SEARCH
Trumka: Working People Want a Strong, Independent Labor Movement
 |
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
|
|
In a major address at the National Press Club today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka charted an aggressive independent approach by working people and their unions to build the power of working people in the workplace and in the political sphere. Trumka told the live audience and thousands of viewers on C-SPAN and other news outlets:
Working people want a labor movement strong enough to help return balance to our economy, fairness to our tax system, security to our families and moral and economic standing to our nation. Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It is to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our country.
It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside—the outcome is the same either way. If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them. This is where our focus will be—now, in 2012 and beyond.
Read the entire speech here.
An independent voice is crucial, Trumka said, because the ongoing attacks on working people’s rights, new efforts at curtailing voting rights and calls for austerity on the backs of seniors, children and the sick are not just mean-spirited politics. They are the battle lines of a moral challenge for the soul of America, he said.
… these events signal a new and dangerous phase of a concerted effort to change the very nature of America—to turn this into an “I’ve got mine” nation and replace the land of liberty and justice for all with the land of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
Politicians like Govs. John Kasich (Ohio) and Scott Walker (Wis.) campaigned promising to take action on the nation’s jobs crisis, only to reveal when they took office that their “jobs” agenda was to make them disappear, Trumka said. But their real passion was for eliminating the rights of working people and destroying their unions—who are standing in the way of their agenda.
In response, working people took to the streets. On April 4th, under the banner, “We Are One,” we came together all across America, and then we did so again on May 1st—when we stood together with our immigrant brothers and sisters saying again that we truly are one.
Trumka cited Alex Hanna, a graduate assistant at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a co-president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association/AFT, as exemplifying how the United States is not a nation of isolated individuals, but a land of communities. Hanna, whose family is from Egypt, was in Cairo rallying for the freedom of Egyptian workers when he heard about Scott Walker’s attempts to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees. He returned home to join the mass demonstrations at the Wisconsin state Capitol. Hanna, who was in the Press Club audience, says the Cairo and Madison experiences, though different, show that when people overcome their fears and stand for what they believe in, they can succeed.
Powerful political forces are seeking to silence working people, Trumka said, and their ultimate goal is to “unravel the fabric of our common life in pursuit of greed and power.” In this environment, working people and our unions must do more than just protect our own right to a voice in the life of our nation, he said. “We must raise our voice to win a better future for all working families here in America and around the globe.”
We know that only a dynamic, effective movement of working people working together can reclaim the value of work. Our unions must reach out to every working person in America—to those whose jobs have been outsourced and down-sized, to carwash workers in Los Angeles, to domestic workers who have few legal rights, to freelancers and young people who have “gigs” rather than jobs. And together with the AFL-CIO’s construction and manufacturing workers, pilots and painters, plumbers and public employees, bakers and others, we will be heard.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
59 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Damn’ right! If the Democratic Party doesn’t stand up for workers, workers must stand for themselves and build a new Labor Party.
In 1968 I ran for congress in Alabama as a candidate of a pro-labor party, the National Democratic Party of Alabama. I didn’t win but a lot of state offices were won and the first Blacks since reconstruction won county offices on the NDPA ticket. That year George Wallace was the presidential candidate of the Alabama Democratic Party. That party was unacceptable to any decent person.
If the Democrats can’t run pro-labor candidates, we can run our own.
One step further: what if, as is always the case, the Republican Candidate offers no alternative to the Democratic Candidate. Answer: We support the lesser of two evils: the Democrat. THEY KNOW IT. We have been check-mated as we watched labor’s power shrivel. We need more than rhetoric. Admittedly, this is great rhetoric. WE NEED A FARMER, LABOR, STUDENT, GREENS, WOMEN’S, COMMUNITY ALLIANCE to promote their own local candidates NOW. It’s already nearly too late. We need to move toward independent political power that has real substance. Or this is just more of the same.
Kudos to Mr. Trumka!! If the crazy “baggers” (who hate organization) can get together to form a “political party”, why can’t Labor get together and form it’s own Labor Political Party. After all, Labor’s ALREADY ORGANIZED.
And if you don’t think it’s possible to have a political Labor party that’s EFFECTIVE, check out the existing party in the UK in the movie “Made in Dagenham”
Trumka is right about the goal, but it’s not going to happen soon, and the unions themselves are to blame. First, they need to clean up their act with real democracy, in which union officials stop treating their jobs like well-paid sinecures.
Second, they need to stop alienating their members and potential members and stop supporting gun control and illegal aliens in the labor force. Union members know instinctively that the former is wrong and the latter is harmful and shameful for the country.
Third, they must break with their past, which supported McCarthyism and buddying up to corporations.
Until they do at least this minimum, unions won’t have the trust and support of their members, who won’t rally around until they see that their organizations are really on their side, not just on economic issues, but on patriotic ones, as well. Until unions install real democracy and make up for what they have done to members who have striven for it and been punished, they won’t have the strength of a unified membership. And until then, potential members will believe just enough of the anti-union propaganda to vote no in organizing elections.
