March in Washington. Union leaders, from bad to worse.

Left. The workers in Minneapolis in 1934 taking on the scabs and cops who were organized by the bosses. They defeated these forces by mass mobilization and street fighting and turned Minneapolis into a union city, stopped the retreat of labor throughout the entire country and opened up the movement which transformed the unions from having 2 million members to over 12 million members. This is the kind of movement that is needed today, not the union leaders cowardly policy of collaboration with the bosses and the bosses party the Democrats.

Yesterday there was a march in Washington sponsored by over 300 groups including the AFL-CIO and the NAACP. The AFL-CIO and the other unions have over twelve million members between them. The NAACP is also a mass organization. How did the march go? Lets put it in perspective. A couple of weeks ago there was a march in Washington organized by the extreme right wing religious racist radio broadcaster Glenn Beck. He has no organization. Well yesterday's march organized by these mass organizations was smaller than Beck's. This is an absolute scandal. The leaders of the organizations which put together yesterday's march are responsible for this. They have shown that with their methods and program Beck can get more people to Washington than them. This is certainly not inspirational in fact it is demoralizing. It does not lay the basis to build a mass movement which can change things in the interests of working people. Of course the union and NAACP leaders were not wanting this, they were just in their dishonest way trying to get more votes for the capitalist Democratic Party which they support.

The organizers of this blog have continually criticized the union leaders for their refusal to struggle. Our criticism is shown to be correct by the turnout at this march. Let us look at a few things. First of all the march was organized under the slogan: "One Nation Working Together." But the entire working class population of the country know that the US is not one nation working together. And this understanding is becoming stronger by the day. This country is a dictatorship of the profit addicted corporations over the rest of the people. The corporate organizers of the Tea Party outfit understand this clearly. They mobilize their movement supposedly against Washington. They know the rage that is out there over unemployment, poverty, stagnant or falling wages, insecurity, the rich getting richer, is very real and so it has to have a target and they direct it in a direction that is safe for them, so-called Washington.

The leaders of yesterday's march instead tried to convince people that the US is one nation working together. This is completely against the day to day experience of the working class and their understanding of this gets stronger by the day. This is a very positive development and should be the development that a new movement is built upon. But not by the union leaders. Oh, no. The union leaders approach to this march and the working class movement in general is pathetic. The US is not and never will be one nation working together. It is a class divided nation which is run by the capitalist class in its interest and against the interest of the working class and until there is a socialist transformation it will continue to be so. As a major capitalist said recently "there is a class struggle in this country and my class is winning."

While condemning the pathetic role of the union leaders is important it is vital to understand why they are so useless. These leaders are terrified that an independent militant movement of working class people could develop. Whatever its avowed program such a movement would challenge capitalism. And these leaders believe there is no alternative system to capitalism and any effort to challenge it would only lead to chaos. They do not believe the working class can build an alternative society. So they are totally committed to capitalism and to suppressing any serious movement of the working class. They are totally committed to the existing system.

But not only that. Any serious movement of the working class would face the union leaders with serious opposition within their own ranks. Such a development would challenge these union leaders control over the pro capitalist policies that they enforce in the unions. It would also threaten their control of the union apparatus and along with this their positions and privileges which are considerable. So they organize a march under a slogan that ensures that the working class anger cannot relate to it and are not inspired to mobilize for it. Think about it: "One Nation Working Together." That is just liberal lying garbage. So inevitably there is no mass mobilization from below. The march is not a success.

Listen to the unbelievable cant of the union leaders as expressed by Bob King president of the auto workers. At the march he said: "We believe that by working together we can build abundance to lift up everyone." This is insulting to our intelligence. All you got to do is think about the Bush Tax cuts for the rich, the bail out of Wall Street and the banks, Obama's continuing with these policies, but most of all seeing who said it think about the UAW leadership's hand over of their members good wages and benefits without a fight and then the bail out of the private auto companies. How was this "working together to build abundance to lift up everyone." How many auto workers would have been at yesterday's march when they saw King in the leadership. After all he was the main man in giving away the good wages and benefits they had won in struggle over the past decades.

The union leaders and their cowardly bowing and scraping before capitalism has forfeited the right of these leaders to their positions in the union leadership. Fighting anti capitalist oppositions have to built in the workplaces and unions to remove these leaders and build a fighting leadership which will organize and mobilize the anger and potential power that exists in the working class.

Sean.