[NV Greens] Fwd: Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century
>
>The future of organized labor in the US:
>
>Reinventing trade unionism for the 21st century
>
>     "The essence of trade unionism is social uplift.
>     The labor movement has been the haven for the
>     dispossessed, the despised the neglected, the
>     downtrodden, the poor." -- A. Philip Randolph
>
>An important debate has commenced within the ranks of
>organized labor regarding the future of the movement.
>  From our experience we know that the 'top-to-bottom'
>approach to revitalizing workers' organizations will
>not foster meaningful membership participation and
>support. The debate must be joined by rank-and-file
>union members and leaders, other labor activists,
>scholars and the broad array of supporters of trade
>unionism. It must be open, frank and constructive,
>recognizing that we all have a stake in the outcome of
>these discussions.
>
>The following represents the collective opinion of
>several individuals from different sections of the
>labor movement who have joined together to let our
>voices be heard as the debate unfolds. Our
>intervention in this debate is at least partly
>motivated by our sense that the concerns and
>perspectives of people of color and women are all but
>absent in these discussions about labor's future.
>The irony, of course, is that our respective demographic
>groups represent the future of organized labor in the
>USA, if organized labor is to have a future at all.
>
>We look forward to your feedback.
>
>                    * * * * * *
>
>The economic and political changes over the last thirty
>years both in the USA as well as globally, have
>resulted in a far more hostile environment for labor
>unions specifically and for working people generally.
>In this context, contrary to the spirit of A. Philip
>Randolph's notion that the essence of trade unionism is
>social uplift, the trade union movement is rarely
>looked to today as a voice of progress and innovation,
>or a consistent ally of progressive social movements.
>
>It is not just that organized labor declined as a
>percentage of the workforce since 1955; or that it
>carried out unfocused growth, evolving eventually into
>no growth; or that it emphasized servicing its current
>members rather than planting the seeds for future
>growth. It is that organized labor looks at itself as
>separate and apart from the rest of the working class,
>and, for that matter, does not see itself as the
>champion of workers and their communities, but rather a
>mechanism for advancing the interests of those it
>currently represents.
>
>For organized labor in the USA, the path away from
>oblivion must begin with the recognition of the vastly
>different situation that the working class faces in the
>early 21st century from what existed even twenty years
>ago. Time and space do not permit an exhaustive
>examination of all of these changes. Much has been
>written about it in various journals and books. Suffice
>to say that the growth of neo-liberal globalization
>has represented a dramatic change in the approach of
>capitalism toward both the working class as well as
>towards society as a whole. Multinational
>corporations and their allies have concluded that the
>terms of any 'social partnership' must be altered in
>their fundamentals at the expense of working people.
>This view -neo-liberalism- has grown in importance,
>coming to dominate the thinking of both major US
>political parties and has guided the shift to the
>political Right in the ruling circles of the USA.
>
>The current situation necessitates a new approach to
>strategy, tactics, and fundamentally, the vision of
>trade unionism. This is more than the production of
>new mission statements, but instead rests on the
>necessity to rethink the relationship of the union to
>its members, to the employer(s), to government, to US
>society as a whole, and to the larger global village.
>Can the union, we must ask, as an institution and as a
>representative of a larger movement, rise to the
>challenge of being a means to confront injustice, or is
>the union condemned to be solely an institutional
>mechanism to lessen the pain of contemporary capitalism
>on those fortunate to be members of organized labor?
>
>In this context, we propose the following:
>
>1. There is a need for a vision that includes, but is
>not limited to, organizing the unorganized: Missing
>from the current debate is a clear statement as to what
>the trade union movement actually believes. Of course
>there must be massive organizing of the unorganized.
>But a sole focus demonstrates the same inflexibly that
>reformers are attempting to root out. In spite of the
>qualified success of the organize-above-all-else
>approach, it is still being touted as the panacea to
>what ails the trade union movement. As essential as
>is organizing, alone it is not enough.
>
>When the Congress of Industrial Organizations began to
>come into existence (with the formation, first, of the
>AFL's Committee on Industrial Organization) in 1935,
>there was a very different social, economic, and
>political climate. Yet this situation is frequently
>cited, ahistorically it should be noted, as a parallel
>to the moment in which we find ourselves.
