[Marxism] NEW SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATION

["Darrel Furlotte" <darrel.furlotte@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here is a report on an historic meeting that took place last Saturday in 
Peoria, IL.


**********************
VETERANS OF LABOR WARS FOUND 
NEW SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATION
by Dave Stratman, Peoria, IL 8/6/05

They met in the heart of the heart of the country: Peoria, Illinois. There were 
seventeen of them. They were, for the most part, veterans of some of the 
bitterest, hardest-fought labor struggles of the last decades-the great 
Caterpillar strikes and lockout, the Accuride strike and lockout-and of less 
publicized struggles in auto plants. There were veterans too of national 
battles over public education and over health care. They represented many 
millions of others just like themselves-working people who, whether union or 
non-union, employed or unemployed, have been taking it in the teeth for too 
many years from corporate and government power, and who feel betrayed by those 
who were supposed to lead and defend them: the International unions of the 
erstwhile AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, and the politicians of 
both parties, Democrat and Republican. They came determined to build a new 
solidarity movement, they said, "to fight for the values, the livelihoods, the 
future of working people."

Larry Solomon, the respected president of UAW Local 751 at the Decatur, IL 
Caterpillar plant during the long struggles of the 1990s, chaired the meeting. 
Solomon, a life-long United Auto Workers (UAW) member, said, "The UAW 
International sabotaged our strike. They didn't want us to win. They were 
working with the company to manage us." Asked why he was helping lead this new 
solidarity movement, Solomon replied, "We have to offer people a break from the 
traditional treachery they have faced from their unions. There is absolutely no 
hope in the deteriorating union system we are leaving. We want to take as many 
people with us as we can into a new movement and a new organization where our 
concern for one another will forever bond us into a solid body that can't be 
whittled away by the enemies of common sense."

We Have To Do It Ourselves 

It was a day of intense discussion, led off by some brief speeches. Susan 
Ohanian, a nationally-known educator and author who had been scheduled to 
speak, sent a message of solidarity, expressing regret at an illness that kept 
her away and support for a new organization. She declared, "I was looking 
forward to a meeting where working people could forge resistance to the 
corporate-politico power that drains us dry. The future for teachers looks just 
about as grim as it does for other working people: There's a relentless push to 
portray teachers as incapable of doing their jobs, to impose wage-tiers, 
diminish health insurance and pensions. Teachers' unions portray this attack as 
'right wing,' when it is actually driven by corporate imperatives that are 
supported by the Democrat politicos as well as the Republicans. Our traditional 
guilds, unions, and professional organizations have betrayed us."

Billy Robinson led the two-month strike and four-year lockout of UAW Local 2036 
at the Accuride plant in Henderson, KY. He said, "Several International Union 
officials sanctioned and mandated that their members cross our picket lines to 
scab, including IBEW, Millwrights, and Carpenters. My local voted 9 times not 
to accept the contract Accuride and the UAW were pushing at us. The UAW just 
kept making us vote till we got it right. They made sure scab wheels [Accuride 
manufactures wheels for cars and trucks] kept being installed by UAW members in 
auto plants. They cut off all our strike pay, all our benefits. Our local 
members said, 'That's OK, we're going to have to do this thing ourselves if 
we're going to win.' Finally the International dissolved our local and kicked 
us out of our hall, saying they owned it. So it wasn't our union after all, I 
guess." Robinson said, "We have to get back to the family values of going to 
each others' aid. We need to extend who we mean by 'family' to the whole 
working class.... I don't like tossing the word 'revolution' around in this day 
of Homeland Security, but I firmly believe there is going to be a revolt. 
People aren't going to take these cuts." 

Dave Stratman, former Washington director of the National PTA, emphasized that, 
"We can win, because most people share our values. Most people try to create 
relationships based on love and trust and mutual support, the opposite of 
capitalist values of competition and selfishness. This means that most people 
are already struggling against capitalism, though they may not think of it that 
way." Stratman went on to say that, "There is a war going on in our society 
over what values will shape it, what goals it will pursue, and who will control 
it. On one side are the rich and powerful. They believe in competition and 
inequality and dictatorial rule. One the other side are most working people, 
who believe in equality and solidarity and control from below. This is the 
class war, a war over what it means to be a human being. It is a war we have to 
win." Stratman said that, to succeed, a solidarity movement must be 
revolutionary. It must challenge capitalist values and the capitalist system. 
"Institutions tied to capitalism can never work for working people. This is why 
the unions have betrayed us. To have true solidarity, we need to reject the 
logic of capitalist competition. We need to aim for a Solidarity Society based 
on the values of working people."

Principles for a New Movement

The August 6 meeting was initially scheduled as a planning meeting for a future 
launch of a new organization. After several hours of discussion, however, 
participants decided unanimously to found the new organization, Solidarity Now, 
then and there, and outlined its basic principles. Solidarity Now will:
 -be controlled by its members;
 --build solidarity in the workplace, across industries, across races and 
genders, across employed and unemployed, across generations, across borders;
 --be independent of union officialdom;
 --take action to support the values and struggles of working people;
 --fight to revolutionize society and create a true democracy based on equality 
and solidarity. 

