LIUNA Local passes message of support for Standing Rock

Facts For Working People shares the following statement of support from a union for the Standing Rock fighters.  The union member raised this issue in her local union and it was voted on and approved. While it is important for individual union activists to support the struggle in North Dakota it is crucial that we take this issue up in the workplaces and the union hall. Messages have more strength when they come from our local organization.

What is as important even if one’s attempts to get a local union to pass a resolution or write a statement in support, loses as vote, is that a debate takes place, positions are taken and the sides have to be heard. This helps workers understand the issues, some will change their mind, some won’t, at least not immediately, but consciousness will be raised and the union and all workers will benefit from it win or lose the argument on the day. A leadership that is opposed to an issue is also forced to openly defend their position rather than avoid debate entirely. Ask your relatives, neighbors and friends if they are in a union and if they are ask them to introduce a message or resolution in support of Standing Rock. You can even help write it.

Thank you sister for your efforts. RM

From Chaous Riddle LIUNA City of Madison local 236

Brothers and sisters in Madison Wisconsin are aware that the City of Madison has passed a resolution to stand in solidarity with Standing Rock against the pipeline. Most also know that one of our alders was arrested there.

I brought it up in my union, LIUNA* local 236 when I got an invite to stand with other unions there. I wrote and introduced the statement below. The membership voted unanimously to stand with Standing Rock against our own organization. They understood that we were going against the LIUNNA International leadership’s position and knew we would feel repercussions from this stance. They then took a vote and unanimously voted to send me as their ambassador with our message of solidarity.

Below is the statement from LIUNA 236 in Madison Wisconsin in solidarity with Standing Rock

A statement by City of Madison LIUNA local 236

We at LIUNA local 236 feel the need to take a stance on the issue. We know many unions are for the pipeline and just as many are against it. Due to how our city is situated between several large bodies of water that is a part of the Mississippi watershed we strive as a whole to keep our lakes clean.

Because of the nature of our job we know that unlike air, water is a closed loop. What we have is all we get. Our lakes provide untold amounts of recreation along with what comes out of our taps. It must remain clean. The city government has worked with the indigenous tribes here to try and preserve their heritage. As a diversified group we also understand wanting and keeping a heritage. We feel there would be more and better sustainable jobs if we invested in other types of energy that were not fraught with so many accidents. We stand proudly and in solidarity with the city of Madison, her citizens and the people of Standing Rock against the pipeline. After all, this is Madison. 

Thank you City of Madison LIUNA  local 23

At the time I and my union were under the impression that we would not be the only local there however we had a feeling we would be the only LIUNA local.

After I got there I found out it was individuals and not actual locals. I stood up anyhow because my union knew we would be the only LIUNA local. My union wants to do the right thing and what we were hoping for was that other LIUNA locals would follow us. We might be small but we have no fear and that makes us mighty!

Because I am LIUNA I was at first was met with suspicion and hostility. However once they found out why I was there I was received with open arms.

* Laborers International Union of North America 

Wisconsin Recall

Walker has won. The big money has won. I feel for the tens of millions of Wisconsin workers who worked so hard to end the rule of this petty mouthpiece of the billionaires. These workers are heroes and heroines. Thank you.

Who is to blame for Walker winning?  Yes he was able to outspend his opponent ten to one as the big corporations poured in their money. But this is not the reason he won. He did so because the union leaders gave away the position before the battle even began. They agreed to the concessions on wages and conditions and union rights Walker was demanding and all they were asking for was a seat at the table so they could have a hand in making these concessions. This is what they were asking their members and the anti Walker forces to fight for, so they could have a seat at the table to give away wages and conditions and union rights. This is a scandal. A complete abdication of leadership. These union leaders have forfeited their right to lead.

Then they tied all to the Democratic Party. Another capitalist party which is different from the Republicans only in degree. It too wants to solve the problems of the US economy on the backs of US workers. It too wants to cut wages, conditions and rights of working people. These union leaders mobilized tens of thousands of working people, spent tens of millions of their members money,  to get out votes for and to work for the capitalist Democratic Party. This also is a scandal.

Consider this pathetic statement from Trumpka leader of the American Federation of Labor -Congress of Industrial Organizations:   "We wanted a different outcome, but Wisconsin forced the governor to answer for his efforts to divide the state and punish hard-working people," Trumka said in a statement Tuesday night. "Their resolve has inspired a nation to follow their lead and stand up for the values of hard work, unity, and decency that we believe in. We hope Scott Walker heard Wisconsin: Nobody wants divisive policies. It’s time to work together to forge a new path forward. The challenge to solve a generation of economic policies and create an economy that celebrates hard work over a partisan agenda gained momentum today." This as we say is pathetic. It is lying down in front of Walkers re-election. Instead of putting out the call to rebuild and fight back he wants an end to "divisive politics." The corporations will be laughing at him. 

The victory of Walker will embolden the capitalist offensive. But the other side of this is that it will increase their tendency to go to far. On the war on wages and conditions, on the war on jobs,  on the war on women's rights, on attacking peoples rights to vote and removing millions from the voting registrars, on removing elected officials and replacing them with appointed dictators, on whipping up racism, the right in this country are on the offensive. But in their stupid arrogance they are heading towards a precipice. Every progressive step forward in this country was made after set backs which went too far and these then evoked huge explosions from the working class and specially oppressed minorities. The 1930;s and the 1960's are examples. This is what will happen this time also. As Karl Marx said sometimes the revolution needs the whip of the counter revolution.

A new movement is being built in the US. The working class will rise to its feet and rebuild its unions, fill their ranks with new members and for the first time build its own mass political party. This is not a time to be downcast. It is a time to prepare for the future. To build fighting opposition caucuses, caucuses which would oppose the concessionary policies of the union leaders,  to build these in the workplaces, the unions, the communities, the schools and colleges to provide the basis for a new movement of struggle in the country. This to include a mass workers party which would be separate from the capitalist democratic and republican parties and which would instead represent the working class. The capitalists have two parties. the working class needs one of its own.

Sean.

Wisconsin Recall. Union leaders terrible strategy.

It is not clear yet, but at the moment Walker, the extreme right wing Governor of Wisconsin is ahead in most polls for the coming recall election. How can this be given the tens of thousands of people who collected signatures and mobilized in the bitter cold Wisconsin winter? There is of course the money. Walker's big corporation backers have poured over $30 million dollars into his campaign compared to the less than $4 million raised by his opponent. This is no doubt a factor. And it is the one the union leaders will focus on if the recall is defeated. It also shows the corporations and the state know the importance of this recall. They are prepared to try and buy it.