Unions can do it if the leaderships have the will. In the last 60 or so years there has been no sign of that will. It has to start at the top, which is Trumka. We are waiting.
Please take note that you are allowing the right to dictate YOUR mindset..
There is no, and has been no, gun control legislation from the left for quite some time. Obama has NOT suggested any, and still Beck talked about the nonexistant bill so much as to set off a fanatic in Penn state resulting in 3 dead policemen responding to the domestic disturbance call. Try to hold politicians accountable, but, only to their ACTUAL actions, and not those alleged by their opponents.
And why not a LABOR PARTY, BANK, MARKETING BRANCH?
I would shop at the AFL store competing with Wallyworld. I would bank at a bank OWNED by labor, charging none of the vulture fees my bank charges and offering loans cheaper too. Imagine what NONPROFIT can do vs profits first businesses.
How about LABOR healthcare, sans teh 90k per hour CEO like UHC?
How about it?
Hardwroc needs to check his history. To my knowledge, the AFL-CIO executive council has passed at least five resolutions supporting gun control (GC). Also, the federation and member unions have continually supported the Democratic Party, which has supported, which has passed or tried to pass GC legislation for decades, and the burden of most of it still exists.
Obama’s whole political history shows him to be a GC supporter, regardless of the fact that he hasn’t *yet* proposed major legislation for GC.
The major flaw in the attitudes of the Democrats and labor, and evidently hardwroc, is that opposition to GC has something to do with the right. The only reason that NRA and other gun rights organizations appear to be conservative is that most liberals and the left had not had the sense to join them. Those organizations welcome everyone.
The main things that set the US apart from the rest of the world, and make it a place to which immigrants continually come, is that it is both a democracy *and* has the Bill of Rights. No section of the Bill of Rights belongs to just one part of the political spectrum. All of it belongs to all Americans, and all should take the time to understand what it really says and how it protects our fundamental liberties.
Unfortunately, starting in the 1970s, the Democrats started supporting GC. This was not the case earlier. For example, both John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey were life members of the NRA. Moreover, the Democrats and the major media hoodwinked many people by identifying gun rights with conservatism. Those Americans, most of them middle of the road, who supported the Second Amendment were told that they were really conservatives. That pushed them into the waiting arms of the Republicans.
Many of them, including many, many union members, then started thinking of themselves as conservative, and voting that way. Union members became more alienated from union leaderships, because they instinctively knew that protecting their liberties was more important than earning a few cents more an hour. It’s interesting to note that there are more union members in the NRA than in the Steelworkers. This is why union leaderships need to change their policies if they want to start winning back the loyalty of their members.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council has not passed any such gun control resolution in recent memory, if ever.
Rather, AFL-CIO President Trumka, an avid hunter, has come out strongly in support of USA Sportsmen’s Alliance, an organization of union hunters and fishers with prizes that include hunting rifles.
http://www.unionsportsmen.org/
Trumka also notes Obama’s position is strong on guns here:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/09/19/trumka-obama-strong-on-guns-conservation-issues/
And union sportspeople describe why they supported Obama here:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/09/15/union-sportsmen-describe-why-they-back-obama/
1971: The Executive Council of the AFL-CIO adopted a resolution stating, “the AFL-CIO strongly urges Congress to enact strong handgun control legislation.”
1976: The AFL-CIO announced its support for legislation which would ban “weapons such as the so-called ‘Saturday Night Special’ from the public domain.”
1987: The AFL-CIO’s Executive Council issued a resolution in support of a national seven-day waiting period on the purchase of all handguns.
1989: The AFL-CIO came out strongly in support of the Brady Bill and its national waiting period on the purchase of handguns by law-abiding gun owners. AFL-CIO leadership also resolved to support U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini’s S.747, a bill to ban the importation, domestic manufacture and sale of certain semi-automatic firearms.
1994: Most recently, the AFL-CIO’s leadership supported the Clinton Crime Bill and its ban on certain semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns and large-capacity magazines.
Those statements are not recent, and none were approved since John Sweeney became president, followed by Richard Trumka.
David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President until January 28, 2011, stated recently that there is ‘no doubt’ President Obama will be entering the public debate on gun control. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/huffpost-hill-ax-says-gun_n_814559.html
All of this is missing the point — The AFL-CIO and union leaders shouldn’t just try to ignore the past or try to sweep it under the rug. They need to tell union members and the public, especially the Democrats, that their past support for gun control was *wrong*. They also need to publicly disassociate unions on this issue from any party or politician (or President) who supports it, and they must follow it up for long enough for their members to know that they mean it.