>
>While there are critical matters relative to the
>structure of unions, the AFL-CIO and organized labor as
>a whole that must be settled, these are not the issues
>which should be the starting point for any debate. Why,
>we must ask, should millions of unorganized workers
>potentially sacrifice so much in order to join or form
>unions? Why should millions of potential allies of
>organized labor spend any amount of time away from
>their own core issues, to unite with the demands of
>organized labor? What does a reconstructed, if not
>reborn, trade union movement have to say to people of
>color and women that goes beyond the tried and true
>rhetoric of the past? What are unions doing about the
>increasing degradation of work, i.e., that even
>unionized workers are working harder, faster and longer
>than in the past, providing us less free time and
>increasing the level of stress on individuals, families
>and friendship circles? If these questions are not
>answered organized labor will not serve as a beacon of
>attraction to the millions of non-union workers in the
>USA, and, in fact, the rebirth of organized labor will
>be still-born.
>
>2. The union movement must be unapologetically pro-
>public sector and pro-public service: Over the years,
>since the emergence of neo-liberalism, with the
>corresponding rejection of positive government
>intervention in the economy as the dominant philosophy
>directing globalization, the US trade union movement
>has addressed the symptoms rather than the disease.
>Thus, it has spoken out against privatization, cuts in
>social services, and right-wing tax proposals that
>reduce taxes on the wealthy and deceive the rest of us.
>This is all important, but organized labor has not tied
>this all together into a package. A clear example of
>this was the failure of much of organized labor to
>dissect the actual politics and economics of the
>Clinton administration, as it advanced institutions
>like the World Trade Organization, and supported
>notions of free trade, all of which undermined (and
>continues to undermine) the notion of the public
>sphere.
>
>3. Organized labor in the USA must study the current
>economic and political situation, and understand that
>there is no space for a compromise with any view that
>rejects positive government intervention in the
>economy. Organized labor must also refuse to support
>individuals and/or organizations who believe that
>progress and social justice can be achieved by
>subordinating workers' interests to those of unregulated
>businesses and financiers.
>
>4. The union movement must stand for the expansion of
>democracy: Organized labor must stand AND fight for an
>expansion of democracy beyond the limits of formal
>legality. It must be the champion of the fight against
>racism, sexism, hetero-sexism, xenophobia, religious
>bias, and other forms of intolerance.
>
>5. In the current national and international situation,
>democracy is under attack. Intolerance and
>irrationalism seem to be gaining the upper hand in the
>relations among people. Minorities are being excluded
>if not exterminated as a growing competition for
>diminishing resources takes place at precisely the same
>moment that immense amounts of wealth are being
>accumulated by the few.
>
>Civil liberties are under assault. In the name of
>opposing terrorism, governments, including our own, are
>passing legislation that restricts the right to
>organize and protest. Those challenging the status quo
>are often viewed with a jaundiced eye, with the
>assumption being that they are insufficiently loyal and
>patriotic. Discussions are being shut down in the name
>of fighting the common enemy, depending on who that
>enemy happens to be at any one point.
>
>Elections are becoming a sham. In the USA the Electoral
>College effectively disenfranchises millions of voters,
>particularly in the South, and while the US demands the
>practice of one-person/one-vote internationally, at the
>federal level we have nothing approximating this.
>Compounding this problem is the evolution of
>gerrymandering into the equivalent of a science and the
>creation of so-called 'safe electoral districts,' where
>opposition can be counted out. The piece de resistance
>is election fraud, always part of the US political
>environment, but now upgraded with the use of a
>combination of computer technology and voter
>intimidation, particularly directed at communities of
>color. Furthermore, millions of felons who are primarily
>people of color are disenfranchised.
>
>The union movement must engage in struggles against
>these various undemocratic practices and move us away
>from a fortress-like society.
>
>The future of the right to join or form trade unions is
>integrally linked to the future of democracy in the
>USA. In its own obvious interests, the union movement
>must unite the demand for the right to form or join
>unions - the right to organize - with the overall battle
>for democracy.
>
>To be credible champions of democracy the union
>movement must fight for democracy within its own ranks.
>If our members believe that they have no control over
>the future of their own organizations, or are
>inadequately represented in them then we have failed.