But if the recall is defeated money will not be the main or only factor. The main reason the  extreme right have a chance of winning is because of the policies and strategy of the union leaders. Before the struggle even started the union leaders agreed to the concessions on wages and conditions demanded from the public sector workers by Walker. All they wanted they said was a seat at the table. That is they wanted a seat at the table to give away the workers wages and conditions. Their role and perks and privileges flowing from that role would be protected but the workers wages and conditions and rights would be reduced. This was not a strategy for victory. It was a strategy for demoralization and the leaders self preservation at least in the short term.

Look at what happened to one AFSCME member written about in today's Wall Street Journal. (May 31st). Walker demanded the public sector workers pay more into their pension and health care coverage. These concessions were agreed to by the union leaders. In the case of this one worker they ate up an additional $300 of her monthly salary. This is no small amount. She and her husband had to cut back on a number of fronts. Meanwhile she was paying $18.50 every two weeks to her union dues. For this, as she saw it,  she was getting her wages and benefits cut and conditions worsened.

So what did she conclude? She did not like it but she did it. She quit the union and therefore saved $18.50 every two weeks. She said she was paying the union dues and "getting nothing in return." In fact she was being polite. She was getting less than nothing, she was having her wages and conditions worsened. We do not in any way advocate that people should leave their unions but we have to understand why people do and counter these reasons by fighting to improve workers' lives.

Since the law passed by Walker almost 15 months ago AFSCME Council 24 saw its membership plunge by two thirds to 7,100 from 23,300 last year.  The National Education Association saw its membership fall to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011. This is exactly what we said would be in danger of happening when this battle started. We said that it was madness to give concessions and expect to mobilize the workers movement in a serious way.

The Wisconsin Walker recall fight has some similarities to the PATCO fight where Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers as a way of opening up his corporate offensive against the working class. When the union leaders instead of calling a general or at least a transport general strike and let Reagan get away with this the road was opened to the offensive against the US working class that has lasted over the decades since. This is what the corporations want to repeat with a victory in Wisconsin.

However things are different now. Due to the mood of anger amongst the working class in spite of the union leaders abysmal strategy the recall might still win. Anti union laws were defeated recently in a referendum in Ohio. However even if Walker wins there will be no decades long period where the working class will on the defensive.

On every front, wages, conditions, the right to vote, the war against women and minorities, the corporations and their parties and state are moving aggressively. But they are making a bad mistake. They are overestimating their own power, they are misjudging the balance of power in society. The Occupy movement, mobilizations in Wisconscin and Ohio, the movement to fight the war against women, the movements on housing, the movement in defence of Trayvon Martin and against racism, these all show that a mood of anger is developing. The extreme right of the corporations are trying to deny millions their vote in the coming elections, at the same time they keep two million people in jail and counting. An explosive movement is being prepared in this country.

The great changes came in the USA when the masses took to the streets and the workplaces and in great mass direct action movements forced the corporations and the state to retreat. The 1930's, the 1960's, these are examples of how changes for the better were won.  This is what will happen again. The corporations and their state will keep pushing on until the working class will not take it any more and then a new offensive of the working class will explode on to the streets and workplaces. The timing of this cannot be predicted but such a movement is certain to develop.

This is what lies ahead. Such an offensive and changes for the better could have been won long ago if the union leaders had given a lead. But they will not until their own positions are threatened from a movement from below. While always pointing out the false policies of the union leaders, while explaining that it is their refusal to lead that is the problem, steps must be taken to build opposition united fronts of mass direct action in the workplaces, communities, schools and colleges. These should be built around the demands that not a single concession must be given on wages or conditions. In fact that all of these and all aspects of life for working class peoples' lives must be improved. This is the way to mobilize and build. Not like the union leaders did in Wisconsin, give away the store before the fight had even begun.

Sean.

Wisconsin and Michigan, Gingrich and Romney, US capitalism mired in crisis

Lets not let the Democrats coopt this. Build a party for working people

The Wall Street Journal reported that in the last two months there were 30,000 volunteers, working from 44 offices with 100 paid staff collecting the 1.3 million signatures to recall Governor Walker. This is a serious movement.  Socialists have to be careful not to think we can put conditions on such a movement or not participate in it unless it adopts our demands. In my opinion we unreservedly support and get involved in the recall movement and this will then allow us to take on the Democrats and get a hearing for building a workers party.  If we stand back and say we are only involved on our terms we will be standing very much alone. A defeat for the recall would throw back the movement overall and temporarily disappoint many workers. A victory on the other hand would raise the workers heads higher and encourage them to take on more fights.

Other movements are beginning to develop over further attacks on democratic rights. There is a move afoot on the part of the 1% to bring in what they are calling emergency management bureaucrats to take over cities and remove the city councils and mayors and implement in a dictatorial fashion major cuts, These people have the right to demolish all union contracts. This has been done in a number of Michigan cities. Lansing and Detroit are in the firing line. If these are taken over, half of the African American population of the state would be living under these dictatorships. These emergency management steps sound like where the troika are putting in so called technocrats to run Greece. The good thing is that yesterday there was a march of thousands to the Michigan state governors home, not the state capital, his home to protest. This is an escalation of the fight back.

We have argued that US capitalism is in a terrible crises on all fronts, economic, military and political. This is what we can see here. Politically the bourgeois do not have political parties which can successfully do their job for them. So they put in these emergency management dictators. This will further undermine the capitalists political system. Their political crisis is also seen in the chaos of the Republican nomination debates. They are tearing at each other like wild racist dogs. The robotic multi-millionaire Romney looks to be winning with the racists and sexists yapping at his heels. The Democrats are carrying out the same policies only with incremental differences.

US capitalism is moving more and more to put its own working class on rations. As it does so it faces the Occupy movement, the movements such as in Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine and Michigan, the movement on the docks in Longview on the west coast, the movement against foreclosures and the removal of its dictators abroad.  The class struggle with all its confusions and immaturity is intensifying. It is our challenge to defend this movement from reformism, opportunism and ultra
leftism.
Sean

Over one million signatures to recall Wisconsin's Walker

by Sean
750,000 signatures were needed to start the recall of Wisconsin governor Walker and over 1.3 million have been collected. This is a staggering figure in a couple of months. Not only that. But this has been done by tens of thousands of workers on the ground, rank and file union workers in the main. Chicago television just now showed the most active workers carrying box after box of recall forms into the collecting area and being cheered on and greeted by thousands of workers. The people carrying the boxes were overwhelmingly in their 30's 40's and 50's. And they were just beaming with pleasure and excitement and the feeling of having fought well and won. It was such a pleasure to see these workers proud and triumphant. We (the left) have to draw conclusions from this. Not to say negative things about the recall, not to make all our focus on the Democrats are no good, not to say this is all right but what we need is a general strike. We on the left need to be totally supportive of this movement to recall Walker.

