Oakland City Council has numerous former left wing activists on it, Maoists, ex Union officials and the like. Oakland is no different to any other City Council in that the council members are dutifully carrying out the directives of the capitalist class whose interests they represent. They are waging war on the city's workers and public services. As is standard procedure, they are aided in these attacks by the leadership of the city's main Unions, SEIU Local 21, the International Association Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, and Firefighters Local 55.
Jean Quan, Oakland's mayor wants $28 million in concessions from the city's Unions and she has a lot of help from Union officials. The Union leadership have agreed to reduce the compensation of their members by 9% and Jeff, Levin, Local 21 Vice President eagerly wants ratification from the council as well as his members as he is proud that his members' concessions would "save about $4 million a year form the general fund and $5 million elsewhere" the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The council will not be a problem but there is always a chance that the members might reject such concessions which will mean that the bosses and the Union officials will have to work a little harder to jam it down their throats. The pay cuts are not simply monetary reductions. The city will shut down some days and there will be the usual floating unpaid days that are popular now throughout the country and a freeze on step increases.
This criminal class collaboration on the part of the trade Union officials doesn't just affect their members but the working class as a whole, especially the poor. It's disgusting to read their remarks, straight from the politicians' manual on how address their victims. Levin whines about how difficult this will be for his members but being the realistic Labor official that he is he recognizes "the situation the city is in." He is "concerned" he says, about "preserving jobs and services for the community". It's almost surreal. The Union hierarchy collaborates with the bosses to destroy jobs, benefits, and social services that have been won over generations then claims they are preserving them.
The firefighters will also reduce their pay 9% and you have to gasp at this; they currently get 7 to 13 annual vacation days and will give two of them up. This is staggering, seven days a year vacation? Eighteen of Oakland's 25 fire stations will experience some sort of temporary closure because of the cuts.
The mentality of the Union hierarchy is exemplified by their eagerness to serve the interests of capital. Chuck Garcia, president of the firefighters' Union informs us that he knows this is not an "easy thing" but the cuts are "better than the alternative" he says. The only alternative, he explains, is to go to arbitration but "if we go to arbitration we most likely lose our ass".
 |
| Downtown Oakland 1946 |
But this blatant betrayal of working people is not simply a betrayal of the organized working class. In fact, even with the severity of these attacks it is not the organized working class, particularly the public sector, that is most harmed. The Union hierarchy's love affair with capitalism has catastrophic consequences for the unorganized and the poor. Education, libraries, fire stations, transportation, this doesn't simply mean no jobs for future generations as they come under the ax; it means entire communities are deprived of basic services that are already inadequate. The future for the youth is sealed
The role that these Labor officials are playing is nothing less than criminal.
Before I retired I was very active in a public sector Union in Oakland. I was a rank and file member of the negotiating team a few times, the last being 1997. There were a few of us in the leadership or active over the years in that local AFSCME Local 444, the blue collar local at the local water district. We had a strategy that was always aimed not just at drawing our own members in to activity and linking our struggle with the rest of the organized Labor movement. Our method was always to raise demands that would help us build links in the community in which we worked; we always oriented to the working class as a whole.
We always explained that no single Union local can win and this is more the case now than back then.
In many Union locals facing cuts today, there are left wing activists of one sort of another who end up carrying out the very same policies that they claimed to oppose when they ran for office.
What is Local 21 VP Jeff Levin talking about when he says that he recognizes the situation the city is in"? The city in question is in the United States and it appears there is no shortage of money in the United States. The federal reserve has flooded the economy with some $2 trillion in the last couple of years and we can add another trillion or so to that with the original bailout when the taxpayer saved capitalism from the abyss by bailing out the banks. Then there is the money the US is spending on it's predatory wars. Just today, the US senate agreed to back Obama's third war in Libya "against Gaddafi's forces" which, if my memory serves me correctly began as a no fly zone resolution to protect civilians.
In the serious journals of capitalism it is clear that they are "awash" with cash to use one of their favorite terms. The corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in cash. Just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal points out that, "Businesses aren't hiring" and that banks are "hoarding cash". "The trouble is not the lack of capital" Business Week quotes one of their mouthpieces of the free market as saying, "Its a lack of capitalism". The problem is that they are not convinced that they can make money, that they can accumulate more capital if they play the game; their game, making money without working. They are also concerned about further controls or regulation on capital in the aftermath of the financial collapse.
So there's no shortage of money if someone' hoarding it; we simply have to go after it. We have explained on this blog in earlier posts that we cannot avoid this issue. That we have to challenge their right to own capital and their right to allocate it. There is no end in sight; the collapse which began with the collapse of a section of the mortgage industry has ushered in a new era. They are intent on driving us back to conditions that existed prior to the 1930's. As the blog piece from the retired UAW worker explained, some UAW members start at $7 an hour.
As Union leaders like those above and their counterparts in Wisconsin and other states join with the bosses in cutting public services and jobs, conditions continue to deteriorate for working people and the poorest of us. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that US consumers have more mortgage, credit card and auto debt than they did a decade ago. More mortgage debt is outstanding today than five years ago, almost $10 trillion according to JP Morgan. More Americans have been forced to buy food, pay doctors bills and all sorts of other necessities with credit cards. Home ownership has declined as millions have lost their homes (their homes were actually stolen from them as they're not lost) and 23% of present home mortgages are under water.
There is a complete absence of any alternative in US society. There is no counter to the ideology of the bosses that there is no money in society and we all have to tighten our belts and "share the pain". Share the pain is a popular one as we are all very fair here in the US, everybody is equal which means when things go bad we must all "equally" sacrifice. It is no wonder that more and more Americans pay no attention to mainstream politics as a Field poll revealed yesterday.
Most Americans know this is bull of course. The result of it though is that people see no way out which is why resistance will tend to be more explosive, confused and violent when it breaks more seriously in to the open.
But as we have said repeatedly, we have to challenge their right to govern society. We have to reject not only their system but their political parties. The building of a mass workers party, an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans is crucial if we are to succeed.
We have to challenge their ownership of the means by which we produce the necessities of life and as well as the ownership and allocation of the wealth our Labor creates---of capital. Every battle is important and every small victory a step forward but we cannot win without generalizing our struggle and that means our movement has to be international.
2 comments:
I'm not particularly fond of the concept of relying on another political party. It should be clear by now that parties are not the answer. The working class already possesses the means through which we can achieve our goals, lets teach them how to use it.
well perhaps you could explain it in general terms here Benjamin. How have we learned that parties are not the answer? And the answer to what? The overthrow of capitalism? What do you mean "teach them how to use it"
Post a Comment