Facts For Working People supports Cliff Willmeng in his run for Boulder County Commisioner. Below is a letter
brother Willmeng sent to the leadership of the Colorado AFL-CIO. This state
body has chosen to support a Democrat over a union member with a strong track
record of fighting for trade union and workers' rights. Cliff has also been a
leading figure in the efforts against fracking in that state and throughout the
country.
Brother Willmeng is absolutely correct in his scathing
criticism of the role of the leadership of the Colorado State AFL-CIO. The trade
union leadership's disastrous dance of death with the Democratic Party is a
major factor in the destruction of living standards not only of union members
but the working class as a whole. It is this partnership that is a major factor
in the rise of Trump. Had the union officialdom offered an alternative to the
two capitalist parties the balance of class forces in the US would have shifted
dramatically in our favor.
Facts For Working People has been making these same
arguments with regards to the union leadership, stressing that a conflict with
them over policy is inevitable if we want to reverse the present concessionary
climate and elimination of gains made through a hundred years or more of heroic
sacrifice. A
recent article on the left as well as Labor Notes approach in the unions is
here and another on the recent strike
of Crane Operators and other IUOE members is here. Check out the picket
line rules the IUOE leadership demanded the strikers abide by - a recipe for
defeat if there ever was one.
The recent teachers/educators strikes, led to a great
extent by women, have changed the game as far as organized labor is concerned.
Direct action, challenging the official leadership and violating anti-union/worker
laws is what can win. Brother Willmeng's stand and calling for independent
political party of the working class follows in this tradition. Here are
three short videos of three of the leading figures, from West Virginia,
Kentucky and Arizona sharing their experiences in the strikes.
We congratulate Brother Willmeng for his willingness
to openly call out the disgraceful role that the leadership of the AFL-CIO
plays and offering the rank and file union member and the working class in
general a genuine alternative. The leadership's actions in the present climate
are criminal and a complete betrayal of the members who pay the dues and the (often obscene) salaries of the leadership. The leadership's actions are also a complete betrayal of the entire working class.
Campaign Blog
An Open Letter to the Colorado AFL-CIO on Independent
Rank and File Candidates
The following was sent to leaders of the Colorado
AFL-CIO on September, 17th, 2018. The email responds to the body's rejection of
myself as the only union member running for office in Boulder County in favor
of the Democratic Party candidate, a professional politician with no union
history whatsoever. The maneuver demonstrates the political crisis in the
union leadership today, and compelled UFCW Local 7 to withdraw form the body on
the principled ground that unions are required to support union members as an
immediate political priority
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After six months and many
recent events in the Colorado labor movement, I wish to address a few issues
related to the state of the AFL-CIO and my candidacy for Boulder County
Commissioner as a rank and file union member. I will say upfront that the views
expressed here are my own and not the official position of UFCW Local 7,
although I am a job steward and an officer on the Local’s executive board.
Thank you in advance for your time and for you efforts to build power and
strength for working people everywhere.
I will start by saying that
it’s quite clear that the working class of the United States and its leadership
through organized labor are in an existential crisis and have been for the last
50 years. We can discuss the nature of the crisis, how industry and government
have exploited it, how union leadership has responded to it, or any other
details, but its existence is thoroughly documented. This prolonged retreat has
severely affected the living conditions, ambitions, influence, and general
consciousness of working class people, both nationally and internationally. We
union members can’t underestimate its profound repercussions.
As a rank and file union
member originally in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 1
of Chicago, Illinois, and now in UFCW Local 7 as a registered nurse, I’ve done
what I can to help end the unions’ retreat, including workplace organizing, unionization
campaigns, actions, mobilizations, and ongoing outreach to the rank and file of
all unions to strengthen our efforts collectively. Most recently this effort
compelled me to run for local office as a rank and file union member.
I decided to run for Boulder
County Commissioner to address the multiple issues facing working people from
the perspective of a politically independent campaign. Like many other parts of
the country, Boulder County is run by a political class of wealthy, connected
individuals who exploit their positions for careers and influence to advance
their own aims and those of their affiliates. The result: increased power and
wealth for the few and increased economic hardship, racial disparity, and
disenfranchisement for working class people. Community members across Boulder
County asked that I run for Commissioner to address these issues, issues
unaddressed by our current political leadership.
Because of the nature of
Boulder County politics and the dominance of the Democratic Party, I chose to
run as a Green Party candidate. This was a simple decision for me based on my
personal and political experiences with the deeply compromised nature of the
Democratic Party both in Chicago and Colorado. In my 30 years of community and
workplace activism, I’ve seen that any genuine advances for working people
require a fight against the Democratic Party. I can elaborate, but for brevity
I will simply say that here in Boulder County, it is abundantly clear that the
Democratic Party not only offers no answers to the multiple crises of the
working class, it, along with the Republicans, the second Wall Street Party, is
in fact the origin of those crises. Overcoming the negotiated surrender of
workers, communities and the environment will have to come through independent
political actions of everyday people. My campaign is one effort to build that
power, develop ideas, and confront the escalating challenges everyday people
now face.