What do we say to this, to get an ear of this movement, to intervene in this movement? I believe that we have to unconditionally support and involve ourselves in the recall movement. Not just pay lip service to the recall effort. But unconditionally stand and verbally stand and work for Walker's recall. It will be a victory against the extreme right if he is recalled. It will be a defeat for the left and workers movement if he defeats the recall.
Having made clear our total support for the recall movement then we will get an echo for question of what should take his place. The Democrats are lining up just automatically presuming that it is one of them. We have to strongly stand against this. This is where we can get the ear of just about everybody involved but in particular the most advanced and thinking workers. This is where we raise the need to have no illusions in the Democrats but the need to build our own party a workers party. I feel that being too dismissive of the recall movement, of putting the main emphasis on the Democrats are just as bad, or putting our main emphasis on a general strike will not get the ear of either the most advanced and thinking workers or the mass of the workers. i am inclined to think that either of these approaches by the left would be ultra left and would make it very difficult for us to connect with and influence the mass movement. It is extremely positive that tens of thousands of Wisconsin workers, (the Wall Street Journal estimates that 30,000, were involved actively in collecting these signatures. This along with the 100,000 who marched against Walker last year is a huge movement. This movement has collected 1.3 million signatures to recall Walker who is the puppet of the Koch brothers and extreme right wing corporations. We have to make sure we are heard to to say that is is a very positive development.

Governor Walker gets "mike checked" at 1% banquet

Wisconsin Supreme Court tells public workers: No raises for you.

This is what happens when working people fail to rely on our own strength and our own ability to defend and expand our economic and political rights.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned the ruling by a lower court that held up the implementation of the anti-Union anti-worker law in Wisconsin.

These judges, representatives of capital, have determined that workers can only bargain over wages and that raises will be limited to the rate of inflation unless voters approve larger increases says the Wall Street Journal.  Could you imagine the whining about communism and class war if profits were limited to the rate of inflation and could only increase through a vote of the public.  By legalizing this, the Supreme Court is saying that an increase in wages is only possible by voter approval because a raise equal to the inflation rate is not a raise at all. It is not even keeping even as it implies because the bosses determine the inflation rate in a way that is favorable to them and you've already spent that money by the time your COLA increase kicks in.

So Wisconsin public employees will now be required to contribute 5.8% of their salaries to their pensions and 12.6% of their health care premiums (gotta pay for those bombs). The employers are feeling very confident that their offensive against workers and our rights cannot be stopped as they have so far been given a free pass from the hierarchy that sits atop organized Labor.

The Union hierarchy diverted the show of strength that occurred in Wisconsin earlier in the year in to electoral activity, wasting time, resources and money in an effort to elect Democrats in to office to replace their Republican colleagues rather than confront the bosses in the streets, workplaces and schools through mass direct action and linking up all sectors of the working class under assault.  There is nothing more terrifying for the Labor tops than a victory and a resurgent conscious and militant rank and file as their privileged positions, jobs for life, obscene salaries and perks would immediately come under scrutiny and become a thing of the past.  But even this is secondary.  The main reason they refuse to mobilize the power we saw emerging in Wisconsin in to a real movement that could bring the US economy to a halt and throw back this offensive of capital, is that they see no alternative to capitalism.

The strategists of organized Labor accept the market and worship the laws of the system.  They accept that the boss has the right to make profit and own the workplace and what comes out of it.  They are wedded to this philosophy, the same  world view as the boss, so to challenge it would lead to catastrophe, to chaos-------workers have to sacrifice, have to do with less, have to compete with workers abroad earning peanuts---this is the only solution and the inevitable result of their way of looking at the world. Without an alternative to capitalism, no one is exempt from doing exactly what the present leaders of the workers' movement do.

The Wisconsin events were but another opportunity lost for the US working class.  There have been many such opportunities and there will be more.  The failure for these to materialize in to a generalized struggle out of which a mass movement arises and out of that an independent mass workers party, means that the way forward will be more difficult than it need have been, that workers have suffered  and will suffer more than necessary.  The main reason for the delay of such a movement is the role of the heads of organized Labor who have in one way or another suppressed such a development.  This combination of the Labor leadership and business through the Democratic Party infiltrates any potential independent  movement of the working class in order to temper it.  After the Seattle events, the Labor bureaucracy sent an army of trendy staffers in to the youth movement to direct it in to more harmless activity that is acceptable to the Democrats.

But there is cause for optimism as there have been powerful movements that have arisen throughout the world and here in the US.  The objective situation is the most favorable in decades in the aftermath of the present economic crisis.  We had the magnificent May Day strike of immigrant workers in 2006 and while it was to be expected the Democrats and the Catholic church would make every effort to co-opt and benefit from it, great lessons are learned through struggle; the same with Wisconsin and the youth and student movement that arose in response to the attacks on education. What is certain, and what history confirms in my opinion, is that the working class will fight---it will struggle to resolve the crisis and challenges we face.  These great upheavals may begin outside the organized working class given the stifling hold the bureaucracy has on the apparatus; maybe not, we cannot predict these things.

But we have faced harder times than this and at some point the dam will burst, the obstacle of our won leadership, or lack of it, will be overcome and our rich and militant tradition will emerge from the slumber its been in for a while.

Wisconsin judge halts anti-worker bill on the basis of process, not content.

Left: For a pdf of the issue of Facts For Working People on the Wisconsin events send your e mail to: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com

A circuit judge in Wisconsin has issued an injunction barring the bill passed by the Wisconsin state legislature eliminating collective bargaining rights for Unions from going in to effect.

Naturally, the heads of organized Labor are thrilled with this as their entire strategy in this issue is to defeat this attack on workers right to negotiate hours, wages and working  conditions in the courts and electorally.  The movement that arose in the streets has been derailed and diverted in to the Democratic Party.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, had this to say: "What we’ve seen in Wisconsin from the beginning is an arrogant disregard for the voices of working people. Today’s decision underscores the point that when people’s rights are blithely violated, our politics is broken."
But the decision to bar implementation of the bill was not because it is a blatant attack on workers' right to representation.  The content and intent of the bill is not in question. The judge halted its implementation because of process.  Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi struck down the bill because she claims it violates the state of Wisconsin's "open meetings law."

