[Marxism] Re: Balance sheet of Million Worker March by Bill Onasch

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Onasch assessment is from Labor Advocate Online, and also appears on
the website http://www.kclabor.org/, a very valuable site, in my
opinion, moderated by Bill Onasch.

On balance, I think I disagree with Bill's assessment more than I agree
with it.  I want to note a couple of other things:

First of all, this march was called as a direct challenge to the course
of the top factions of the labor bureaucracy in the elections, even
though the officials and workers who participated will almost all, as
far as I know, be backing Kerry as the lesser evil.  They see the need
for independent labor struggles for the needs of working people, and are
looking for an alternative to the complete subordination to the
capitalist parties, and the capitalist employers, that is now practiced
basically across the board in the AFL-CIO leadership.  They went ahead
with the action in defiance of the opposition of the AFL-CIO leadership.
And all the union endorsements (and I know the importance of not
overestimating the importance of paper endorsements) were obtained in
the face of that open conflict.

Secondly, this was an initiative of Black officials and unionists.  The
big majority of the unionists who attended were Black.  This highlights
the potential power of the initiatives of Black and Latino (and
immigrant Latin and Asian) workers in reviving a mass working class
struggle in this country.

There's only a limited amount that can be done today to change the low
ebb of the working class struggle in this country today.  This small
section of workers did what they could in the circumstances.  They took
an initiative.  They followed through on it.  They didn't back away in
the face of official opposition. I hope they will learn from this
experience and go forward, not get disheartened at the immediate limits
of the possible.  They are a sign of something trying to start up, in my
opinion.

They have also made this, from the point of view of struggle, a better
election year than we have had for some time.

They should be saluted for their initiative.  As Stone Cold Steve Austin
likes to say, that's the bottom line.
Fred Feldman


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