The USA Sportsmen’s Alliance is all well and good, but it is not the primary organization that is defending the Second Amendment. That is the NRA, and until labor makes some kind of rapprochement with the NRA, it won’t win back the confidence of the members who are alienated from their unions on this subject.
The real lesson in all of this is that labor leaders and organizations have to learn not to take sides on issues not directly in the bailiwick of unions and on which some of their members will disagree.
Wrong. You need to apologize for misrepresenting the AFL-CIO position on gun control, which is a very moderate one involving only having supported a ban on assault rifles and some regulation of handgun purchases, twenty to forty years ago.
If you think that the “patriot” voices of extreme right wing radio will ever support unions, you are dead wrong. Unions cannot be concerned about alienating right wing extremists, of whom you are obviously one.
This very neatly sums up the problem. Dreamjoehill thinks that, because he or she deems the AFL-CIO position on gun control is a moderate one, it is ok to force it onto the members of American unions. Unfortunately, *any* political position forced onto others is an authoritarian one or a bigoted one, or something akin to that. Since most Americans don’t like to be forced to take certain positions, especially by people who are living off of their dues money, many union members are alienated from the leaders of their unions.
Instead of thinking about such a new idea, dreamjoehill and others like him or her decides to accuse the bringer of the new idea, falsely and ignorantly, of being right wing. These days, that is unfortunately the method of so many people who consider themselves as being progressives or left or liberal.
It is unfortunate that such views are present in the labor movement. Unions are, despite their faults, one of the few remaining democratic institutions left in this society. To have people justifying the imposition of certain political positions onto the union members, whose dues make everything possible, is intolerable. Union leaderships should be serving the members, not telling them how to think.
I Agree whole heartedly. There are LEGAL ways to get work in America, & weve GOT to be armed,..just In Case…the Tea Party nuts up!
Finally Trumka has said what most of have been thinking and some of us have been saying for a very long time.Maybe the AFL-CIO is going to finally start working for the RANK and FILE.No more money for friends that don’t support us after the fact.Democrat or Republican if you are not with us you are against us.
Big talk for an off year in the election cycle. 2012 will no doubt find Trumka pledging all out loyalty to and backing of the Democratic Party. As always.
The austerity budgets and attacks on workers rights of the Republicans will be rightly attacked, yet the same practices by the Democrats will be ignored… or rewarded a la Brown, Cuomo, etc.
The blatant hypocrisy and corruption of so many labor leaders is becoming more clear to so many new and old disillusioned working people.
For those “leaders”, let this be the sunset. For a truly independent labor movement, let this be a new dawn!
3rd party only serves as a spoiler,what is needed is a tea like party only made up of the working poor and what is left of the middle class.I agree with you Had E Nough 100% but what is needed even more is to focus on bringing back (JOBS) to this country and to also focus on Americans who are out of work not the illegals.I am an American Indian and i see this country being sold down the river by both sides of the isle,maybe it is time for a new party and not a tea party they are just a bunch of conspiracy nuts.
WE are here…its called the “radical Left”…by Friend and Foe alike. discounted & mocked by friend & foe alike as Atheists, Anarchists, Treehuggers Commie’s & all the other BS labels……actually we are just run of the mill working democrats by nature. NEVER once have I met ANYONE advocating seriously for Collective Farming, or Stalin, or Mao or any “workers revolution” etc etc etc. (nor am I , just for the record)
YET the Demos always agree “IN principle” but have no stomach or will to do what need to be done!
ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
BAN LOBBYIST OUTRIGHTS
DEATH PENALTY FOR CORRPORATE FRAUD
DEATH FOR PENSION RAIDING
DEATH PENALTY FOR INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION
MANDATORY CLEAN AIR & WATER COMPLIANCE
DEATH PENALTY FOR OVERSEAS JOB OUTSOURCING
Of course Im willing to except LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE!
I say Pure Democracy Now! Regarde’ ~H
Berkeley
I listened “live” to President Trumka’s half hour speech, but had to leave when after a couple of questions. Why aren’t all the questions-answers posted posted so they could be reviewed?
I agree with the first three comments of Jim Baines, 4workers, and Had E. Nough, in support of a pro-labor political party independent of the Democratic Party, to provide a real alternative to the Republicans and (Mad Hatter!) Tea Party on election day in 2012.
These comments express a common “grass roots” understanding that to effectively fight back working people must run their own pro-labor candidates in their own political party in elections at every level of government. The first “by-law” of our new party must be to reject all corporate money, campaign contributions (“bribes”), and corporate agendas that have so corrupted Obama and the Democratic Party.
The Trumka speech article headline: “Trumka: Working People Want a Strong, Independent Labor Movement”. But then Trumka says: “Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It is to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our country.”
President Trumka, “leaders” of organized labor, refuse to acknowledge that it is impossible to
“improve the lives of working families” without a new pro-labor political party! Simple trade unionism, long in decline, by itself is now politically powerless to defend even organized workers, against the barbaric bi-partisan “class war” attacks.