This law requires a 24 hour notice before moving such a bill through committee.  In event of emergencies this rule can be negated and only two hours notice given but the judge determined that this standard was not met.  The judge wrote in her decision: "The legislature and its committees are bound to comply with the open meetings law by their own choice. Having made that choice they cannot now shield themselves from the provisions that give the law force and effect."

This is a victory of sorts of course, but in the longer term it is a defeat. Instead of workers relying on our own strength and our own independent organization.  Trumka by his uncritical support of the process continues to foster illusions in a political system and a political party that is inherently anti-worker.  What could have been the  birth of a mass movement of a national character with a strategy of mass direct action against the cuts launching an offensive of our own and out of which an independent political alternative to the two capitalist parties could have arisen, has become a strategy of electoral work in order to get Democrats in to office and relying on the courts to save us.

As we have explained on this blog many times before, the elimination of collective bargaining rights (and dues checkoff) therefore a seat at the table is of the utmost importance to the Labor hierarchy as it directly affects their role as negotiators.  Dues checkoff also affects revenue which is important to the Democrats as they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of worker's dues money for their election campaigns. Eliminating dues checkoff would mean the Labor officials would have to work to collect revenue as opposed to have the employers do it for them (this would also bring them in to close contact with the average dues payer, a scary thought) and make it harder for the Democrats to get their hands on this cash. Concessions on wages, working conditions and benefits have never been a point of contention between the employers and the Labor hierarchy.

The bosses are relentless in the pursuit of their goals, the driving back of wages, rights and benefits that existed before the great social movements of the 1930's and 50's. They are emboldened by the cooperation of the Labor hierarchy through their policy of the Team Concept on the job and an unholy alliance with the Democrats in the political sphere.

This gives their offensive steam and the containing of the Wisconsin movement within parameters favorable to them adds to it.  The attacks will not cease and while the movement has ebbed from earlier highs we would be foolish not to recognize the anger that exists beneath the surface of society and the potential for explosions ahead.

First recall petition to be filed in Madison today after workers work for free for the Democrats to get signatures. Nothing to worry about now, all will be well.

The workers of Wisconsin and the US have nothing to worry about now, Wisconsin Democrats will file the first recall petition today.  Democrats claim to have enough signatures required to file a petition to recall Dan Kapanke, one of the Republicans that voted for the bill that restricts collective bargaining rights.

What a boon for the Democrats those sneaky buggers.  They lost in the election and now have a bunch of eager volunteers helping them overturn the results.  The Democratic Party never sent a "single paid canvasser" to the District said a spokesperson for the party.  The Democratic Party candidate Barak Obama received millions of dollars from Goldman Sachs in the 2008 electoral cycle. What a deal, the party of Wall Street has workers working  for it for free. 

Now there's a one month waiting period while they check the authenticity of the signatures and the politician being recalled can challenge the figures. Democrats are very happy about this I'm sure.  Along with the Republicans the concessions they want from working people are a given, not even questioned during the protests while they might get a chance to get their politican in through the back door due to an overconfident move by their colleagues in the other wing of the Wall Street party, the Republocrats.

It's hard to imagine really, thousands of workers protesting in the streets, workers whose living standards are about to be savaged with no opposition from the Democrats, Republicans or the heads of organized Labor and the only  issues on the table are one, the right of the union hierarchy to have a seat/voice at the table so they can facilitate the destruction of workers living standards and cut back on social services. And two, tDues check off, where the employers will still collect the dues money that the rank and file member pays to their organizations through deductions in their paychecks so the Union officials don't have to do it and can be freed up to.......er....can be freed up to.......can be freed up.

Union leaders concede defeat. This must be rejected. Not another PATCO. Victory can be achieved.

Workers in action in Wisconsin. Similar anti union laws are being pushed in over twenty other states.

NOT ANOTHER PATCO

The union leaders have conceded defeat in Wisconsin. They try to hide this by talk of winning some war which they do not specify. But it seems to relate to getting Democrats elected. These are the same Democrats who have carried on the employers' offensive, just as the Republicans have.

We reject that the movement in Wisconsin and the other twenty plus states is defeated. We stand for victory. And here is the way this can be achieved. First of all make the issues clear.

The issues:

# The rich and the corporations are richer than ever before. They have been looting the economy for decades. It is they who must make the concessions to solve the budget deficits. Not a single concession from the working class or the middle class, public sector or private sector. We have been hurt too much already.

#Recognize the significance of Madison. If this anti-union law is allowed to stand this will be a new PATCO. That is, it will be a major defeat for the working class; it will be a new turning point. It will open up a new period of increased attacks on us all. We have to be clear. Defeat in Madison is not acceptable. It will be another PATCO.

Action to be taken:

#Victory can be won. The first step to achieve this is to explain the issues above and mobilize on them. Every union local should discuss these issues, then take action, move resolutions etc, to have them discussed at their Labor councils, then from their Labor councils to the state federations and to the international's and to the AFL-CIO. Mobilize the movement as a whole to reject defeat and achieve victory.

#Set the movement in motion for mass direct action, strikes, general strikes, occupations, no more business as usual, the employers must see that their system will not be allowed to work if they keep on with their attacks. Millions of workers can be mobilized into action if this approach is taken.

#An open and decisive break with the capitalist party the Democrats. The mobilized movement should withdraw any money and support for this employers' party and instead as it acts on the steps explained above it should set up a mass working peoples' political party to represent our interests. The employers' have two parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. We working class people must have one of our own.

#The left and radical movement has a role to play also. We must link with the union rank and file and form "No More PATCO Committees," the role of these would be to bring together all the forces that reject defeat and go for victory as explained above. And the resources of these committees to be orientated to the rank and file of the union movement and to the communities to mobilize these broader forces into action.

#No More PATCOS: For Victory in Madison and everywhere we are under attack.

#Throw back the employers' offensive. Move onto an offensive of our own.

Please copy and forward as widely as possible, please try and set up the "Not another Patco" committees in your workplace or Union.

Contact us if you want to work with us to make these ideas a reality.

Wisconsin: the public sector's PATCO, but all workers are the victims as the Labor leaders capitulate again.

