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Main points discussed: Build support for Duluth Labor Group call to open the AFL-CIO AIFLD Files and The need to organize democratic fighting unions to end the epidemic of sexual abuse and discrimination. (read earlier reports here)
A number of topics were covered on the FFWP Conference Call on November 11th. The two most discussed were the Duluth Labor Body resolution to open the AFL-CIO Files and the recent political developments in the US, especially the slap that was delivered to Trump and Trumpism by the mid week elections. Part of this has been the explosive stepping forward of women, and in some cases men and boys, to name and expose the men in positions of power who have abused them. Weinberg, Spacey, Moore and on and on.
On the Duluth Labor Body’s resolution that that the AFL-CIO open its AIFLD files, a number of points were made that had been made on the previous conference call, but it was felt it was important to go over them again. The resolution to open these files is important and comes at a time when it can have a major affect.
There is a mood worldwide and in the USA to open up files, documents and see that their contents are shared, open them on way or another. The recent Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers are an example of this. The world economy is in bad shape. The majority of people’s lives in the capitalist world are getting worse; as we write, a new study claims that 1% of the world’s population have half the world’s wealth. The political parties and the heads of organized labor are showing no way out.
The result is increased frustration and anger. And from this, people in all sorts of institutions are demanding access to what is going on and in many cases taking unofficial action to see that such information is shared. There is also the new technology, which facilitates accessing such information’s by hacking and other means. It is against this background that the demand is being raised for opening the AFL-CIO, AIFLD Files. The timing is very good.
Most workers and union members do not see how to effectively take on the bosses’ offensive because the union leaders will not lead. In fact, the union leaders actually prevent workers from taking effective action. The last thing they want is victorious strikes as these would demolish their arguments that concessions have to be made; that we cannot win. Any significant victory would embolden workers, would inspire workers to fight for more, to go on the offensive. This would have repercussions not just within organized labor but the entire working class.This would derail their entire strategy of so-called “controlled retreat”, in reality full scale fleeing from the field of battles of the last decades. Victories would also threaten their own leadership in the union movement, their own positions and privileges. This is where this resolution comes in.
At this point, a major movement of organized labor’s ranks has not yet emerged to breach the obstacle of their own leadership and launch an offensive of their own. It seems such a daunting task confronting both the bosses and their own leaders and they don’t see a way to effectively win this battle.
However many trade union members and workers in general will think it is very reasonable, and it is very reasonable, to open these files. All the AFL-CIO leaders have to do is lift the phone and authorize the archivists at the University of Maryland where the files are stored and give the go ahead for them to be made public. Of course, these leaders will only do this is if they are pressed from below. This is what we seek to help accomplish on our weekly FFWP conference calls. We seek organize, to reach out and make contact with as many people as possible to ask them to make contact with many more people and move resolutions to union locals, union bodies, workplaces, colleges, schools and all left activist groups to call on the AFL-CIO leaders to allow the opening of the files. To organize petitions etc. And send all these to the leadership of the AFL-CIO.
Our Conference call concluded that the proposal to open the files would get support if the work is put in and Facts For Working People intends, with its resources which includes our blog and connections we have built over the years in the trade union and socialist movement, to put in the work that our resources allow.
FFWP Conference Calls have also concluded that this initiative could open up other possibilities. If the Files are opened we have no doubt they will show collusion between a section (or possibly all) of the AFL-CIO leadership and the agencies of the US corporations such as the CIA in suppressing radical combative and even just genuine democratic trade unions in other countries. If this is shown it will open other doors. If this has been the role of the union leaders internationally what has been their role at home? It has been the same in this sense: It will prove that they have been working with the bosses and corporations against any combative movement of the US working class. If this is the case, and we are confident that it is, it will open up divisions in the trade union leadership and apparatus. And this in turn will inspire sections of the union membership and the working class as a whole to take action on other issues. They will see an opening.
The numerous strikes that took place in the 1980’s and early nineties that began to take on a national character, PATCO, Hormel, Greyhound, Eastern Airlines, Pittston Decatur and others were all defeated we know, due to the failed policies of the trade union hierarchy. But what collaboration and sabotage occurred behind the scenes?