>We will have created paternalistic organizations rather
>than organizations of the workers themselves.
>
>6. We must have a U.S. union movement structure suited
>to advancing organizing of the unorganized workers:
>The question of the shape and structure of the US union
>movement cannot be driven by a concern about jobs for
>the officers and staffs of the current unions. It must
>be driven by the need to organize into unions the
>millions of unorganized workers who wish to join or
>form unions. It must provide legitimate
>representational structures for people of color and
>women, and ensure that these structures make up a
>significant segment of the leadership of the trade
>union movement that reflects the diversity and
>aspirations of its membership. This means not only the
>inclusion of AFL-CIO constituency groups, but also an
>organized and active process of recruiting new
>delegates and leaders representative of the workforce
>in their respective industries, and the creation of
>opportunities for younger trade unionists to learn and
>test their own leadership abilities.
>
>The structure of organized labor must orient unions
>toward their core jurisdictions -- i.e., toward their
>regional, occupational or industrial base. The logic
>of this is to be found in the matter of expertise and
>efficiency. Those unions that have displayed a
>commitment to a particular industry, occupation and/or
>region will tend to be more studied in those arenas and
>better situated to strengthen the industrial power of
>the members.
>
>Unions should only enter into new industrial sectors,
>occupations or regions if and when they are prepared to
>make the LONG-TERM commitment to that sector and have
>demonstrated a willingness to work with other unions in
>that same sector or region.
>
>7. The union movement must reshape its political program
>to focus on the needs of the working class: The union
>movement has made the repeated mistake of assuming that
>it can tell its members how to vote, and that the
>Democratic Party structure will automatically represent
>their interest. What we promote as political education
>is rarely more than campaign publicity. The promise of
>the 1995 reform movement was for a different political
>program. We need to develop popular economic and
>political education programs that speak to where our
>members are socially and politically. Such a program
>should aim to create a framework through which they may
>begin to understand the political, economic and social
>issues of our times.
>
>We must organize our members - politically - into
>popular organizations which are community-centered,
>concerned with politics, sensitive to different social
>groupings, and able to branch out into the community
>where they, their families and friends can find a means
>to participate in a relevant political practice. This
>means the creation of electoral political organizations
>at the grassroots level that can engage in the arduous
>but necessary fight for power for working people. PACs
>and 527s cannot replace popular, mass-based
>organizations.
>
>8. The union movement must organize in the South and
>Southwest: The November 2004 elections demonstrate two
>interesting things. First, there is a direct (though
>not exclusive) relationship between union membership
>and one's tending to vote in one's own economic
>interests. Two, the Black and Latino vote in the South
>and the Southwest, while critical at the local, regional
>and state level, has not had the same effect in
>Presidential races due to the undemocratic nature of
>the Electoral College.
>
>The union movement has put off organizing the South and
>the Southwest for too long. Successes in organizing
>the South and the Southwest will serve as a bridgehead
>for progressive politics in those regions, and allow
>the union movement to utilize these bases in order to
>advance a progressive agenda and build broader
>political support. Thus, resources need to be put into
>organizing that assumes that organizing is a long-term,
>strategic process rather than an event or action.
>
>Any organizing in these regions must appreciate that an
>inability to embrace the African American and Chicano
>social movements respectively will result in
>disappointment, if not failure. Simply focusing union
>attention on the South and the Southwest, while an
>advance over what most unions are doing today, is
>insufficient. The unionizing of these regions must be
>connected to the fight for political power for
>traditionally disenfranchised groups. During the 1988
>Presidential campaign, the Rev. Jesse Jackson put it
>best: "In one hand, you have a union card; in the other
>hand, you have a voting card."
>
>9. State federations and central labor councils must be
>democratic, inclusive, young and audacious: Too many
>central labor councils and state federations, due to
>their lack of representation, are disconnected from the
>realities that their members face, not to mention the
>realities faced by the bulk of the working class.