Wisconsin's governor, eliminating 50 years of workers' rights

This is what professor Harley Shaiken, a "Labor expert", says about the Wisconsin events:
"Autoworkers sat down to win collective bargaining rights during a cold Flint, Mich., winter in February 1937. For the past few weeks, 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators have been sitting in motel rooms in Illinois to preserve those rights for public workers."

Damn, I sure wish I went to university, it would have learned me something.

This is what too much education does for you.  He compares Democrats who opportunistically holed up in Illinois in order to maintain the link to the money and footsoldiers that organized Labor's leaders provides them, to workers who occupied a GM factory in Flint for 44 days, fought pitched battles with cops and built a union at a corporation that owned countries. When threatened with the troops they refused to come out and made it clear their deaths were on the governor's hands.  How dare Shaiken insult these men and women comparing them to the opportunistic politicians of the millionaires who, by the way, are willingly handing over our living standards to Wall Street.

Half a million workers occupied factories and workplaces and this so-called Labor expert, the Labor bureaucracy's "go to" academic compares these politicians of a Wall Street political party to them.  He even talks of the great cooperation between auto workers and auto bosses in making them profitable again.  In auto, wages, benefits and work rules have been savaged.  Wages were cut in half.  A secure job and a decent pension gone.  Shaiken is a Labor expert alright, a capitalist academic who writes about Labor issues from a capitalist point of view. He is used to give the Labor  bureaucracy intellectual credibility, that's his role.  He is an ideological enemy of working class people.

The Democrats were forced by events on the ground, by the swell of opposition from workers, to take the position they did.  But there is another reason.  The CEO's that Michael Moore and the Labor officials (many of them millionaires themselves) argue the Republicans are representing, are also represented by the Democrats.  The bosses are very fortunate, they have two parties, or more accurately, one party with two wings to it.  The actions of the Democrats are also designed to weaken the likelihood of the call for independent Labor and working people's candidates coming out of such an unprecedented movement.  This is why they have taken actions that portray them, with backing from academics like Shaiken, as champions of our cause.

"But the fight in Wisconsin isn't over - Democrats and unions are already filing lawsuits against the proposal and recall actions against GOP senators who approved it." says the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel. "It's just the beginning," the JS quotes Democrat Bob Jauch as saying. "This is the civil rights issue of this century."

This is the nail in the coffin.  Relying on the courts has done nothing to stop the employers from savaging the wages, benefits and working conditions of American workers.  The future generations have been abandoned not only by the politicians of the two capitalist parties but also by the heads of organized Labor through their pro-market, pro capitalist policies exemplified by the Team Concept. The courts never built Unions, the courts never ended Jim Crow laws in America's Apartheid South, and the courts won't stop this assault.  The courts are not there to protect workers rights but to protect employers' rights.

The top Labor leadership and their friends in the Democratic Party are about to orchestrate another PATCO.  In 1981, PATCO, the Union that represented air traffic controllers went on strike. Two days later, that thug and B movie actor President Ronald Reagan with a Democratic controlled Congress, fired 11000 of them and banned them for working in that industry for life.  Their leaders were on TV in handcuffs being carted off to jail.

This was a full frontal attack on American workers and our Unions.  As of 2006 only 846 of the 11,000 controllers were allowed back on the job.  The AFL-CIO and its moribund leader, Lane Kirkland did nothing, to their eternal shame.  The cowardice of the heads of organized Labor gave the bosses the green light and they went on the offensive more aggressively.  Why not?  Strikes in transportation, meatpacking, the newspaper industry, were all defeated as the heads of the AFL-CIO yawned, threatened lawsuits and told us to elect Democrats.  My former Union, AFSCME, provided 40,000 volunteers for the Democrat Mondale in his failed presidential campaign; the public sector was doing well then . After the defeat of the Hormel strike in Austen Minnesota through a powerful combination of the meatpacking bosses and the UFCW/AFL-CIO, the wages in that industry plummeted.

If the movement that has arisen in Wisconsin and other states is allowed to fizzle through the Labor leadership dragging it from the streets to the courts and in to that black hole we call the Democratic Party.  If we do not build on the independent power of working people in our communities and on the job, link our struggles to those of the youth, immigrants, people of color and all victims of the free market, this will not only become the public sector's PATCO.  It will be for the employers the culmination of years of attacks on working people since PATCO.  An offensive that faced  no resistance from the Labor officialdom and in most cases was carried out with their cooperation. It will be a defeat of historic proportions as it comes on the heels of a similar onslaught on our brothers and sisters in auto.

The heads of organized Labor have already conceded defeat. "We may have lost the battle in Wisconsin, but it's galvanized us to win the war." an e mail from the Alameda (CA) Central Labor Council  said yesterday.  The Labor leadership have thrown in the towel again without a fight, filing a lawsuit is not a fight; it is capitulation.  We are witnessing yet another betrayal, by a combination of the Democrats and our own leaders, and we must fight to stop it.

Wisconsin. It must not be the Air Traffic Controllers moment.

When Reagan fired the air traffic controllers he set the offensive against the working class into a higher gear. The union leaders whined about it but let him do it. Thus was set in motion the past decades of the capitalist offensive against the working class. The passing of this bill in Wisconsin has the potential to be the new air traffic controllers moment. If it is not stopped then the class struggle will be stepped up, the capitalists will increase their offensive into a new more vicious phase.

The union leaders have the same choice now as they had at the time of the air traffic controllers. They can stop this bill and this capitalist offensive or they can as they are doing continue to whine about how bad it is and let it stand. If they do the latter they will face years and the workers will face years of increased attacks.

The time is here. The Union leaders must organize in the workplaces and the unions and the communities around the program we have been putting forward. They must link this to mass direct action leading up to general strikes and days of action. They must break from their Team Concept approach and break from the Democrats and build a working peoples' party.

Unless they take these steps there is a real danger that Wisconsin can become the new air traffic controllers. The union leaders must stop whining and organize and act. And the left and radical movement must get over its left sectarianism and ultra leftism and organize in the working class movement.

Sean.

National and Wisconsin State Labor officials are upset the Republicans are shredding "50 years of Labor Peace". What Labor Peace are they talking about?

Amid a movement of hundreds of thousands of workers, some never before active in any political event, never mind their own Union. the strategists atop the AFL-CIO make their position clear:

"Scott Walker and the Republicans' ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable, and their willingness to shred 50 years of labor peace, bipartisanship and Wisconsin's democratic process to pass a bill that 74 percent of Wisconsinites oppose is beyond reprehensible."

