By Richard Mellor in California
If there is any doubt about the utter bankruptcy of the heads of organized labour in the US, the re-election pep rally the AFL-CIO held for Biden in Philadelphia is yet another confirmation of it. It is particularly so as it come a few months after Biden led the charge getting the US Congress to pass legislation that denied the right of unionized workers to strike in order to safeguard the profits of the railroad investors.
By passing this legislation, Biden and the other representatives of capital in the two parties in the US body politic that they control, forced workers to accept a contract they had previously rejected. At yesterday’s event in Philadelphia, Biden said nothing that any conscious worker would take seriously; we’ve heard it all before. Here’s a few examples:
“Wall Street didn’t build America, you did.”
“If the investment bankers of this country went on strike tomorrow, no one would notice,”
“If this room didn’t show up to work tomorrow, the whole country would come to a grinding halt, so tell me – who matters more in America?”
“There are a lot of politicians in this country who can’t say the word ‘union’”
“It’s about time the super wealthy start paying their fair share.”
“Biden shafted the rail workers”
The sheer arrogance of Biden, the former Senator from Dupont, that he can stand up there and say these things at all, after he shafted the rail workers. It reveals such contempt of his audience, of the working people who did “build America”.
He can do it with confidence as his lieutenants atop these organizations workers built are there to protect him: “President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are the most pro-labor, pro-public education leaders our country has seen in modern history,” Randi Weingarten, the attorney and head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) told the crowd.
Rebecca Pringle, the head of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest union in the US, has supported Biden and the Democrats: “President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are tireless advocates for public education, proving time and time again that this is the most pro-public education and pro-union administration in modern history.”
Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (Afscme) my former union, echoed Weingarten and Pringle’s sentiments saying that “Joe Biden is the most pro-worker president of our lifetime. He respects and protects working people…”
And think about Biden’s assault on the railroad workers when you read that Saunders of Afscme said that Biden, “….prioritizes our issues and defends our freedoms – the freedom to organize, to earn a living wage, to build thriving communities and to have a seat at the table.”. Not the right to strike evidently, and without that right we are at the mercy of the courts and the generosity of the bosses’ and their political parties. Our unions and freedoms were won in spite of opposition from both. Won by relying on our own strength and by being willing to challenge antiworker laws and building mass action to violate them.
The organized workers still have great power
It is no accident that Sanders, Weingarten and Pringle are all over Biden, the public sector has come under assault and is a huge section of the organized working class, about 33%, but down from 35% when I was active. The private sector is about 6% organized.
Despite this, the organized working class can shut down the US economy and any aggressive action the organized sector took would inspire millions of unorganized workers as well, such is the anger that exists beneath the surface of US society and more often expressed though self-harm in one way or another given the role of the leadership.
The Democratic Party is the party of the labour hierarchy, not the dues-paying member. The trade union leadership funnels millions of dollars of their members’ hard earned dues money in to getting Democrats elected, billions over the decades. They also provide human resources as union staffers (whose primarily role is to ensure the concessionary policies of the leadership are carried out), organize precinct walkers, phone banks and other get out the vote activities.
The labour hierarchy acts to suppress any movement from within the ranks that might threaten this relationship. Biden would not feel so bold without their cover knowing no one will mention what he just did to the rail workers or his history as a political hack of Dupont and big business.
“Wisconsin union members are all in for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2024. Time and again, President Biden has stood shoulder to shoulder with working people to tackle the most pressing challenges we face and create an economy that works for all of us,” Nauseating statements like these from Stephanie Bloomindale, head of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, are an insult to union members and all working people and are almost too much to bear.
Millions have abandoned the political process
It is this class collaboration and the spectacle of these union heads making outrageous claims about a Wall Street Party and its leader that demoralizes workers even further. Millions of workers have abandoned the political process altogether – close to 100 million in 2016 – drawing the conclusion that on the basics, nothing much will change. Others will fall prey to right wing or conservative ideas and organizations. The labour hierarchy is as much responsible for this demoralization in US society and the madness that accompanies it, as well as the rise of Trump, by still pushing on the US electorate a political party most abandoned long ago.
Biden or any other Democrat can say what they like. In the last analysis, material conditions determine consciousness, not hypocritical proclamations, and workers’ living standards have continued this long decline under Republican and Democratic Party Administrations alike.
The hardest battle we face is not that against the bosses’ and the capitalist offensive. It is the internal struggle to evict the present leadership of our organizations from their position at the helm. How can Biden play this game and there no be a response to it from labour? His insulting claims cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged and the role of his agents atop the AFL-CIO must be exposed and explained and not simply by name calling.
If you are a leader in a local, you have an obligation to speak out. You can introduce a resolution in your local exposing this charade and pointing out that we have in organized labour the resources and structure to run candidates of our own that stand for labour and all workers on a platform that addresses our needs.
The working class could be an unstoppable force
When we unite with the communities in which we live and other sections of the working class, particularly the unorganized, we are an unstoppable force. We have the economic power as well. Every union activist that even claims the mantle of “progressive” should be doing this.
If you have a position on an executive board or as a leading officer in a local and there are many smaller locals that are not so bureaucratized and dominated by the full-time apparatus, you have an obligation to raise this hypocrisy and explain why labour must break from this death marriage with the Democratic Party that has had such devastating consequences for workers and our unions. Take this battle in to the higher bodies, the Central Labor Councils, District Councils and regional bodies of your national union and national conventions as well as the AFL-CIO state federations.
Yes, I know, I have said as much before, but things haven’t changed other than to get worse. And even with the possibility of the Teamsters making some small gains in their battle with UPS, which is making huge profits, and I think it unlikely, it will still be a temporary victory as the general trajectory is continued decline.
If the Teamsters threaten the economy through a strike, Biden will do to them what he did to the rail unions. US capitalism cannot maintain 800 bases around the world and forever wars to defend corporate profits, without making the US working class pay for it.
I felt so angry at Biden’s comments and every union member should feel that way. So speak out. Use your union to inject a different narrative in to our movement and society as a whole.
From the US socialist website, Facts for Working People. The original can be found here.
It is good to hear from someone who understands that the main problem is corrupt and sycophantic union leaders acting as loyal bag handlers to political charletans.
Over your side of the pond, Biden, over ours Starmer