Simple trade unionism, using only the power of a union contract, concerned only with wages and benefits secured from an employer, has no political power to secure and maintain the many essential benefits by law at every level of government. Social Security, Medicare, Minimum Wage Laws, Public Education, Food Stamps, Section 8 housing support, child support, etc. are all secured through political struggle by electing pro-working people candidates!
The creation of a “Solidarity” political party, that represents the economic interests of trade union workers and unorganized working people, would mean the political support of trade unions in Congress and would result a re-birth of the trade union movement!
A re-vitalization of the trade union movement, the creation of a new political party, would initiate a demand that pro-labor, pro-working people programming must have access to mass-media, New programs must be broadcast nationally to inform and educate working people to the economic needs “of, by and for the people”. Corporate-owned and controlled private media (Fox News) and even public media (NPR, PBS), continually “spin” all news and information towards a pro-corporate, anti-labor corporate perspective.
President Trumka, speaking at the National Press Club, amazingly said nothing about the corporate control of mass media. President Trumka, in his speech, had no new organizational or political strategy to be broadcast throughout the nation by the assembled media. President Trumka has failed again to provide the “leadership” and vision so desperately needed by organized labor and working people.
All good comments above, but beware of trying to start a third party. Be especially leery of trying to do that targeting the White House and Senate. It’s been tried many times and has yet to succeed. The way to do it is to start with counties, state legislatures and the U.S. House. Only after becoming well established in those does it makes sense to go after Senate seats and maybe the White House.
A more practical way might be to challenge Democrats who think and vote Republican-lite in primaries. Especially in House primaries, but for Senate seats too, if you can. Even if the challenge doesn’t dislodge the incumbent, causing him or her a near-career-death experience might bring about a change in behavior. And, it might send a message to others.
This kind of discipline is being exercised by radical right wingers on Republicans. Sometimes it backfires by causing a Democrat to win the general election. But even when that happens, it sends a message to other Republicans to get in line and stay in line. In normal times and circumstances I don’t like this tactic, except in rare cases. These aren’t normal times, and some Democrats need some tough love at the ballot box to remind them where their loyalties are supposed to lie.
I agree with anderson. Let’s start this small and work are way up.
I agree with you, We seem to forget what happened in 2000… We had a Third Party Candidate, (who in my humble opinion was the best Candidate) took enough liberal votes from the Democratic Candidate… and see what we got? Shrub, appointed by the SCOTUS. Lost the majority Vote but (supposedly) won the electoral college. From what I have seen the only Workers rep in Congress is Dennis Kucinich, (considered a whacko)
lets go for it, screw the people that don’t stand up with us, the democratice party is getting just as bad as the republican party, they are a disgrace.
people wake up, they do not care what happens to us. we did not cause this crisis, and they still want more from us. we need more rallys across the usa , tell them we are not going to take anymore, you work for us, some of them only work partime and get a good pensions, hlth insurance, get real, do and audit on some of them see what they get for part time, you proobly would be shocked turn the table on them they are public employees.
Thank you!!! Mr. Trumka!!!! I do not know if you saw the discussion yesterday on the “Huffington Post” but you have said what a lot of progressives and moderates want to hear! Too many politicians are trying to destroy what is left of the middle/working class! We also need to take back the media. The media is controlled by just a few corporations these days! They cater to the far right wing for the ratings and leave reasonable discourse out! We really need to make sure that our voices are being heard on a daily basis!!!
The newly reorganized Workers International Industrial Union, http://www.wiiu.org asserts that it is the historic mission of unionism to organize the working class for the purpose of putting the means of production of goods and services under social ownership and democratic control. Other unions need to embrace this mission. Capitalism has solved the problems of production. It will require industrial democracy to solve the problems of distribution.
One great union and an accompanying political movement.
Mr. Trumpka is right, the dems sold out the unions and thier people. What the unions need to do is back a progressive candidate. Since we now know dems and the GOP are two heads of the same snake, neither is to be trusted. A progressive is someone who backs unions, hard working Americans who built much of our infrasctucture. If they are interested I have two names of people whom I trust, whom I know woud indeed back you, back the rights and civil liberties of ALL hard working American people, end outsourcing, the war for profit, support single payer, bring jobs back to our people, with wages that keep up with inflation, healthcare that is there when its needed, education when it is desired, homes that cannot be forclosed upon, but built and rebuilt with values and ethics neither party understands. I a offering to run, seriously. I have the backs of the unions, understand the beast as my family worked in unions, would bring back jobs in auto motive that were outsourced. I am not owned by anyone, nor on anyone’s agenda except that of the working families like yours. Back me and you will see this country, our people get back to basics, have a leader who is willing to go the distance, and will not back down, be bought or bribed. Show me any of the candidates willing to do that. You cannot as they don’t exsist. I’m here and Jeanine Molloff is here and we are going to bring back the unions, stronger, your jobs secure.
