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| Nurses in Chicago from AFL-CIO |
The AFL-CIO shares some comments made from protesters, “I’m proud of everyone who got arrested tonight,”, Paulina Jasczuk told the Associated Press, the AFl-CIO reports. "She hoped they would inspire more demonstrators to join in the movement in the weeks ahead" she added according to the AFL-CIO. Getting even bolder, the AFL-CIO report tells us that the marchers on Saturday were chanting such treasonous slogans as "No war but the class war" and "This is what democracy looks like." Heavens!
The AFL-CIO got most of its information it seems for the Washington Post that reported on the event and that protesters were "taken away one by one and handcuffed with white plastic ties." Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO president has pledged the Union movement's support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. But what does this mean, some porta potty's? Some food and bits of clothing? A fine speech? The leadership of the official trade Union movement have also (with exceptions where they actually undermined a strike by cooperating with the employers) "pledged" their support for every defeated strike over the last 30 years. The fact that this "support" has failed to win victories, or even prevent the decline in wages and benefits of their own members must surely call in to question the nature of this support and whether or not it is support at all.
The Chicago Federation of Labor has some half million members in over 300 affiliated Unions. The mobilizing of this membership around a platform of demands that actually respond to the needs of working people, joining the OWS and occupiers in Chicago, this is the type of support that will win. And as many of the OWS folks that I have spoken to oppose demands as they do not believe that we should "demand" anything from the politicians of big business but take it, I should clarify something. What we mean by a demand is to demand from society not individuals or bourgeois like Warren Buffet or Mitt Romney. When we raise these things, we are demanding them of the society that we want as an alternative to the present madness that we live in, an economic system that is dysfunctional and hostile to humanity and our environment. Demands are also and organizing tool. Workers will naturally know what are we fighting for, what are they actually joining.
The Chicago arm of the AFL-CIO which has half a million members could, if mobilized and joined with the present OWS movement shut down this major US city and global economic center. This is support. The Chicago Federation of Labor announces proudly on its website that, "Together we defend a middle class of hard working men and women, pursue aggressive legislative and political strategies and help working people remain a highly-skilled, sought-after workforce in the changing economy of the 21st Century."
There goes that "middle class" stuff again. Who are workers then? And these "aggressive and legislative political strategies" fail us and will continue to fail us as they are directed at that other capitalist party, the Democrats. This party doesn't represent our interests. An aggressive political strategy is one that would link these two movements on the ground through direct action policies and in the political arena by running independent candidates rooted in this movement that can eventually develop in to a working people's party independent of Wall Street and capital.
The half million members is the force that should be brought to the Occupy Chicago movement. This is what will back the cops and the bosses down. We realize that the heads of the CFL will not do this without facing massive pressure from below. I notice that Henry Bayer of AFSCME is an official on the CFL. As an AFSCME delegate to many conventions I had occasion to meet Bayer. In response to a resolution for a $12.50 minimum wage that he opposed and I supported he responded that we (meaning the Labor hierarchy like him) "would be laughed out of the halls of Congress." This is very revealing as it shows that for most Labor officials at this level, how the millionaires in Congress view them is what matters; recognition from them is what gives them self worth; their members are just a source of revenue.
An official like Bayer would never consider that the millions of workers earning $8.00 an hour would want to know where the Union hall is so they could sign up. He has the same world view as the boss that is the main thing, and if he did think for a minute that many workers would be drawn in to activity for a demand like that it would terrify him. For the Labor hierarchy, activity among the ranks is discouraged as it inevitiably threatens the relationship they have built with the employers on the need for concessions and Labor peace encapsulated in the Team Concept which every top Labor official supports. This has to be publicly abandoned. I remember meeting Bayer in an elevator afterwards and asking him how much he earned. He was not pleased and never told me, but we know it's a lot more than $12.50 an hour.
Any support from Labor should be welcomed by the OWS movement, including top officials like Bayer. But on what basis is the issue. There is tremendous discontent within the ranks of organized Labor at the present leadership whose policies have failed time and time again with devastating consequences for Union and non Union members alike. While the OWS movement should support any official that offers genuine support the OWS movement should not allow itself to be discouraged or prevented from appealing to the ranks of organized Labor, the millions of workers who pay the dues and who rarely or never attend Union meetings.
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