As a lifelong union member
and advocate, I intended to bring the wider union movement into this pivotal
effort. Because of my years of community organizing, my campaign allows the
banner of union labor to be hoisted into county political life, opening the
door to a new fight for working people.
The current AFL-CIO leadership
thwarted my efforts immediately. Weeks after I submitted the AFL-CIO
questionnaire, Geof Cahoon, President of the Boulder Area Labor Council (BALC),
advised me not to proceed with an endorsement interview. When I questioned him,
he told me that, although he personally wished me to win the race because of
his familiarity with my union activism, the other two members of the committee
would take deep issue with my not running as a Democrat, thereby making the
interview predetermined and unnecessary as the results were already
mathematically concluded. I rejected this advice as a matter of principle and
proceeded to schedule the interview.
The endorsement process lasted six months and was punctuated by ongoing maneuvering from brother Cahoon. He originally claimed he supported my candidacy only to abstain from voting because he “had to remain neutral” as a result of his being President of the Boulder Area Labor Council and also an officer of the Democratic Party. When I informed him that his position as a union leader leaves no question about his role as a promoter of working people, he evaded further discussion. The original vote was 3 in favor of endorsement and 2 opposed, which fell short of the 2/3 majority. Only after questioning did I learn that Geof Cahoon abstained from voting altogether, ensuring the 2/3 majority could not be met.
The whole process was embarrassingly confused and evasive. When confronted about the vote by UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova, the executive board then informed us that it hadn’t been an official vote but rather a “straw poll” requiring a new vote. Then a phone vote was supposed to take place but never happened because of apparent bylaw issues. A final vote took place in July; Cahoon did apparently vote that time. The result was 5 – 2 in favor of endorsing State Senator Matt Jones, a professional politician, over a union member and activist with one of the strongest labor platforms and histories in the state of Colorado.
The endorsement process lasted six months and was punctuated by ongoing maneuvering from brother Cahoon. He originally claimed he supported my candidacy only to abstain from voting because he “had to remain neutral” as a result of his being President of the Boulder Area Labor Council and also an officer of the Democratic Party. When I informed him that his position as a union leader leaves no question about his role as a promoter of working people, he evaded further discussion. The original vote was 3 in favor of endorsement and 2 opposed, which fell short of the 2/3 majority. Only after questioning did I learn that Geof Cahoon abstained from voting altogether, ensuring the 2/3 majority could not be met.
The whole process was embarrassingly confused and evasive. When confronted about the vote by UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova, the executive board then informed us that it hadn’t been an official vote but rather a “straw poll” requiring a new vote. Then a phone vote was supposed to take place but never happened because of apparent bylaw issues. A final vote took place in July; Cahoon did apparently vote that time. The result was 5 – 2 in favor of endorsing State Senator Matt Jones, a professional politician, over a union member and activist with one of the strongest labor platforms and histories in the state of Colorado.
The entire process was clearly bent on producing just one outcome. Now, absurdly, the Boulder Area Labor Council is campaigning against the only union member in the county race. This demonstrates the deep crisis and rudderless leadership union membership suffers under today, not only in Boulder County but throughout Colorado and nationwide. The Democratic Party’s politicized use of our union bodies created 50 years of decline in union power.
My position hasn’t changed. After eight months of campaigning, it’s even more clear to me that major shifts in the current union political patterns are desperately needed. Every day that we reject or evade the hard work of building independent political power for our members and the working class is another day that Wall Street strengthens its hold on the country. We’re in a permanent state of retreat only punctuated by some audacious strike actions by rank and file teachers. Nothing has changed at the top at all.
This pattern has to be broken, and it will take real leadership to do so. People are demanding change like no time in history. Labor can and should lead the charge. We have the power to build a new political party for the 99%, to lead waves of strikes and mass mobilizations, and to turn from the current passive and ingratiating forms of political strategy to build an actual labor movement prepared to defeat the offensive of Wall Street.
I would advise the following
three steps to be implemented immediately following the midterm elections of
2018:
1. An ending of union funding and aid to both the Republican and Democratic Parties and moving these funds aside for eventual use in community and political organizing.
2. A convening of a national
conference of workers and union leaders for the purpose of building an
independent political party of the working class as a whole.
3. Statewide committees
formed to build local political organizational structure for strike support,
electoral campaigns for rank and file workers, legislative actions, and
assistance to community struggles of working class and repressed communities
4. Resolutions advanced in
union locals nationally to support the process of building a mass organization
of the working class to coordinate all these efforts.
These are the ideas that form
the basis of my campaign and which I hope will assist more independent worker
candidates to run for office. I hope these developments can find the leadership
and support necessary to break free of our current downward spiral, and I hope
we can come together on that basis as soon as possible.
Thank you again for your time
and know that I am available for any amount of discussion and conversation as
necessary to honor the ideas and developments described here. Please feel
encouraged to contact me as often and in whatever manner necessary.
In Solidarity,
Cliff Willmeng, RN
303 478 6613
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