Yes, yes and yes. Electing folks at the state and local level that actually support labor is the key. The only way I will vote for Obama is if true friends of labor run and the message is that they will make him do the right thing. If the Republicans can lead him around the way they do, think what a unified, pro-labor caucus in the House and Senate could do! I want more of this from the union leadership and more opportunities to vote for pro-labor candidates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-IFNdnD9w
this has Trumka’s speech in full. vid is excellent, Trumka is good speaker about one hour with questions and answers
There was nothing new in Trumka’s speech. For years various labor leaders have been declaring independence to the extent that they will vote Republican or Democrat, depending on which is pro-worker. If the times make the man, Trumka, rise to the occasion and be the historic leader who breaks the bonds of what is holding labor hostage: the Democratic and Republican Parties. Find a means and find the toughness.
I personally would like to see Ralph Nader elected,I doubt it will happen ever though,he had alliances in the democrat party before they started taking corporate money.
It is quite good that Trumka called of Labor Independence…but…
we don’t have time to wait for another election. We don’t have two years. Millions of working people will be thrown into hopeless poverty, joblessness and despair by the next election. State and local governments are already cutting essential services which will effect millions of lives and, franklly, kill hundreds of thousands. We need to do something now.
The International Association of Machinists has called upon congress to pass HR1489, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s(OH-D)
Bill to reinstate the FDR era Glass-Steagall Standard of banking regulation. Glass-Steagall ran our banking system till it was repealed in 1999. This would put Wall Street under the microscope and those banks to big to jail, would be jailed.
Now that someone has knocked out Strauss Kahn, head of the IMF and one of the banksters chief enforcers, it is time to take back our nation’s economy and begin rebuilding.
That would be the next step in this declaration of labor independence.
Yes, Yes, Yes,
I agree! We have been fighting for workers rights at WAL-MART Stores and they refuses to even respond to our mistreatment. This is over due and we need to move forward without these scared to death DEMOCRATS. Thank God for all those who stand up for workers rights. I have written Geogia General Assembly and others but they consistently ignore the workers in the state of Georgia. Moreover, Georgia is an At Will to Work State and workers does not have any rights for the most part. Thanks to our scared to death DEMOCRATS. I do thank all who ost on this site and those behind the curtain but are un stoppable in their efforts to end this game on Workers Rights in America!
1. Wal-Mart Video #1. Wrongfully Terminated Department Manager, George Boston Rhynes Speaks Out! YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeEmLYiD3wc&feature=BFp&list=WL2EE062A880CEA57A&index=3
2. Wal-Mart Video #2, Wrongfully Terminated Department Manager, George Boston Rhynes, Speaks Out! YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j95YdfoSyA
3. Wal-Mart Video #3. Wrongfully Terminated Department Manager, George Boston Rhynes Speaks Out! Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/user/bostongbr#p/u/18/Z39W54O8CQs
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Wrongfully terminated Wal-Mart Department Department Manager
A concerned citizen and brother of humanity!
*Its not (all) about me or you! It is about all of us; including our children and coming generations of children…..
Dump the Elephant ! Dump the Ass !! Time for a revolution!! a Party for the working class,retiries,and the poor!!!
I Haven’t cared much for Trumpka in the past because he has went the of all before him in supporting folk’s that don’t support us , Now I see a New Leaser emerge, a real leader that might can help start a real party for the working class, retiree’s & poor , this by far is the little light most of us old Union members”44″ year’s have been want to see , because sinve Regan we have not had a President for the People ,,that’s why we’ve had Ross Perot , Tea Party screwing up the process for a New Labor Party with Christian Moral’s that will support our Constitution and the Working Class
Building a Labor Party is not the solution, because it would take 10 years of hard work to have any kind of power.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Let’s get more of our fellow union workers to step-up and get involved in the Democratic Party in the local, state and national level. With more union workers making the decisions, we can move the party away from the DINO’s, and towards the party that we want.
Ralph Lyke
UAW
Upstate New York
@moondog. You’re right about it taking years for a new third party to gain enough power to matter. By that time the radical right will probably have gained total power on the Supreme Court and done plenty more damage through Congress and the White House. Third World plutocracy, here we come.
Labor’s dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party is justified, although I have to say there have been times when labor walked out on Dems — remember all those Hardhats for Reagan? In any case, if the Republican Party can be highjacked by pro-plutocratic, neofeudal extremists and tea-party crackpots, the Democratic Party can surely be steered left by determined working people, the elderly and the young.
Writing angry blog posts, letters to the newspaper and the like about how lame Democrats are won’t help do anything but give Republicans a boost. Getting involved in your city, county and state Democratic Party will help. Getting progressive, pro-labor people to run for office and backing them can make a big difference. Putting DINO’s like Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska through the wringer in a primary could make a difference, even if he wins. You get the idea.
