LEPAIO Opposes Dissolution of UAW Caucus, Supports Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD)
The Labor Education Project On AFL-CIO International Operations (LEPAIO) opposes the efforts to liquidate the Unite All Workers For Democracy (UAWD) caucus in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. This rank and file caucus was formed to support the fight for democracy in the UAW, scoring successes in winning “One Member One Vote” elections for national and regional officers, and winning election of a slate of reform candidates led by President Shawn Fain.
There are recent attempts by one faction of the UAWD to dissolve the caucus over political differences: this is a blatant reversal of the UAWD’s mission and its core principles, with which LEPAIO is aligned. We need more worker democracy in the labor movement where all working class issues can be debated, discussed and acted upon: debate not dissolution.
The AFL-CIO, the labor center to which the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) is affiliated, has developed as a pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist trade union organization. LEPAIO has been challenging the AFL-CIO’s acceptance of US government’s funding of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center via the National Endowment for Democracy (created during the Reagan administration in 1983) as an ani-democratic operation within the labor movement.
The recent DOGE-directed defunding of the NED and hence dismantling of the Solidarity Center, should be a matter for discussion and debate in the UAW and all AFL-CIO affiliated unions and other unions in the US. To date, the AFL-CIO leadership and the leadership of all AFL-CIO unions, including the UAW, have been silent about these unprecedented developments. The UAWD can play a critical role in promoting a revaluation of the US labor movement’s role internationally, and disentangling it from government control.
The US Empire is falling apart, giving rise to fascist Trump and the undermining of all democratic rights of working people. There is a corresponding political crisis in the labor movement: we urgently need more democratic debate and a structure that will allow for all workers to discuss and debate the issues that we face.
The UAWD faction wanting to dismantle the caucus has the apparent backing of the leadership of Labor Notes, the DSA Bread and Roses Caucus, and the Social Justice & Solidarity Fund trustees. We urge them to reassess that support, and to stand with the UAWD founders and members who see the urgent necessity of building an even stronger democratic caucus in these turbulent times. The reform of the UAW has taken big steps but the work is far from done, as elements of the entrenched bureaucracy are pushing back to mute the organized voice of the progressive rank and file. LEPAIO stands in solidarity with fighters for democracy in the UAWD.
For more information, contact:
Frank Hammer 313-355-2401 (UAW 909)
Steve Zeltzer labormedia1@gmail.com
Kim Scipes 773/615-5019
LEPAIO https://aflcio-int.education
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