You have to think about this statement from the national AFL-CIO and leaders in Wisconsin for a moment. They are upset because the bosses are "shredding 50 years of Labor peace."  What Labor peace are they talking about? There has not been Labor peace, there has been an ongoing war against Labor, all workers, unionized or not, and there always will be; it has gone on with the tacit support of these very same Labor leaders. What is happening is that this war has intensified and become more brutal.

The Labor peace they are referring to is their peaceful existence in the face of this brutal offensive against workers and Unions.  Their arrogance and contempt for working people and their own members is completely revealed in such a statement that they can make it as workers wages, benefits, pensions, workplace protections and the lives of future generations have been destroyed as they enjoyed this historic period of Labor peace "for them". It didn't just start in Wisconsin. Michael Moore can be irritating for me at times but he said on the Rachel Maddow show last night that "We should never have crossed those picket lines; those planes shouldn't have been flown." referring to the PATCO Air Traffic Controllers strike in 1981 when the thug Reagan fired all of them for life and the AFL-CIO leadership did nothing. Moore left that out, that they did nothing but we cannot ignore their role, it's not a personal issue.

There is never Labor peace in capitalist society; there's "relative" Labor peace perhaps. But the war never stops, as I said the other day, the bosses and their mouthpieces in the mass media only call it "Class Warfare" when we fight back. 

They have had Labor peace at the expense of their members and all workers who have suffered due to their class collaboration basically. I am having to contain my anger here.  I have been in Detroit, Kokomo, Chicago, and met auto workers who have had their lives torn apart, their incomes and benefits savaged by the bosses and the heads of organized Labor talk about "Labor peace".   Here are some more results of the "Labor Piece" strategy: Greyhound strikes (two) defeated.  Hormel Strike: defeated.  Eastern Airlines strike: defeated. Staley strike: defeated. Pittston miners strike: defeated.  California grocery workers strike in 2003: defeated. That's what the AFL-CIO's leadership's strategy of Labor peace has meant for workers and the heroic participants of those struggles on the ground. A Piece of Labor is more accurate. In fact, a few pieces, that's what the bosses have been doing, dismantling organized Labor, workers rights and living standards as the Labor hierarchy sat and watched, and in many cases assisted them. Now they might lose their social positions, their reason for existing and their worried.

“Tonight, Scott Walker and his cronies in the Senate Republicans turned our proud state of Wisconsin into a banana republic.” Marty Beil Executive Director (what a name for a Union official, Executive Director) of the Wisconsin State Employees Union said of last night's vote. This is the general line of the AFL-CIO, this is about a seat at the table and nothing else.

From the AFL-CIO"
 "Beil sharply criticized Walker and Republicans for destroying 50 years of labor peace, bipartisan cooperation, and Wisconsin democracy. He also encouraged Wisconsinites to channel their energies into peaceful demonstration and adherence to the democratic process—namely the recall of 8 Republican Senators who blindly stood with Scott Walker and his rapidly-sinking ship."

This is the strategy, recall the Republicans and get the Democrats in who will at least talk to the Labor leaders as they strip public sector workers of wages, benefits, working conditions and pensions.

The message about Wisconsin from AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka I received this morning in California is clear: "Now their true motive--paying back CEO campaign donors by stealing workers' rights to bargain for a middle-class life--is exposed for all to see.  Tell your CA lawmakers: Don't try this in my state. Attacks on collective bargaining will not stand. Politicians who ignore the will of the people will pay the price at the ballot box."

Is there one worker out there that didn't know the employers were after us?  You can see by Trumka's phrasing that it is his seat at the table he is worried about.  He has no qualms about giving them our benefits and pensions to chop up as they see fit. He has no problem with eliminating work rules that protect us on the job but make the boss "less" competitive because it might slow down production. His friends in the Democratic Party, also recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars from CEO's and the corporations will allow him a seat at the table as they savage our living standards as Jerry Brown is doing here in California, attacking the poor, disabled and the elderly in particular.

He makes it clear what the AFL-CIO's position is.  He threatens the Republicans that they will "pay the price" at the ballot box. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when George wanted to get out of a promise of marriage he'd made.  He asked for a prenuptial in the hopes she would be so disgusted and offended she'd break it off. "Go ahead" she says, "I've got more money than you, I'll sign anything you want."

Trumka can "Go ahead" the employers and CEO's (the guys that were at Obama's inauguration for example) will say to each other in private.  The Democrats will get in, the cuts will stay on the table, the Labor hierarchy will be happy they still have a reason to exist, and hopefully the workers will go away.

They will be right on almost all points except the last one. What to do with all those people. The "Labor peace" they talk about comes at the expense of workers' rights, living standards for those of us working and for future generations.  To have Labor peace, the  Labor hierarchy refuses to explain how the bosses use racism and sexism as a divide and rule tactic in their war against all workers but with catastrophic consequences for women, people of color, undocumented workers and the poorest of us especially our children.

We all want a peaceful world. But not at the expense of a decent and secure life and a clean environment. And that's what the AFL-CIO's call for Labor peace means.  Peace between the Labor Hierarchy and those who want to take from us the rewards of a few centuries of struggle.

Not a single cut in wages, benefits, spending, conditions.

Every contract to be signed to contain increases for the workers covered and for spending in services.

For a $15.00 an hour minimum wage or a $5.00 an hour increase whichever is the greater.

For a guaranteed job for all through a public works program and reducing the length of the working week with no loss in pay.

For free education and free health care for all at the point of use.

For an end to all wars and occupations and a reduction in military spending.

For a campaign to explain how the employers and their class have used and still use racism and sexism to divide and rule the working class movement and to oppose this.

For the election of all union leaders subject to recall at any time, their wages to be the same as the average wage of their members and all their expenses to be made available to all their members.

For the building of a working peoples party as an alternative to the bosses parties the Republicans and Democrats.

For the movement to have at its center a discussion on the nature of the capitalist system and what the alternatives are. In the case of our blog we see the alternative as a Democratic Socialist Society in the US and on a world scale.

Madison firefighters president supports general strike call

The events that are taking place in Madison Wisconsin are inspiring.  It just shows how movements change consciousness.  I have received calls and questions form people who have made friendly (and not so friendly) fun of me in the past for talking too much about politics and the Union.  My wife gets asked by co-workers what her old man is doing. "Is he in Madison?" "What does he think will happen?"  Now I seem to have become the "go to" guy on this for some people. Workers around the country are watching Madison, seeing what will happen.  Will they bring in the guard?  Will the workers win or will the movement be crushed?