How about organizing the membership to show our power by direct action? Demonstrations, picketing, leafleting, one hour strikes (sit down?), city wide general strikes. Direct action is what got us the New Deal. Not voting.
I have looked at all blogs from AFL CIO since The Wisconsin Gov. Walker made his attack on working class. I am not a union member but I see the need to have a united front for workers.
We are the host that corporate America feeds from. We need to add middle class jobs not continue to diminish them. Corporate profit is way up yet pay is down and many people are living on the edge, hanging on by fingernails waiting for the next something that will force their fall.
I do not have much as I am one of those that are waiting for the fall. If I found a candidate that I felt had integrity and would work to create a country that was trying to build prosperity not peasantry I would give what I could to support them.
I do see the need for a labor party or progressive or something that shares working class concerns and takes a balanced approach to all, using compassion and true justice, not greed and self interest as their guide.
Trumka’s speech was music to my ears. I have quit contributing to anything Democrat. My choices now are Working America, MoveOn.org, Act Blue. When Obama did not go to Wisconsin, that was the last straw. Even Joe Bide, Mr Workingman, did not visit the state. Use Labor money on state races. I loved what you did to Blanche Lincoln.
Yeah I’mpretty tired og the AFLCIO support vof the evil of two lessers. Time for a real Labor Party.
Trumka was head of the UMWA which supported the idea of a Labor Party at one time. Where did that go?
It is about time. I always am getting emails from the Democrat Party asking for a donation. I have replied to them telling them that I only hear them talking about labor issues in their fund raising emails, but not Loud and Clear in the media. If any candidate wants Union support, they MUST earn it first.
Well, Trumka has a good thought. If the Democrats don’t support labor, then labor should not support the Dems. But, don’t get your hopes up about the Repubs suddenly supporting labor/unions, public sector employees or working people. The Republicans always have been, and always will be, anti-union. Their attacks on Medicare and Social Security are attacks on this middle American coalition and NOT ONE SINGLE REPUBLICAN has stepped up to the plate for labor issues.
Forget the 3rd party. Those who voted for Nader in 2000 helped elect George Bush.
Labors home can still be with the Dems if labor can find and support candidates who support the cause. We have to get involved in the primaries. Think of the Democratic state reps in Wisconsin and Indiana that left the state so that the Repubs could not vote their anti-labor agenda. There are plenty more like them, but we have to get involved in the process NOW! We can’t wait till 2012 and accept candidates hand picked by the party insiders.
Time has come for a leadership for a Labor Party to our politics. Corporatist republicans fail our laborers productivity distributions. Democrats lack the fortitude to pursue and support labor issues. Leaves “We The People” with but with one option. We The People In Order To Form A More Perfect Union must do exactly that and produce a Labor Party to represent the distributions of productivity of the laborers.
Trumka needs to start to organize with all unions to bring forth a Labor Party. Replace the intoxicated Tea Party with somber laborers. They are the one’s in the trenches day to day. Obama saved our manufacturing and now they are growing strong. One of the bulwarks for our employment growth. Transition of energy sources and the innovation emerging for potentials of a greater need of employment. Excellent fertile soils for growth of a Labor Party.
Trumka we await, can you lead this or is there another we seek?
Strategy suggested here has been used many times before with minimal success. Essentially Trumka is going to challenge the financial institutions funds of the corporatist . Seriously, that never worked before.. Not movement.. “Labor Party”! Party like its 2014…
Thanks to Wisconsin teabag Governor Walker, the other teabagger governors in Indiana,Ohio,Michigan,Florida,New Jersey and the rest of the right to low wages state republican legislators for pocking a stick in the eye of the proverbial sleeping dog and waking up sleeping Union members and Union leaders throughout America. Now that we are awake we must work tirelessly to elect only progressive Democrats into office.Republicans and their Bush appointed Supreme Court are out to destroy Unions and our very way of life.We are in a state of emergency!!!
Thank you Trumka! I’ve been a community and political activist for over 35 years. The Democratic Party sees Labor as little more than a cash cow and source of foot soldiers to do the grunt work while Labor getting little bang for its buck. We need a real Labor Party in this country. Until then, we need to support real union aligned candidates regardless of what letter they have behind their name.
Not all Republicans are right and not all Democrats are wrong… There’s fools in both sides of the isle… Labor should infilter both partys and take up seats until Labor is strong enough to built it’s own polical party…
If you really mean it, then we MUST BEGIN A NATIONAL BOYCOTT OF ALL PRODUCTS MADE OUT OF ThIS COUNTRY BY US COMPANIES OVERSEAS. This will also be painful. We must also begin a BOYCOTT of supporting Wall Street’s war machine manufacturing and investment offering. We must also BOYCOTT as much gasoline and oil as possible until at least homes and local auto travel is by electric car and solar grid. And, for Pete’s sake, boycott marked up tv advertised unending side effect pharmaceuticals! Let the BOYCOTTS BEGIN! The only thing the big shots feel.
