Labor struggle in Wisconsin, Ohio: Are workers being sold out again?
Ohio's Governor John Kasich (R) remains prominent in the charge against workers' interests everywhere.
The popular uprisings in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt and Tunisia, and later Bahrain (where all-out force has been employed to put down the revolt with the assist of the medieval Saudi mafia), Yemen, Algeria, and even Syria, have shown that the people’s cause is ill-served by a lack of effective, well-coordinated leadership. At home, the complacent politics of American syndicalist leaders have often resulted in a type of “business unionism” (an apt term) that inevitably results in the short-changing of the working people’s interests and outright collaboration with the corporate power structure and its various political instruments, especially the treacherous Democratic Party. Below we offer a roundup of analysis and opinion on the topic, from diverse voices spanning the liberal-left / hard left spectrum.
Sellout Of Working Class In Wisconsin
By “Gary” | April 2nd, 2011 It seems to me that the American labor movement is trying to defend itself by turning to the legal system and depending on the Democratic Party. This seems to be the case in both Wisconsin and Ohio. The Democrats are a weak crutch to depend upon. The Democrats do not depend on labor for most of its funds. Labor provides foot soldiers to do the campaign leg work for the Democratic Party. Otherwise they are an insignificant factor in Democratic policy making and get short shrift in the long term political maneuverings of the Democrats. Don’t get me wrong, short shrift with the Democrats is better than getting shit on by the Republicans, but it is still no great bargain. Below we see the liberal Democratic approach taken by the Workers Independent News and The Nation and a more radical one taken by the World Socialists where class interests are highlighted with union bureaucrats coming out smelling like sellouts.
This has led some ultra leftist friends of mine to take an entirely anti-union position, seeing them as impediments to the workers struggle for self management and a social revolution. I take a position in between, I believe in the need for unions, but fighting unions without entrenched bureaucrats, more along the lines of the IWW, although I have problems with them also, mostly that they have become more of a social club than a union. But at least they have a structure that precludes the development of a gangster like hierarchy as the Teamsters famously developed in the days of Jimmy Hoffa.
However workers organize, it is key that they do not let themselves be sold out by leaderships more interested in feathering their own nests, or on the other hand exhaust themselves in lost causes. Most workers are smart enough to know the difference, even if many so called leaders, are not.
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From Workers Independent News
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By Doug Cunningham
http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1394805
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From World Socialist Website
Behind the sellout of the struggle in Wisconsin
By Tom Eley | 25 March 2011
In other words, the union executives are moving swiftly to protect their own financial sustenance, while imposing draconian pay and benefit cuts inspired by the Walker bill. These include a sharp increase in worker contributions to insurance and retirement contributions, which amounts to a $4,000 cut in annual take home pay for the average public employee.
This reveals the fundamentally opposed interests of workers, on the one side, and the union apparatus and entire political establishment on the other.
A partial analysis of union financial filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor demonstrates the class chasm separating workers-who earn an average $51,000 a year-from the union officials who purport to represent them.
In reviewing the figures one should keep in mind that the listed salaries are augmented by thousands, if not tens of thousands, more in expense accountants, perks, salaries of spouses and other family members also on the union payroll and compensation from other positions on union, corporate or government bodies.
* Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Employees Union (WPEU), took home nearly $162,000 in 2008, the last year for which documents are available. At least five other WPEU executives made upwards of $100,000.
* The state American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees management boasts 19 members who made more than $100,000 in 2009, including chief executive Rick Badger, who made $133,000.
* Gerald McEntee, the national president of AFSCME pocketed almost $480,000 in 2009, according the Center for Public Integrity.
This layer of the well-heeled upper middle class and wealthy individuals constitutes a major component of the Democratic Party, which is itself carrying out enormous cuts to the pay and benefits of public sector workers at the federal level under Obama and in states like Illinois, California, and New York.
To draw the point out more clearly, it is necessary to briefly review what took place in Wisconsin.
Instead of calling forward the massive working class opposition that existed, the unions began a mad rush to impose all the financial concessions Walker was demanding-and more-before the law went into effect. This period has been extended by the temporary restraining order on the law put in place by a Dane County judge.
Why have the unions rushed through the concessions demanded by the Walker bill after the bitter struggle in Madison, and even before the law goes into effect?
This underscores the fact that workers are not just pitted against Walker and the Republicans, but the unions and the Democrats.
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From The Nation
John Nichols | March 17, 2011
Wisconsin Republican state Senators, fresh from passing draconian anti-labor and privatization legislation, jetted into Washington, DC, Wednesday night to collect tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from the one constituency group that approves of what Governor Scott Walker and his GOP allies are doing: corporate lobbyists.
Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was more blunt:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159289/wisconsin-senators-sell-out-corporate-interests-dc-crowds-pick-chant-recall
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Workers Independent News
Is A Statewide Referendum Next Stage In Battle Over Ohio Collective Bargaining Rights?- 04/01/11 3/31/2011
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