So Facts For Working People, our Think Tank/conference calls has decided to allot some of its resources, our Blog etc. to be part of this effort. Hopefully enough people will get involved, enough union bodies and working people will get involved, so that a coordinating body for this work can be set up and an organized campaign set in motion. It would be good if any and all resolutions moved and or passed, any petitions signed, if all this information was forwarded to the Duluth Minnesota Central Labor Body at Laborworld@questoffice.net and forwarded also to the FFWP Blog at we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com, where it can be shared. We have created a page to store this information so anyone interested can access it. If you are interested in helping with this and want to come on this Saturday's conference call where it will be the first item on the agenda, contact us at the e mail here, it's also on the right of the blog.
FFWP Blog hopes that enough resources will develop to allow a real coordinating body to be set up to run this campaign. We do not have the resources to do this work. We also believe that this should be a democratic coordinating committee that should guide and organize this work.
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| Download this Duluth Labor Body Publication here. |
The conclusion that FFWP has drawn that in the past some of us were much too unconditional when trying to see what events lay ahead was emphasized again. As the Irish poet said: “Things Fall Apart. The Center Cannot Hold”. It is not possible to be too precise either in tempo or in form as to how this falling apart will unfold.
FFWP believes there should be a genuine democratic campaign based on just two points:
(1) Open the AFL-CIO AIFLD Files.
(2) Take this call to the rank and file of the unions, the workplaces, the schools and the colleges. Only by building a movement from the bottom up will the AFL-CIO leaders be forced to open the files.
The other main topic on the Conference Call was the recent political developments where the Republicans who were seen as supporters of Trump were defeated in race after race. You would need to have blood of stone not to rejoice when seeing the transgender candidate defeat the self proclaimed Number one homophobe in Virginia. FFWP has always said that Trump and company are the whip of the counter-revolution and that at times when there was no fighting mass leadership it was unfortunate but at such times a new movement could only develop when it felt the lash of this whip. Trump and his Republican backers and enablers and on the economic foreign policy and de-regulating front, the Democrats, constitute this whip also.
In the recent elections in particular but also in the exposure after exposure of rapists and sexual predators and pedophiles such as Moore, Spacey, Weinstein etc., there is the rising of the women. The women and all who have been abused are now speaking out. On every FFWP conference call since they began, we have had as a main item on the agenda the need to fight against the special oppression of women and the developments on this front both in the US and internationally. (See previous notes on conference calls here) We have been trying to ensure that we do not make the mistakes of the left in general where insufficient attention has been paid to this special oppression. In our discussion on this issue a number of points were made. One was the staggering completeness of the black out of news and discussion on one particular point and the most important point in relation to ending the special oppression, sexual abuse and exploitation.
Every faction of the mass capitalist and liberal media and it has to be said the left outlets as well which speak of the need to end this abuse, puts forward the one ‘solution’. This is that this issue must be talked about. This issue must be brought out for all to see. The abusers must be exposed. It is 100% correct that this must be done. Full support must be given to this. The exposure of the abusers is increasingly happening due to the provocation of the Trump fueled vicious anti-women atmosphere. Trump riding out the Hollywood tape exposure where he boasted of assaulting women and getting away with it has emboldened the backward reactionary elements. But it has also done something else. It has evoked a rage amongst women, and also some men, a rage, a determination that something has to be done.
So we have courageous woman after courageous woman speaking out. We see this with the case of the degenerate predator and racist, Moore in Alabama. This is inspiring. These women who are speaking out against Moore, all women who are speaking out, and in some cases men and boys also, must be recognized for the heroines and heroes that they are. In Moore’s case it should be noted that the women taking the stand are not celebrity women like those in Hollywood. Of course it is very commendable that the Hollywood women are speaking out also, but in Moore’s case these are working class women without the power and access to publicity and money for expensive lawyers to the same degree. This wave of women standing up and saying enough is enough, I am speaking out, “Me Too”, Squeal on the Pig, as it is known in France, is taking place in many countries in the world. A shift in mass consciousness is taking place.
We support 100% the call to talk openly about this social epidemic of sexual abuse but it should not stop there as a mere conversation piece for tabloids and the mass media. The issue is one of power. Who has the power in society and in the workplace? Either the bosses, the rich, the famous have the power or the working class has the power. What is left out of every news article, every news program, and every talk show is this: The need for workers in the workplace to organize into democratic militant unions to fight for power in the workplace and against the special oppression.
