By Mumia Abu-Jamal from death row
Ongoing war against workers: The TWU strike
Published Apr 9, 2006 10:48 PM
From a March 1 commentary.
It only lasted for three
days, but it lasted long enough to betray the scuffles and scars of
war.
It was a spark for the eternal war between labor and capital. It was
a war between those who work and those who hire.
When the New York
Transport Workers Union (TWU) went out on strike [in December 2005—WW],
their action sent shock waves across the country and rattled the rulers.
Immediately, like a slave-driver who claims he was “betrayed” by
“his people,” New York’s mega-billionaire mayor, Michael
Bloomberg, unleashed an ugly verbal missile at those who demanded a fair
contract under which to work.
In the minds and mouths of the Bloombergers,
TWU strikers were: “Thugs!”
The corporate press joined the
slander, with one well-known fishwrapper blaring, with a banner headline,
“JAIL ‘EM!”
Them’s fightin’ words. And they
reflect, with a richness and clarity rarely revealed, the true nature of this
war: a class war.
Local 100 of the TWU is a predominantly Black, Latin@
and immigrant union, and the ugly war of words, spun by the masters of the
nation’s media machines, were as raw as they were racist.
When an
unruly mob of cops converged on City Hall to lambaste the city’s first
Black mayor (David Dinkins) as a “washroom attendant,” and sprinkled
other racist references to local Black leaders, one needed to search far and
wide to find references to the behavior of the cops as
“thuggish.”
The city and the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) used the Taylor Law, which disallows such strikes, to demand
that local courts return crippling fines against any striker.
But some
leader TWU members pointed to the history of the early civil rights movement,
specifically the experience of the late Rosa Parks, who broke unjust laws to
spark a mass movement.
Can the Taylor Law be just, when it leaves workers
at the mercy of management, when it forces them to accept substandard contracts,
when it requires ruinous givebacks?
While the corporate press channeled
the negativity of their bosses, strikers reported that average, working-class
and poor folks supported their efforts, for many understood that this was a
stand to strengthen workers generally, and beat back the hands of greed that
have been choking unions all across the country.
As for the Taylor Law,
why would anyone even try to pass such a law, which clearly disadvantages labor?
The very fact of its existence proves the political betrayal by politicians who
supported, lobbied and voted for it.
The Taylor Law is a weapon of the
rulers, and a whipping for the workers. It strips them of their only real
instrument of social power—the ability to refuse their labor. Since when
is that a crime?
Well, to the rich, it is! Karl Marx said that the law
“is but the will of one class made into a law for all.”
It is
a machine, just like it made segregation legal, and criminalized Black freedom
and dignity. The same law demanded that Blacks take the back of the bus. That
same law outlaws the right of those who labor to withhold their labor, to better
their condition, and those who follow them.
Such a law must itself be
outlawed! But it won’t be, if the people rely on the politicians to do
so.
That law can be unmade only by the concerted actions of the people, by
workers’ power, supported by others, in every area of work and
life.
Even though a recent contract was approved by the TWU leadership,
the proposed pact was reportedly rejected by a majority of union
members.
These front-line workers want to put an end to givebacks, and
compromises, and labor bowing to capital, and their puppet
politicians.
Labor wishes to fight for their class, and for their many and
varied communities, who are supported by their efforts.
To make a change,
labor must fight for it!
Go to prisonradio.org to hear Mumia’s
audio commentaries.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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