Let theBOYCOTTS BEGIN…. Until
WHEN WILL THE AFL/CIO TAKE ON CREDO MOBILE?
I’m happy to hear Trumka’s stance. I’ve read that the NEA leadership is going to ask delegates to this year’s convention this summer to early-endorse President Obama. As a member of NEA and the AFT, I am opposed to any early endorsement of the President as I see it as tacit approval of the President’s educational policy and the President’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. I encourage AFL-CIO and AFT leadership to hold the President’s and other Democrats’ feet to the fire on education policy and labor issues.
I encourage everyone to check out this website:
http://www.masspartyoflabor.org
Working people need a party of their own, one based on the power, resources, infrastructure, prestige, and experience of organized labor. Every election cycle, organized labor gives millions and millions of dollars and dedicates thousands of volunteers and paid staffers in support of both major parties, who are firmly in the back pocket of the big businesses and bosses. While the Republicans are not ashamed of this fact, the Democrats try to hide it, but working people aren’t stupid (as most of the responses to this post clearly show).
There’s a reason why its rare anymore that more than 50 percent or so of the eligible population votes in this country: on a fundamental level, working people realize that neither party offers a true alternative to the other. No matter what party we’ve had in power, the labor movement has been in decline. We’ve suffered blow after blow to our standards of living, to our right to organize, to our dignity as workers and human beings, and through it all labor leaders have stuck with the Democrats (and sometimes the Republicans). It’s clear this strategy is not working, nor really has it ever.
The labor movement has the capacity to build a mass-based party that can challenge and defeat the two-headed bosses’ party and wreck their status quo. We can make a party that will truly offer an alternative to working people across America who have been besieged by the Republicans’ savagery and have rejected the Democrats’ duplicity.
A labor party based on the trade unions won’t be a small ‘third party’ – it will rapidly become the first party, because it would be supported by the millions of dollars and substantial political and organizational apparatus of the labor movement and will appeal to the genuine interests of working people. This is unlike parties like the Green Party and the like who, while having admirable politics, lack a mass base or the organizational power and resources that the labor movement already commands.
All that is needed to make such a party a reality is mass pressure from the rank and file of the trade union movement to see this done. Therefore, please check out the Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor and consider joining! The CMPL exists to organize workers inside and outside of the labor movement to put pressure on labor leaders to break away from the Democrats and Republicans and use the considerable resources at their disposal to launch a labor party! The CMPL is still rather around since Labor Day 2010, but we’re growing, and with your help we can make such a party a reality.
For a Mass Party of Labor!
http://www.masspartyoflabor.org
As a CWA member, I’m proud the unions don’t fall for the lies of the pro-corporate Republicans. Now it seems we’re breaking from the Democrats too. Both parties cut taxes for the rich and maintained those tax cuts, despite economic turmoil. Both parties also support wars that benefit only rich people.
Our dues money would be better spent organizing a third party and increasing the ranks of our membership.
I live in Orange County Calif, and I have been a member of The Operating Engineers Local 12 since 1978. I see great speeches made by Pres Trumka, and a lot of calls to action. Have any of WI republicans been recalled yet?
I see a Republican, Tea Bagger Party that is far to the right of the Original John Birch Society and a Democratic party that shows Eisenhower and Nixon to be Bleeding Heart Liberals.
I see cars with “Live Better Work Union” stickers parked in WALMART Customer Parking lots.
I see union workers refuse to honor other unions trades Examples: Carpenters & Laborers, Finishing Concrete, Operating Cranes, Operating Backhoes, Skip loaders etc. Longshoremen, Operating Cranes. And almost no Contractors use Teamsters anymore. Most Dump Trucks, Low Beds, Water Trucks are driven By Rats, & Owner Operators, (another rat) and other trades. Many large Operating Engineer Crane Companies do use Teamsters to drive trucks. Even Electricians have their own classification for Backhoe Operators. (undercutting Operating Engineer Wages).
Now with work so tight it is unheard of for anyone to speak out to respect other trades. Complain or call for a Union Rep, and you will be unemployed, and no one will back you up!
About the only time I see Union Members Act like Union brothers & sisters show other trades respect is at Political Rallies.
We have been under heavy attack since the Red Scare & McCarthyism. When Unions were considered Socialists. The Corporate bosses have found the best way to fight us is to starve us then divide and conquer. What we need are Less speeches calling for solidarity and more action!
Is it so difficult to shame a union member that openly supports anti labor Candidates, Propositions and Causes?
