NAME: Ira Grupper
EMAIL: irag@iglou.com
DATE: 10/09/2009

TITLE: AFL-CIO transition is a time of real progress in labor

LABOR PAEANS—October 2009
by Ira Grupper
(published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky chapter of F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] )

AFL-CIO transition is a time of real progress in labor

At its national convention in Pittsburgh, in mid-September, Rich Trumka, a third-generation Polish American coal miner, and former president of the United Mine Workers, was elected president of the AFL-CIO. Outgoing president, John Sweeney, spoke to the 2,000 delegates, and others: “We began this past year carrying multiple burdens. All of the mindless strategies of the far right had finally imploded. We were mired in a money-draining war in Iraq, with thousands of our young men and women risking and losing their lives. And we were deep into the worst economic trough since the Great Depression.” (Note to Mr. Sweeney: hooray for Iraq Veterans Against the War, and US Labor Against the War, for pointing out the war was not just money-draining; it was also immoral—I.G.).

“But we were also having our dreams of a better future revived by the inauguration of the most progressive United States president since Franklin D. Roosevelt—a president working people and our unions had worked hard to help elect…

“(We’ve) come back from a devastating division in our ranks by reuniting our federation at the state and local levels, and then put on powerful demonstrations of our united people-power in the 2006 and 2008 elections…The Labor Department was reporting union membership and density notching upward for the second year in a row. President Obama was wasting no time overturning anti-worker, antiunion executive orders put in place by the Bush administration, and naming union champions to leadership positions in his administration.”

“…Reunification talks between our federation and the affiliates that left four years ago continue without resolution, even though we have found considerable unity around our national legislative work, especially on the Employee Free Choice Act.”

“… But the fact is, we are barely scratching the surface of the needs among workers for representation. And we aren’t doing enough organizing…Passage of labor law reform will create vast new opportunities. We have to be ready for it… We know nearly 60 million workers out there want to join our unions, but we’re still not effective enough in linking up with them.

“And the success of our historic partnership with the National Education Association enabled thousands of additional union members to join our mutual struggle for economic and social justice for working families…Bringing our disaffiliated unions back into the fold and pursuing unaffiliated unions have to be top priorities. And continuing our efforts at working with and on behalf of our brothers and sisters in other countries is an absolute necessity…”

“For the first time, we’re requiring delegations to this Convention to generally reflect the percentages of women and people of color in their memberships. And our affiliates and state and local organizations have undertaken major programs to promote diversity and full participation.” Also of significance to your columnist is the fact that leaders of five Iraqi labor federations were at the convention as guests of the AFL-CIO. The federation’s offshoot, Working America, now has over 3.000,000 members, and Latino organizational participation is being encouraged.

Now to Brother Trumka’s speech: “What kind of labor movement do we need to rebuild America? A younger labor movement. A greener labor movement. A labor movement that can project its power—to defend workers anywhere in the world. A labor movement that’s organizing the unorganized. A labor movement that’s winning health care for every family—and, yes, a labor movement that stands by its friends, punishes its enemies and challenges those who can’t decide whose side they’re on.”

“…We want a nation where it doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is...or what sex or religion you are...or whether you’re gay or straight or what country your family’s from because here, in America, we believe everyone ought to have their chance to step into the winner’s circle…This is our time. And we will not be denied.”

There are many inter and intra-union problems that confront Mr. Trumka. He states he will not tolerate union raiding. There are difficulties with the Carpenters Union, and SEIU. UNITE-HERE reaffiliated with the AFL-CIO, a big load off Mr. Trumka’s back.

The AFL-CIO Convention must be viewed with an eye on the past, as well as the present and the future. So let’s look back. In 1963 the lily-white officialdom running Birmingham, Alabama had a reward for African Americans exercising their First Amendment constitutional right to protest peacefully against racial segregation: snarling police dogs, high-pressure water cannon, beatings and jail. In that same year, at the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Rev. Martin Luther King uttered these now-famous words: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Fast forward to the present. Not too many weeks ago, on television, there were scenes of a raging fire in California. The devastation we face here in Louisville, and across Kentucky, and across the nation, is not coming from police dogs and batons (not at this juncture, anyhow), nor from a forest fire, although we did have floods recently. Our devastation can be seen in workers’ inability to care for their families, and nurture their souls. The U.S. government is ready to say the recession is over. Don’t just point out that those who are working are spending a little more at the mall; show us where the new jobs are to be found.

Last November we heeded Dr. King’s wise injunction about content of character, and elected the first African American president. The racists and revanchists are still reeling from their inability to keep the presidency a white preserve, And these same smarting hairballs, who knew so little about geography and political economy they favored sending U.S. troops to die in Iraq when they really meant for them to die in Afghanistan, are determined to push an otherwise-enlightened President Obama to continue the slaughter in Afghanistan.

Well, if we feel, as do John Sweeney and Rich Trumka, that Mr. Obama has the potential to be a great president, we must have felt the same way when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in the 1960’s. But Johnson will best be known for the napalm and murder and mayhem he visited upon Southeast Asia--a disgraced presidential ship wrecked on the shoals of Vietnam. Do we want Mr. Obama to suffer the same fate?

It is not just the Afghanistan-Pakistan mess that Mr. Obama inherited from the debacle that was George Bush. He also was bequeathed a financial mess, about which he addressed Wall St. tycoons and others on September 14. The NY Times reported, the following day; “President Obama…sternly admonished the financial industry and lawmakers to accept his proposals to reshape financial regulation to protect the nation from a repeat of the excesses that drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and wreaked havoc on the global economy last year. ‘We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses.’ ”

Is it simply a matter of having pushed a $787 billion stimulus plan, and of increased regulation? The article continues: “One major difficulty is that many of the issues do not break along party lines — they tend instead to force disagreements between industries and their various supporters in Congress. So the fight is as much among Democrats as it is between parties.”

We must hold Mr. Obama accountable, yet support his presidency in face of racist and right-wing attacks. It is our responsibility to coalesce a progressive majority, a united front of progressive forces, to see that this happens.

Contact Ira Grupper: irag@iglou.com