WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Issued by the Emergency Labor Network (ELN)
emergencylabor@aol.com

What has labor received in return?

But what about the big battles that labor has waged over the past couple of years? In Wisconsin, Tom Barrett, characterized by Wisconsin trade unionists as anti-labor, won the Democratic primary and immediately promised that if elected, he would retain the austerity takeaways that Walker had imposed on public employees. Meanwhile, Obama took no position in support of the workers.

The second is that each of these battles had significant repercussions going beyond city or state boundaries. Repressive legislation passed on a state or city level opens the door wider for similar legislation being adopted by other governmental entities. Cuts in pay and benefits by both public and private employers also are likely to get replicated elsewhere.

The third is that the escalating attacks against labor in this age of austerity are part and parcel of the strategy to put the burden on the working class and the poor to pay for the debt and deficits, while the rich and powerful laugh all the way to the bank. Meanwhile purchasing power plunges, impoverishing more and more people, while making a bad economy worse.

 

The millions of Black and Latino workers, both male and female across the U.S., suffer the sharpest edge of the attacks on labor and trade union rights and the brunt of the economic crisis. But even though Obama cannot win ─ in what is shaping up to be an extremely close election ─ without organized labor, women, Black and Latino support, he has not reached out to these constituencies with a program that meets their needs. So it is clear that without an independent labor movement, anchored in these most oppressed sectors of the U.S. working class, labor will not be in the strongest position to effectively pressure Obama for crucial progressive reforms if he should win re-election, or to fight the devastating plans of the right wing Republican agenda directed against us if Romney/Ryan take the election.

 

What Next?

 

The challenge now is to give life to those words and build that independent labor movement without delay. For starters, it would be big step forward for labor to run independent candidates for office at the local or even the congressional level. Labor can also utilize the referendum in some states to rescind repressive legislation, as was done so successfully in Ohio in 2011. And for states whose laws or constitutions do not permit initiatives or referenda, how about campaigns to make the needed changes so that the people can use these instruments of democracy and make the ultimate decisions regarding which laws govern their lives?

Issued by the Emergency Labor Network (ELN)

For more information write emergencylabor@aol.com or P.O. Box 21004, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 216-736-4715 or visit our website at www.laborfightback.org.

 

 

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