[A-List] Labor and the War

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

LABOR AND THE WAR

by Gary Goff
fmlink@xxxxxxx

Organized labor in the United States - with some heroic exceptions - has
traditionally been pro-war and pro-imperialist.  In World War II the AFL
made a no-strike pledge even though it failed to get a no-war profiteering
pledge in exchange.  All through the Cold War the AFL-CIO willingly acted
as an arm of the U.S. State Department sabotaging progressive unions around
the world.  George Meany and labor's other top leaders supported the
American war on Vietnam and aggressively smashed dissent in the ranks

Things are different this time around.  Increasing numbers of unionists are
coming to see an integral connection between the war abroad and the war at
home.

The United Electrical Workers (UE) is the first - and, so far, the only -
national union to take a stand against the war.  But dozens of local unions
are taking similar positions.  As of this writing (early Dec. 2002) unions
representing over 1.5 million workers have publicly declared their
opposition to war on Iraq.

These unions stretch from New York to New Mexico, from Washington state to
Washington, DC.  Some have a few hundred members, while others are giants -
like New York Local 1199/SEIU, which represents 236,000 workers.  Both the
Washington State Labor Council (representing that state's 450,000 AFL-CIO
members) and the San Francisco Labor Council passed resolutions against the
war in August.  Upstate New York central labor councils in Albany,
Rochester, and Troy have also gone on record against the war.

Critic Marc Cooper writes in The Nation (12/9/02) that "the bulk" of these
anti-war activists are "white-collar, mostly intellectual workers."  That's
highly questionable.  Most of the UE's members are blue-collar workers.
The same is true of 1199's quarter million members.  And one has to assume
that a number of union members in Washington state, San Francisco, and
upstate New York are blue-collar as well.  Unions representing postal
workers, typographers, taxi drivers, longshoremen, carpenters, and painters
have all come out against the war.  When the Boston group Labor for Justice
and Peace recently discussed printing anti-war/pro-union bumper stickers,
local construction workers asked that they make stickers for their hard
hats as well.

Thousands of workers are mobilizing against the war regardless of their
unions' positions.  They come from anti-war unions, pro-war unions like the
AFT, and unions that have no position at all.  Labor anti-war groups are
active in New York City, San Francisco, Albany, Detroit, Boston, Seattle,
Washington DC, and Portland OR.  Workers are also forming anti-war groups
within specific unions.  These groups often have a dual purpose -
mobilizing rank-and-file workers and getting the unions themselves to
formally oppose the war.

These days there is less money around to buy labor's support for empire.
And with union density dropping, there is less need to do so.  Both
globalization and neoliberalism make attacks on labor an essential part of
the war at home.  Bush has repeatedly invoked national security to break
strikes.  Under the Homeland Security Act, thousands of federal workers are
losing their union rights.  Thousands of Immigrant workers, traditionally a
pro-union bloc, are being detained and deported by the government.
Thousands more have been fired from their unionized jobs in airports and
replaced by American-born non-union workers.  And it's clear that Bush
wants to crush the ILWU, the West Coast dockworkers' union, just as Reagan
crushed PATCO, the air traffic controllers' union.  Most unions' anti-war
resolutions recognize the connection between the war abroad and attacks on
American workers at home.

Organized labor has much to recommend it as an important part of the
antiwar movement.  It's large - the AFL-CIO has about 13 million members.
It's nationwide.  It's organized.  A relatively high percentage of union
members are women.  And labor is multinational in a way that is unique in
our society.

Further, labor is in a position to see the unity of the war at home and the
war abroad.  Its participation in the anti-war struggle brings the question
of class to the fore.  This is vitally important .  Until we address class,
our analysis will be limited to treating imperialism as a policy rather
than an economic system.  Without this class analysis the anti-war movement
will not develop into a genuinely anti-imperialist force, but will remain
essentially reactive.



********************SIDEBAR #1*************************************

INTERNET RESOURCES ON LABOR AND THE WAR:

*  The Labor Educator (has a "Labor and the War" section):
    http://www.laboreducator.org/notewar.htm

*  Labornet (has a "Labor on the War" section):
    http://www.labornet.org/

*  New York City Labor Against the War:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/files/

*  ZNET Labor Watch:  http://www.zmag.org/LaborWatch.htm

*  Media Workers Against War (UK Labor Group):
    http://www.mwaw.org/


********************SIDEBAR #2*************************************

In addition to anti-war work, there's been a flurry of other progressive
activity in labor:

*  Postal unions have made it clear that they will not take part in the
TIPS program - the government's plan to have half of the workers spy on the
other half.

*  Several unions - notably SEIU, UNITE, and HERE - are campaigning for
amnesty for undocumented workers.

*  In NYC, some 25 labor groups - including the city's two biggest unions -
have joined with religious, peace, immigrant, civil liberties, and women's
groups to demand justice for immigrants detained by the government in
secret and without due process.

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