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| Yippee! I got invited to the White House |
I read on once I get over the initial shock of seeing the term "working class" in print as we are all "middle class" here in America so the story goes. It's difficult as I feel this combined pall of disgust and anger coming over me as I am well aware that any "spark" that arises within the ranks of organized Labor is rapidly extinguished by the hierarchy that controls the apparatus. Sparks have a potential to turn in to fires. And there is nothing that terrifies the heads of organized Labor more than a conscious and active membership as such a development would inevitably threaten the relationship this bureaucracy has built with the bosses based on Labor peace and the defense of the market.
Obama, like all the Democratic politicians that have received billions of dollars of campaign funds from organized Labor's rank and file courtesy of its leadership, has stiffed it to workers but no matter---the officials will come through for him in 2012.
Obama, has left a bad taste in the mouths of those who believed the rhetoric, particularly the youth. The Liberals simply support the lesser of two evils every time because there is nowhere else for them to go. I recall them all cheering similar figures, Walter Mondale in the 1980's, Dukakis, Clinton, the list goes on and on. My former Union, Afscme, provided 40,000 volunteers for Mondale, and you tell me we can't t run our own candidates.
"Obama's relationship with Labor needs a little more courtship" the Chronicle continues. The Labor hierarchy has to convince its members and other workers outside of the Unions to vote for Obama against their best instincts. For the top Labor officials it is crucial as their social status is very much tied to the Democratic Party, it is an avenue in to politics for many of them and a political escape valve; with the Democrats we lose all we have a little more slowly.
During Obama's 2008 campaign Obama promised, "If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself". He kept that promise alright, putting on a nice pair of hiking boots and getting as far away from Wisconsin as he could. The great orator had nothing to say as 100,000 filled the streets of Madison.
California is an important state for the Democrats with the 8th largest economy in the world. Eight of the nations 50 most populous cities are in California. People of Latino descent, the fastest growing group in the US comprise 37% of California population according to the US census Bureau. So the Labor hierarchy will be called upon once again to bring home the bacon for the Democrats in California.
This role played by the Labor hierarchy contributes to the low level of political consciousness but also the low level of voter participation in US politics. Millions of workers have withdrawn from the electoral process as they have learned through experience that no matter which party is in power, their living standards continue to decline. Voting is not an exercise in civics; if it doesn't produce concrete material result why bother? It's the same as Unions, when dues go up while working conditions deteriorate and wages go down, why pay them?
The politicians of both parties in power, almost all millionaires or billionaires are equally rotten, plundering the wealth of society on behalf of the class whose interests they represent. The Labor Bureaucracy's refusal to open up a debate on capitalism and the failure of the system------explaining that a political party does not exist in a vacuum but has class content---- leads many workers to draw the incorrect conclusion that "all" politicians are simply crooks rather than individuals carrying out the policies that advances the interests of their class. It is one of the most despised professions.
Elizabeth Shuler, the national Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO tells the Chronicle that the AFL-CIO's member's "absolutely will provide on the ground power for Obama." This is a person that considers California's workers to be "lucky" that we have Jerry Brown as governor, a man that is savaging working class people on behalf of the corporations. If you were to ask all of the AFL-CIO's 12 million members who Elizabeth Shuler is, maybe a few thousand would know. That should give you some idea of how absent this organization is from the lives of ordinary working people. She is deciding for her members without their conscious involvement counting instead on their inactivity; this will not work forever.
The Chronicle, a paper that supports the Democrats drags out the favored academic that gives the Labor officialdom intellectual legitimacy. "I think Labor is going to be there for him." says Harley Shaiken a UC professor who as usual is described by the Chronicle as a "Labor expert". Shaiken must be a "Labor expert" as he works at a university and probably has some letters after his name that these institutions give to people to define their area of expertize. I'm sure there's a few workers, shop stewards and regular folks that could teach Shaiken about Labor and work life at the point of production. Shaiken rarely, if ever, would criticize the Labor hierarchy for their role in collaborating with the bosses in destroying workers' living standards. If he did, he'd never be introduced at AFL-CIO conferences or referred to in its publications as a "Labor expert". I just wish Harley Shaiken would get a real job.
So next year the folks atop organized Labor along with all their strategists and academic advisers will help a capitalist party get its candidates in to office so they can continue their offensive against workers and our families. They will pour millions of our dollars in cash in to the campaigns. They will use all the resources at their command that should be used to build an independent workers movement in the workplaces and communities and for building a mass political workers' party in to the pockets of candidates of Wall Street.
Obama's Union supporters say he has been, "a friend to Labor". He has been a friend to Labor leaders that's for sure. But wait. What's this? Maybe AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka makes perhaps the most convincing argument for supporting Obama: he gets to visit the White House, "two or three times a week."
Well that's good enough for me, I'm voting for Obama next year.
* Obama must tap in to Union zeal analysts say 4-09-11
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