One recent report about staffers in Congress and the harassment they suffer in that workplace makes this very clear. 1,500 staffers recently signed a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate urging that this leadership, these bosses, put in place mandatory sexual harassment training. Understanding the hopelessness of their letter appealing to the harassers and their colleagues who cover for them, the 1,500 staffers explained their action by saying that they “have no idea where to go when they experienced harassment”. This is exactly the point. If the staffers were organized in their own union, with their own democratically elected leadership and with the ability to strike if necessary they could draw up their demands, present them to their employers and fight for their demands and for a contract which they could enforce by militant action. The same is true for all workers. To fight harassment and special oppression it is necessary to organize into democratic fighting unions. The movie Thelma and Louise was very popular with women as it portrayed woman as tough and not putting up with the crap women have to deal with but they didn’t respond by organizing, they committed suicide. This was no accident, it was consciously thought through.
There has never been a time when such organizing has been more possible. Women have moved into the paid workforce more than ever before. Women, men transgender, gay, straight all are mixed together in the workplaces more than ever before. FFWP conference call committed itself to use its resources to try to get the word out that in this uprising of the women and all specially oppressed groups against special oppression and abuse, every effort must be made to organize into fighting democratic unions. Women in the media and celebrity women dominate this discussion. The solution these women and their bosses see for themselves is to get a lawyer who will fight their case. This is not the solution for working class women. The solution for working class women and all specially oppressed groups is to organize into democratic fighting unions.
The owners of the mass media, the owners of most major corporations, see that they have to take some action against the harassment and abuse. The paid workforce is now so diverse that they have to act. But they are desperate to make sure that the idea of organizing into democratic fighting unions does not in any way enter into this movement that is taking place, into this discussion that is taking place, into this change in consciousness that is taking place. This you see would cut into their profits. The gender wage gap for union members is half that for non-union members. Women in unions make on average $200 per week more than women not in unions. This is what the bosses see and why they use all their propaganda machine, the media, political parties and the pulpit in most cases, to prevent any talk of organizing in unions to be part of this rising of the women, workers in general and all oppressed groups.
This reality must be recognized and every time we watch a news program or read an article on this
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| Union contract clause on Discrimination and harassment |
FFWP conference call again turned its attention to the union leadership. Here we have the rising of women and all people oppressed for their gender or sexual orientation and where are the union leaders and the 14 million strong movement they dominate? Where were they on the women’s marches? Absent. They refused to organize their members as a body, their 14 plus million members to take on the main organizing of the women’s marches. The living standards and working conditions of their own members are being driven backwards. There should have been waves of union banners and union women and men present. This would have altered the class content of the event and influenced the demands
And today when women and all oppressed minorities are rising up they are again absent. They should be mobilizing all the resources of the unions to explain how organizing in the workplaces is crucial to this battle, they should be mobilizing their forces to organize the tens of millions of women who are demanding change. The strategy should be to unite them with their members whose conditions of life are declining, men and women, all genders and ethnic groups together in the struggle for a decent life.
They should be recognizing that it is the lowest paid women who suffer the most, who have the least power, who are least able to throw back the abusers. And these are the majority of women. It is an utter disgrace that the top union leaders will not lead on this. It is a combination of complete lack of imagination of what is possible and a real fear that if they went out and organized millions of new members, especially women members, demands would be placed on them that they are unwilling to fight for and that they will be accused by the employers of being “unrealistic”. Women would naturally demand changes not only in how they are treated but also demand increases in wages and benefits and child care facilities and free health – the lot. People will demand what they need not what is acceptable to the employers or their friends in the Democratic Party.
We have to add here the AFL-CIO leadership’s criminal betrayal of the Native American people who faced a civil war in North Dakota defending their land and the environment on behalf of all of us. Sections of the AFL-CIO leadership openly opposed this struggle. Others supported it but very mildly.
The many struggles and campaigns that are arising terrify the AFL-CIO leadership as the thought of a major strike victory does as they are going along with the bosses’, the capitalist system’s demands that living standards must be cut. Such a new movement into unions would also threaten the privileges of the leaders of the unions. This would never do!