Larry Solomon was appointed chair by acclamation. Tom Laney, a retired Ford 
worker from UAW Local 879 (Twin Cities Assembly Plant), was appointed editor of 
a planned newsletter. Tino Scalici, a young auto worker from Kansas City, 
offered to design and run a Solidarity Now web site.   

Asked what its first activities would be, Larry Solomon emphasized the need to 
reach out as widely as possible with word of the new movement. "There are a 
great many people out there desperate to hear that there is a new option for 
them, a new way to connect with others who want to fight back against the 
war-makers and the Big Money people. We want to hear from all these people. We 
want them to get involved. We want their ideas, their energy, their time and 
their effort." Solomon explained that Solidarity Now does not intend to replace 
any unions. "We will not try to become anyone's collective bargaining agent. 
Our goal is not to represent working people but to unite them into a powerful 
fighting force to change the direction of our country."

Dave Stratman
Editor, New Democracy
newdemocracyworld.org
20 Moraine Street
Boston, MA 02130
617-524-4073


  A CALL FOR A NEW SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

  Working people are under attack as never before.

  Wage-tiers divide the generations, while pensions and

  even Social Security are under attack. Families are

  forced into bankruptcy by medical bills. The government

  sends troops to a war based on lies and turns

  Iraq into a slaughterhouse.

  The institutions on which workers depend

  have utterly failed to defend them.

  Democratic as well as Republican politicians

  eagerly support the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act,

  gigantic arms budgets, savage cuts in social programs,

  shifting tax burdens onto working people,

  outsourcing jobs, attacking public education, rewriting

  bankruptcy laws to benefit credit card companies.

  Union officials betray union principles. They

  work with corporations to undermine workers,

  sabotaging strikes, from PATCO and Hormel to

  Caterpillar, Accuride, and the Southern California

  grocery workers. They replace shop-floor worker

  solidarity with worker-against-worker Company

  Teams. They support the war-makers in DC.

  Meanwhile most working people, blue-collar

  and white-collar, employed and unemployed, remain

  unorganized and largely defenseless.

  The politicians and the unions are part of the

  problem. We cannot rely on them and we cannot

  change them. We have to go around them, to create

  institutions that we control to fight for the values, the

  livelihoods, the future of working people.

  NEW ORGANIZATION FORMED

  Recently a number of people met in Peoria, IL to

  found a new organization called SOLIDARITY

  NOW. Our goal is to rebuild the culture of mutual

  support that is natural to working people and gives us

  our only power. We agreed that Solidarity Now will:

  -be controlled by its members;

  --build solidarity in the workplace, across

  industries, across races and genders, across employed

  and unemployed, across generations, across borders;

  --be independent of union officialdom;

  --take action to support the values and

  struggles of working people;

  --fight to revolutionize society and create a

  true democracy based on equality and solidarity.

  SOLIDARITY VALUES

  The assault on working people is part of a class war

  throughout society over what values will shape it,

  what goals it will pursue, and who will control it.

  Corporate leaders, government officials, and

  masters of great wealth value inequality, competition,

  and dictatorial control. They slash wages, out-source

  jobs, pit worker against worker in bloody wars.

  Ordinary working people believe in equality,

  solidarity, and control from below. When workers

  stand up for each other, or support family and friends,

  they are resisting capitalist power and advancing

  equality and solidarity.

  Millions of people still believe in solidarity

  and support their fellow workers. Solidarity is still

  there in our workplaces, in our families, in our

  communities-in all the relationships by which ordinary

  people sustain themselves in the face of attacks by the

  powerful. Solidarity is the basis of strength. People

  fight back when they feel strong. They feel strong

  when they feel connected to other people. To resist the

  corporate assault we need to build connections among

  people wherever we can.

  WE CAN MAKE A BETTER WORLD

  Is there an alternative to the way we live now? Capitalism,

  the system under which we live, like Communism,

  is undemocratic to the core. It offers only more

  war, inequality, and fear. We need to create a democratic

  alternative to both systems.

  Solidarity values offer a positive alternative to

  capitalism. Democratic revolution means changing all

  of society to reflect the best values already present in

  working people's lives. This is our goal.

  Join us! Please copy and pass it on.

  _____________________________________

  SOLIDARITY NOW: Cam Austin, UAW Local 751,

  kickc@consolidated. net; Michelle Bland, ex-UAW Local

  2036, tomchtrbl@ hotmail.com; Tom Laney, UAW Local

  879 (ret.), tlaney@xxxxxxxxxxxx, 715-962-4365; Billy

  Robinson, ex-UAW Local 2036, WRobi27316@xxxxxxx,

  270-835-2111; Larry Solomon, UAW Local 751 (ret.),

  LIBERTYWON@xxxxxxxxxxxx, 217-763-4451;

  Dave Stratman, newdem@xxxxxxx 617-524-4073.


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