietnam
War. But a clause in the resolution moved it further to the
right by adding labor would "support the war as a last resort."
This was a compromise that deferred to the American Federation
of Teachers bureaucracy, which supports unilateral U.S.
military action.
Resolutions from progressive labor forces were ignored.
As per protocol, the federation invited Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao to hear their gripes and exchange a few
pleasantries. They were shocked and insulted when she delivered
a 30-minute harangue about supposed corruption, listing charges
of union embezzlement and resulting convictions.
Her speech was in perfect harmony with Bush's strategy to
housebreak the labor movement.
She defended new regulations requiring stricter financial
reporting by unions. The new accounting requirements will cost
the unions tens of thousands of dollars and much time.
The conferees were infuriated by Chao's attacks. It's not
that there are not greedy individuals who dip into union
treasuries. This is a shameful act. But it should be punished
internally, not by labor's enemies.
The leaders' anger was understandable: What about the Wall
Street billionaires and corrupt corporate executives who cover
up their obscene wealth and get away with it through criminal
accounting practices and illegal tax shelters?
The 2002 AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting will be
remembered, if at all, for missed opportunities and what wasn't
accomplished.
It was a repeat of previous Executive Council meetings such
as the 1999 winter session. Then, too, the council took up
saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They called for
raising the minimum wage and organizing the unorganized, and
demanded health and retiree benefits.
They didn't win any concessions when the Democrat Clinton
was in the White House, even though he boasted of budget
surpluses over $100 billion and a booming economy.
So how in the world can the AFL-CIO leaders expect to win
concessions now with out planning a major confrontation against
the anti-labor war hawk, Bush? He is bankrolled by a
billionaire corporate/ banking clique, is hell-bent on
destroying the labor movement and is beginning a preemptive
attack on Iraq.
Progressive unionists are organizing against
war
Fortunately, the AFL-CIO has a way out. The class struggle
has surfaced in a spectacular and dramatic fashion. On Feb.
15-16 alone, more than 10 million people worldwide protested an
impending war on Iraq. Demonstrations took place in 600 cities
in 100 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in Europe,
North America and Oceania.
A progressive sector of the labor movement is growing within
this powerful global anti-war movement. A few days after the
splendid Feb. 15-16 outpouring, U.S. Labor Against the War set
up an international telephone news conference call. More than
200 unions, from 53 countries on five continents, representing
over 130 million workers, agreed on a joint statement rejecting
a U.S. war against Iraq.
The statement says in part: "There is no evident purpose for
this war that we can support ... . We oppose the use of this
war ... as a pretext for attacks on labor, civil, immigrant,
and human rights ... and the spending of billions of dollars.
... Our nations need money for education, health care, housing
and other basic needs."
Another section points out, "The principal victims of any
military action in Iraq will be the sons and daughters of
working-class families and innocent Iraqi civilians who have
already suffered too much."
USLAW sent this statement to the AFL-CIO Executive Council
conference. It is far superior and more responsive to the war
and domestic crises than the one the Executive Council
ratified.
The USLAW anti-war statement reflects a spectacular
mushrooming of the progressive sector of the labor movement,
which is growing out of the impressive show of numbers coming
into the streets.
It is a burgeoning movement that includes local unions,
citywide central labor councils and state federations, and a
few progressive national union presidents. This movement is now
far to the left of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
USLAW has called for March 12 anti-war activities at the
work place.
The recent AFL-CIO conference failed to measure up to these
historic developments. The survival of many of these officials
as leaders is in question.
The tide sweeping the globe that rejects this war
encompasses tens of millions of workers and their allies in
class struggle. This is where the future of humanity lies.
Reprinted from the March 13, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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