While pointing out and fighting against the concessionary policies of the union leaders, FFWP conference call agreed that rank and file movements must be built. Like the Duluth Labor Body has led on the issue of the opening of the AIFLD Files, local labor bodies, union locals, spontaneously set up groups in the workplaces, can be set up and can take the lead on this issue. March on the women’s marches on the demonstrations against the oppression with your union local’s banner, if you are not in a union make up a banner identifying your workplace, and march behind that, and from the march, demonstration whatever, march straight on down to the local union hall and demand to be signed up and elect your local leaders there and then. This is the way to do it. Fight sexism, fight sexual abuse by organizing into democratic fighting unions.
There was a brief discussion on identity politics. It was agreed that the fight against all special oppressions had to be fought at all times. It was also agreed that while important gains could be made on these fronts such as was the case with the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and the women’s rights movement of that period that these special oppressions were inseparable from capitalism and capitalism had to be fought as part of these fights. It was also agreed that the working class could not be united and could not defeat the bosses and build a new society unless the working class movement aggressively fought against the special oppression marginalized groups face, fought racism, sexism discrimination against the disabled etc. It is in the interest of the working class to fight on these issues as it is in the interest of the movements which focus on these issues to be part of and fight united as part of the working class.
Time ran put and there was little time for further discussion.
It was pointed out that FFWP conference Calls have been emphasizing that US imperialism is in an economic, military, political and environmental crisis. There was no time to discuss this but an article in the New York Times from Bret Stephens on November 11th was partially along the same lines. He wrote: “Low growth became the norm for the better part of a decade. We fight wars we don’t know how to win and rue the consequences of action (Iraq) and inaction (Syria) alike. We inhabit a culture we despise and see no way of improving. Congress is paralyzed. The parties are broken. The President is a dolt.” He left out the coming world recession or slump and forgot the small detail of the catastrophe of climate change. But for a journalist blinded by his capitalist loyalties he is stumbling in this direction.
It was mentioned that we should keep in mind two factors that would have a huge affect on the world situation and world consciousness in the period ahead. The timing of these events cannot be predicted.
One is the new world wide economic recession that will hit, perhaps a world slump. This will wipe the grin of the faces of the smug arrogant capitalist classes and their mouthpieces. It will also convince tens and tens of millions of workers that action has to be taken, not for them, but by them. A new era will open up.
The other major event that will come about is that we will see huge spontaneous movements of the working class as a class. France 1968 was mentioned when 10 million workers spontaneously occupied their workplaces, colleges and schools and elected workers’ committees to run these places of work and study. The statement by the “Council for Maintaining of the Occupations” Paris July 1968 was read out on the FFWP Conference Call. It stated: “The Workers’ Councils are manifestly the only solution, since all other forms of revolutionary struggle have ended in the opposite of what they wanted”. There will be such movements in the years ahead as the working class begins to recover from the bruisings and confusions of the last few decades. Class controlled and ran that city for five days. They can be easily found on the Internet.
We advise workers to read the minutes of the workers committee that ran the Seattle General Strike in 1919 when the working class controlled the city for five days: “ In other cases, workers acted on their own initiative to create new institutions. Milk wagon drivers, after being denied the right by their employers to keep certain dairies open, established a distribution system of 35 neighborhood milk stations. A system of food distribution was also established, which throughout the strike committee distributed as many as 30,000 meals each day. Strikers paid twenty-five cents per meal, and the general public paid thirty-five cents. Beef stew, spaghetti, bread, and coffee were offered on an all-you-can-eat basis”
Explosive events lie ahead. However in this regard the Conference Call repeated its belief that a nuclear war between the US and North Korea was extremely unlikely. It was also mentioned but there was no time to discuss that Trump was getting into deeper and deeper water and shocks in that area were also very likely. The attacks on him at the weekend by Brennan and Clapper were not insignificant. The view that was shared in the past that we were at the beginning of the fragmenting of the two capitalist party monopoly in the US was stated again. It was also mentioned that great shocks are inherent in the world situation, such as from the affects of climate change, nuclear wars or incidents where crazed groups might get their hands on nuclear weapons.
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