I just got off the phone with Ann Habel, a shop steward from in AFSCME local 171. We have known each other a long time and she was very instrumental in the production of an opposition rank and file AFSCME newsletter I was also involved in producing in the 1990's.

Talking with her or her partner Mark has been a way I have been able to get a sense of the excitement and mood on the ground.  She described this morning how everyone there is talking about a general strike in one way or another. "Every body's all over the place" she says.  Apparently, the leadership of the Madison and Milwaukee teachers' Unions have told their members to stay at work today but there is a mass rally planned for Saturday.  She didn't know whether the teachers were going to comply or not.

"This thing is so spontaneous, so seat of the pants"  Ann tells me

"What about the leadership of AFSCME" I ask?

"One thing that's incredible about this" she says, "Is that there seems to be no leadership, they're sort of missing in action" She added, "They seem to hunkering down in denial."

I told her, and we agreed, that I thought that the bosses might have pushed too far here, rousing the ranks to the point where the normally cooperative Labor bureaucracy will have to do something.  The problem is that the idea of a general strike is so frightening to them; the idea of a victory is so frightening to them.

We have explained before that it is the view of this blog that a victory undermines the Union leadership's arguments that they have made for years that we can't win, that concessions have to be made. They have suppressed every movement from below, cooperated with the employers in one way or another to crush any strike or rebellion that threatened this world view of theirs.

But movements can get out of the control of those whose aim it is to direct them in to more passive and less challenging channels.  One thing is certain, things cannot remain at a stalemate forever but regardless of the immediate outcome, the struggle taking place in Wisconsin and in state Capital's around the country will educate and radicalize a new layer of workers in preparation for the next round.

More on the big picture.

The battles in Madison and elsewhere have to be fought on the basis of the big picture. That is the developments in the overall economy and the situations facing the different classes in society must be taken into account. The Wall Street Journal today had a small piece entitled "sharing the wealth," which helps in doing this.

It explained that from 2009 to the end of 2010 "output per hour at US non farm businesses has risen by 5.2%. as companies get more out of their staffs." That is they admit that the 5.2% increase in economic growth comes from the increased efforts of workers. It then it goes on to admit: "Most of that gain has gone to shareholders as record profits: companies have shared only 6% of productivity gains with their workers," according to Labor department data. That compares with 58% since records began in 1947 and is the least workers have gotten in a recovery since the early 1980's."

Put it bluntly. Workers have been working much harder and producing much more but being given a much lesser share of this increased production. Profits have soared and as the Wall Street Journal says the country, that is the corporations are "awash with cash." This reality, this attack on workers living standards, this looting of the economy by the employers, these relate directly to federal and state deficits and must be brought into any debate and struggle on these issues. Not a single concession must be made by workers to solve any deficits, it is the employers and their class who have been pocketing the gains of the economic growth and been paying less and less as a share of taxes, see yesterdays blog, it is the employers and their class who must make the concessions to end the deficits. 

Union leader Trumka on Wisconsin. Why the possibility of an all out victory in Wisconsin frightens the union leaders.

Tens of thousands of workers oppose employers offensive in Wisconsin. Greatest movement of US workers on union issues since 1930's.

Explain the big picture. Our movement is under attack from the employers' offensive. We must make no concessions. The alternative? The employers and their class make the concessions. And we go on to the offensive.

This blog has been arguing that the working people of this country and especially the workers involved in the struggle in Wisconsin and similar struggles throughout the country have to conduct the struggle taking into account and explaining the big picture. The majority of the union leaders have been conducting the struggle on the narrow issue of the right to collective bargaining. Basically they say that if the public sector workers are allowed to collective bargain they will give up even more concessions than they already have. This is an approach which weakens the struggle and if continued with will lead the struggle to defeat. To strengthen the struggle and to lead it to victory we need to look at things in their totality, as we say we have to see and explain the big picture.

Since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and the union leaders allowed him get away with this the employers have been on an offensive against the working class. Wages, benefits, conditions, rights, rates of work, have all been under attack. The most recent front on this assault, this offensive war against the working class is against the public sector workers. This is what we are seeing in Wisconsin and round the country, the most recent phase of the capitalist offensive against the working class.

How do we approach this situation. There is one way not to approach and that is to say to the employers if you allow us to negotiate we will make even more concessions than we have already made. In other words we will cooperate even more with your offensive against us. This preserve the jobs and role of the union leaders in their capacity as negotiators but it is a recipe for defeat. I see that Richard Trumka head of the AFL-CIO has an article in the Wall Street Journal today. He correctly points out that corporate profits have reached an annualized level of $1.7 trillion. This is the highest since statistics were kept 60 years ago. And we are supposed to believe that the only way to deal with the deficits is by attacking public sector workers. Trumka also pointed out that Wall Street bonuses averaged $128,000 in 2010 which was more than six times the average pension of a retired public sector worker in Wisconsin. Mr. Trumka could have gone on to state many more realities which show that the situation is not what the employers and their mouth pieces make out in their propaganda.

The amount of tax paid by the rich has gone down dramatically as a percentage of total tax revenue. See the graph in yesterday's post on this blog. We also explain there the cost of the wars in the Middle East which are being fought in the interest of the owners of the oil and gas companies. No matter what way you look at it the rich and the corporations have been making more profits and paying less taxes over the past years. This is the reason for the deficits and also this is part of the offensive of capitalism against the working class. This is the big picture. The struggle in Wisconsin and the struggles elsewhere must be fought by explaining this big picture. Make the rich and the corporations pay, they must make the concessions. This approach will allow these struggles to mobilize the overwhelming majority of people in the country who have been left out of the profits bonanza generated by the growth of the past years.

Richard Trumka made a few half points but he did not state any opposition to his and his organization's continued policy of the workers making more concessions if only the union leaders are allowed to participate in the negotiations on these concessions. We have to be frank here. It is insane to conduct a major campaign to demand the right to negotiate if the idea is, and this is the idea of the union leaders, when we do negotiate we make concessions. It is hard to think what could be more demoralizing to the movement if this is to take place. Just give us our right to sit at the table and we will give you what you want.

