[Marxism] TDU Leader on the SEIU Attack at LaborNotes: Part 1

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

A few people have asked for the real deal on the disruption at the
Labor Notes conference by a group of SEIU officials and members.  Here
it is, for those interested...

  SEIU Officials Have a Blast

  It was a weird scene: busloads of SEIU officials and members trying
to bust into a conference of labor progressives --bullying, punching
and chanting in a scene that gave me flashbacks to the Teamster
officialdom of yesteryear.

  I had heard that SEIU officials would storm the Labor Notes
conference at its Saturday evening banquet, which would be packed,
long sold-out. It was also the big fundraising event for Labor Notes,
something that the organizers were no doubt quite concerned about. The
SEIU picked that time because Rose Ann DeMoro, head of C.N.A. had been
slated to speak at the banquet.

  I told a few friends, including a Labor Notes staffer, that the
reports were probably exaggerated. But the Labor Notes staff took it
seriously, and made a statement at the Saturday morning session,
before Anita Chan and Baldemar Velásquez spoke, that there could be
problems, and appealed to all to debate and discuss contentious
issues, but that no disruptions would be tolerated.

  I knew there were about 13 SEIU officials who arrived as a group on
Friday and registered. Two friends of mine had experienced in
workshops the obnoxious participation of these folks. One co-worker
told me they were rude disrespectful, but not at the level of real
disruption. I figured if they disrupted the banquet, the crowd would
spontaneously holler 'respect' or 'let her speak' and they would be
embarrassed and subdued. Was I wrong.

  When the invasion occurred, I was far from the action. I was
peacefully eating my salad with 900 others (there were 1100 at the
conference but the banquet hall couldn't hold all of them so they
didn't sell banquets past the limit.) I was near the podium and far
from the doors where the confrontation took place.

  My reports below are based on hearing from careful observers on the
spot; where they conflict with press releases, consider the source. At
least 3 buses of SEIU officials and members arrived, either all or
mostly from 1199 Ohio. Some SEIU reps and organizers were recognized
by participants. A few in the advance line, at the point of
confrontation, wore bandana masks to avoid ID or pictures, but in at
least one case, an LN participant pulled the mask off the SEIU
official. There were 200 at most. The C.N.A press release said 500,
and the SEIU press release said 800; so the C N A exaggerated, and the
SEIU (they surely knew the number) simply multiplied by four.

  They arrived at exterior glass hotel doors near the banquet hall.
They beat on the glass and chanted while hotel staff eyed them from
inside, a bit removed from Labor Notes participants, who were in the
banquet room or still streaming into it.

  One of their inside people slipped past the hotel staff and opened
the door from the inside, and they flooded in.

  The delay there gave some participants time to organize a thin line
of defense across the three sets of double doors leading into the
banquet hall. The doors were closed and volunteer participants stood
guard at them, some with locked arms. The Labor Notes staff had
recruited a number of these people, including several long time
Teamsters who have seen duty with Teamster thugs.

  The advance line of SEIU staffers led the chanting group forward and
pushed and punched and tried to break in, and almost did. My friend
Dan Campbell had his glasses broken from a glancing punch.

  Several Teamsters and others who remember "BLAST," the "Brotherhood
of Loyal Americans and Strong Teamsters" of the mid-1980s, inevitably
discussed the scene by way of compare-and-contrast with that Teamster
goon squad.

  Campbell told me that they were a light-weight version of BLAST. The
conference volunteers managed to hold their ground, although they were
vastly outnumbered.

  Jim West, now a professional photographer and formerly a Labor Notes
editor, said they were determined to break in and disrupt, and almost
succeeded.

  Several Labor Notes participants were assaulted or injured. One was
Dianne Feeley, a retired Detroit auto worker. She was assaulted and
knocked down, leaving her face covered in blood. She was taken to the
ER, but was able to come back to the conference the next day.

  She seems an unlikely target for SEIU officials chanting about union
busters, since Dianne had helped organize a couple hundred
participants to go to the American Axle strike line earlier that day.
She retired from American Axle a few years ago and has been on their
picket line regularly over the past 7 weeks....

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