I see members employed by the company I work for actively supporting anti labor Candidates, Propositions and Causes work every day while us that are as vocal in our support of pro labor issues sit and collect unemployment.
dearjohn I am a 25 yr member of IUPAT and I also live in WI. 1st yes recall elections for 3 repub will take place July 12th,and recall petions for 3 more repub will go infront of the GAB May 12th. Nothing can be done to Walker until after the 1st of the year, and believe me that his recall WILL TAKE PLACE. 2nd yes there has been fighting amongst the trades for work for years,everybody claiming work for themselfs. And is encouraged by employers to drive a wedge and create anger among union members. But I believe that what has started in WI. and has spread to the rest of the country,has been awake up call to members of all unions that we are not each others enemys and that we can work together to improve our worksites, our unions and our lifes. And as Bob Dylan said ” The times they are a changing ” and I believe they are changing for the better. The labor movement is going through a rebirth not seen in over 80 yrs and I am proud and humbled to be a part of it, as should all working people. 3rd yes times are tough,and there is not a lot of work out there,I see you are a 30 yr member and odds are you won’t like what I say,what I did is I had the ability to pull my pension, now I am not retired, and I am still n the list,but I set myself to the bottom so younger members with young familys could work,I am not telling you this to pat myself on the back,but to try and tell you not to try and shame any member and that now is not the time to direct your anger at fellow members, but to show them, union and non-union just what it means to be part of a union,not just to call them my brothers and sisters,but to show them in actions that they truly are. Respect shown is Respect recieved. I have said it before and I will continue say it, SOLIDARITY is not just a word,it is a belief in a way of life that our parents and grandparents gave up thier freedom and some even their lifes for. Now is not the time to diminish thier sacrifices by bad mouthing each other.
Running our own candidates is a great idea, provided they can get the necessary training to help make them viable. Until a member willing to take that leap can get support from his/her Union and requested assistance from experienced legislators whom Labor helped get elected, potentail member/candidates will continue to be discouraged and left with the same old choices. Moondog is right about needing members to step up. But those members who want to step up need more than just conviction and the guts to give it a shot. They need the all-out support of their Union.
I read a lot of comments here to “form a labor party”, and the democratic party is not supporting workers. The REAL problem is that most WORKERS are not registerd and voting in elections. Slightly more than half of UNION members are registered. In some districts we (labor) could easily win the districts IF ALL workers were registered and vote correct for the labor candidate. The Democrats problem is in the so called BLUE DOGS, who for the most part are voting like republicans, those districts could have a real labor candidate if we did a better job of registering and get out the vote.
There is a reason why the republicans are trying to disenfranchise voters in many states because they don’t want workers to vote. What is needed is for informed workers to get off their ass and register other workers, neighbors, family and friends. Those wishy washy districts could easily be strong labor candidates if we only had workers showing up at the polls in greater numbers.
Maybe they’ll get registered to vote when they feel like they have a party that runs candidates worth voting for?
We have no problems getting about 180 votes on labor issues. We have had to rely on picking up some republicanns on our issues in the past because we had some democrats who felt they could not support us and win in the next election. Those are the Blue Dogs generally. The labor turnout is usually low in those districts and they can not count on workers beeing there when they are sunning against a Chamber of Commere Candidate.
The vast majority of Democrats are great – we have a few rascals but until we can show our real strength we won’t change those. It is not good to make a blanket statement that the democrats run lousy candidates. NOt the case. I know a lot of GREAT candidates that have lost because we did not rally the votes in those districts and they could not get the money they needed. ALmost any democrat is better than any republican. I can only think of one democrate who has never been on our side on labor issues in his career – Gene Taylor of MS. Any worker who voted republican in the last election needs to turn off FOX news and get in the real world. Listen to your union leadership. The do know what they are talking about!
A “Labor Party” could endorse candidates from other Parties that endorse Labors rights and have a proven voting record of doing so. Not every race would need a separate Labor candidate. In races that have two anti-Labor candidates, A good pro-labor candidate could be drafted out of retirement or a new well know person in politics could be chose. Even Business Managers or retired Business Managers who have beeen active in politics could win if put on the ballot. With only a 12% to 18 % turn out at midterm elections, if the Union Members all turned out with their families and voted for the Labot Party Candidate or the one endorced by the “Labor party”, Labor Congressmen could get their feet in the door of Congress and then would make the Democrats take notice. President Obama said he would stand beside us on the picket line and is a friend of labor but he only signs bills sent him by congresss. Executive orders only last a term and can be revesed by gthe next President.
Anyone here see how easy it is to fault your / our unions for the smallest thing that they don’t like . Anyone who goes to their local union meeting knows that not enough people show up to change anything, good or bad.
How many members do anything to help? How many members even vote for their local officers?
So the AFL-CIO board voted in the past to ban Saturday nite specials and automatic weapons. SO WHAT. If you need a UZI to shoot a rabbit, maybe I have this all wrong.I don’t think so.
Is that the reason that union members think they should vote republican. I for one would rather have an elected representitive or President who would support labor issues than worry about how they will vote on a non existant gun issue.