Richard Trumka and the trade union leaders tend to see themselves as brokers between the employers and the working class. Their whole emphasis in this struggle is to make a deal and as the employers are not prepared to make a deal where they make concessions then the trade union leaders see the ending of the struggle to be the workers and unions making concession. Again to be frank. This is a disgrace. The union leaders cannot see themselves as operating in any way as outside the existing capitalist system. They cannot see the working class building an alternative to capitalism. So they see themselves as responsible to fit the workers movement into the demands of the capitalist system, to "educate" their members to see that they must make deals that the employers agree to.

The demands of the capitalist system over the past forty years have been to cut the living standards of the working class. The union leaders have gone along with this and explained to their members there was no alternative. They have also crushed any alternative voice in the union movement which said there was an alternative, and this was to fight and oppose the employers offensive. Let us look at the implications of this. The union leaders have based themselves on the idea that concessions have had to be made. They have based themselves on the idea that victories could not be won by the workers. They have crushed all voices which have said that victories could be won. On this basis the union leaders have maintained their control over the union movement. Think about this.

What happens if we have a great victory, if the working class movement has a huge victory, for example that in Wisconsin we win the right to organize but also in the negotiations that follow we win increased wages and benefits and make the rich and the corporations pay for any deficit. This would be brilliant. And you would be right if you are looking at it from the rank and file workers' point of view. But think about it a bit more and this time from the union leaders point of view. Such a victory would completely undermine the total arguments, propaganda and actions of the union leaders for the past forty years. They have been saying no such victories were possible and their members had to make concessions and they have been crushing all who said this was not correct. But a major victory would show that it was this argument and position of the union leaders which was not correct. The result would be to severely undermine the ideas and positions and control of the trade union leaders. This  has to be kept in mind.

Consciously or not the majority of the trade union leaders neither believe nor want a major and absolutely clear cut victory in Wisconsin or in the other battle grounds throughout the country. As activists in the movement we have to be clear on this. The conclusion we have to draw is that while explaining the weakness of the arguments and approach of the trade union leaders and calling on them to change, we must not allow them to evade their responsibility to lead, but at the same time we have to be realistic and see what the union leaders will do and will not do, we have to see their role. This means that  as rank and file and activists in the movement we have to build caucuses in the workplaces, the union locals and at all levels in the unions and these to be based on an offensive strategy. That is based on recognizing the capitalist offensive against us and having as our target the defeat of this employer's offensive, the halting and throwing back of this offensive and the opening up of an offensive of our own, a working class offensive to make the employers and their class pay for the crisis of their system.

These caucuses should among other things base themselves on the following program;

Not a single cut in wages, benefits, spending, conditions. This to be a principle of these caucuses.

No contract be signed in which there are any concessions.

Every contract to be signed to contain increases for the workers covered and for spending in services.

For a $15.00 an hour minimum wage or a $5.00 an hour increase whichever is the greater.

For a guaranteed job for all through a public works program and reducing the length of the working week with no loss in pay.

For free education and free health care for all at the point of use.

For an end to all wars and occupations and a reduction in military spending.

For a campaign to explain how the employers and their class have used and still use racism and sexism to divide and rule the working class movement and to oppose this.

For the election of all union leaders subject to recall at any time, their wages to be the same as the average wage of their members and all their expenses to be made available to all their members.

For the building of a working peoples party as an alternative to the bosses parties the Republicans and Democrats.

For the movement to have at its center a discussion on the nature of the capitalist system and what the alternatives are. In the case of our blog we see the alternative as a Democratic Socialist Society in the US and on a world scale.

Sean.

The big picture

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Iraq Veteran's (IVAW) talk to the crowd in the state capital rotunda in Madison Wisconsin

Support the Initiative for a General Strike in Wisconsin

This is a very good resolution but it would have been important to add some demands to a call for a general strike. The danger is that we will be seen as we are already by the vast majority of workers not in Unions that we are only fighting for our "narrow interests" as they will be inconvenienced by it. That said, it is a very good resolution nevertheless.


Support the Initiative for a General Strike in Wisconsin – and Prepare for Nationally-Coordinated Solidarity Job Actions
Resolution of Letter Carriers Union Branch 214
Adopted unanimously March 2, 2011 in San Francisco, California

Whereas, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s Koch brothers-funded and Wall Street-inspired attempt to destroy Wisconsin’s public workers’ unions is the highly strategic opening battle in a war to destroy both the public and private sector of the U.S. labor movement; and

Whereas, resistance that the workers and students have mounted to the union-busting attack has in a short time breathed new life into the workers' movement in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and across the  country; and

Whereas, there must be no illusions about the determination of the forces committed to crushing labor that are behind Gov. Walker, and much more must be done if Wisconsin workers and all workers are to prevail in this most critical battle facing working people in generations; and

Whereas, Gov. Scott Walker and the billionaires behind him must know in no uncertain terms that if they persist in their outrageous  efforts to destroy the labor movement, that they will bring upon themselves the kind of  massive, popular uprising of workers' power that this country hasn’t seen since the 1930s; and

Whereas, if the people of Egypt were ready to put their very lives on the line in their fight for freedom, then certainly the labor movement in the U.S. must be ready to demonstrate that it is prepared to put it all on the line in defense of the very elementary right of workers to have a union, and in defense of the right of the labor movement to survive; and

Whereas, the South Central Federation of Labor of Wisconsin (AFL-CIO) voted on Feb. 21, 2011 to “endorse a general strike” if the union busting bill is passed by the Wisconsin legislature and signed into law. The motion ordered that strike preparations begin immediately, asking the Education Committee to “immediately begin educating affiliates and members on the organization and function of a general strike.”

Therefore be it Resolved, that Golden Gate Branch 214 of the Letter Carriers Union calls upon organized labor everywhere and at every level to officially support the initiative of Wisconsin's South Central Federation of Labor to endorse a general strike if the union busting bill is passed; and

Be it further Resolved, that we call on organized labor to commit all concrete solidarity support necessary to ensure the success of a general strike; and

Be it further Resolved, that we call on organized labor to approve, and prepare to initiate nationally-coordinated job actions in solidarity with a general strike in Wisconsin; and

Be it finally Resolved, that this resolution be submitted to Bay Area labor councils, California State Association of Letter Carriers, the NALC, and California Labor Federation, with which we are affiliated, for concurrence and action.


Resolution adopted unanimously 03/02/2011 in  San Francisco ,  California , by the membership meeting of Golden Gate Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, representing some 2,300 Postal Service letter carriers in the  San Francisco   Bay  Area.

March and Rally in Madison tomorrow