>Central labor councils and state federations must
>represent strategic centers for local political action,
>coalition-building, member education and inter-union
>support. If any of this is to work, then central labor
>councils and state federations must look more like
>their memberships. Just as with the national AFL-CIO,
>the local and state bodies must provide legitimate
>representational structures for people of color and
>women. The local and state bodies must ensure that
>these structures make up a significant segment of the
>leadership of the trade union movement, thereby
>reflecting the diversity and aspirations of its
>membership. This means not only the inclusion of AFL-
>CIO constituency groups, but an organized and active
>process of recruiting new delegates and leaders
>representative of the workforce in their respective
>industries, and the creation of opportunities for
>younger trade unionists to learn and test their own
>leadership abilities.
>
>10. The union movement needs real membership education:
>It is presumptuous to think that either organized and
>unorganized workers will blindly follow or adhere to a
>certain point of view without providing them with a
>coherent and up-to-scale mechanism by which they can
>access information. Without, however, the necessary
>resources for a significant, member-focused educational
>effort, it will be impossible to provide union members
>a different vision of trade unionism, achieve their
>loyalty, or motivate them.
>
>Education not only means imparting information, but
>dialogue and debate as well. A reinvigorated labor
>movement needs an integrated education program that
>joins together an examination of domestic and
>international economics, as well as a critical look at
>US foreign policy. In addition, such education program
>must foster the development of a framework for
>advancing discussions about class, race, gender,
>capitalism and the fight for power for working people.
>As such, the notion that organizing can take place in
>the absence of education or that education is somehow a
>distraction or a draw away from organizing is absurd.
>Paying attention to the education of our base is a
>profound sign of respect. Calls for mobilization in
>the absence of a coherent and unified framework are
>disempowering, irrespective of the intentions, and will
>not invoke worker militancy or support.
>
>11. The US union movement must build both global union
>partnerships and solidarity with others fighting global
>injustice: The US trade union movement has made great
>advances away from the Cold War trade unionism of the
>past. In spite of these advances, the US trade union
>movement continues to be eyed with some level of
>suspicion by our friends beyond our borders, in part
>because of a frequent perception that we are engaged in
>protectionism. Excellent steps at union-to-union
>cooperation have, however, been taking place, but these
>must go much further. A platform for the
>transformation of the International Confederation of
>Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the global union
>federations/international trade union secretariats must
>be advanced, and should genuinely strengthen the role
>of unions from the global South (Africa, Asia, the
>Caribbean and Latin America). The US union movement
>must adopt an approach that encourages union-to-union
>relationships and worker-to-worker exchanges, up to and
>including the reform and/or creation of new
>international labor bodies that support real solidarity.
>In addition, the US union movement must develop means
>and mechanisms for providing concrete support to union
>movements and other progressive movements involved in
>the struggle for global justice. Such a stand must
>represent resistance to the race to the bottom being
>conducted by global capitalism against workers in all
>countries. We can not engage in or be perceived to be
>engaging in selective international solidarity, i.e.,
>solidarity only when it is in defense of US workers
>and our issues. Genuine international solidarity will
>also necessarily involve a willingness, on the part
>of the US trade union movement, to challenge US
>foreign policy when it undermines national
>self-determination and human rights.
>
>___
>
>We, who sign this document, do so with an interest in
>advancing discussion and debate within the union
>movement. In alphabetical order,
>
>Kate Bronfenbrenner, Director of Labor Education
>Research, Cornell University*
>
>Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO*
>
>Bill Fletcher, Jr., President, TransAfrica Forum*
>
>Patricia Ann Ford, former Executive Vice President,
>Service Employees International Union*
>
>Fernando Gapasin, President of the Central Oregon Labor
>Council and President of AFSCME 1108*
>
>Elena Herrada, President, United Catering, Restaurant &
>Hotel Workers, Local 1064, RWDSU*
>
>Tom Juravich, Professor and Director, Labor Center
>UMass-Amherst*
>
>Ruth Needleman, Labor Studies, Indiana University*
>
>Robert Phillips, policy analyst
>
>Steven C. Pitts, Ph.D., UC Berkeley*
>
>Katie Quan, UC Berkeley*
>
>Ken Riley, President, Local 1422, International
>Longshoremen's Association*
>
>Marchel Smiley, National President AFRAM-SEIU*
>
>David Bacon, labor journalist
>
>* organizational affiliation for identification only
>
>Statement Endorsers (list in progress-submit to
>bill_taf at yahoo.com)
>
>_______________________________________________________
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand