Last September, in one  of his first acts as new AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka rallied unions on Wall Street to blast the “Apostles of Greed.” How refreshing — except that months later, bankers are still getting bonuses as employees get pink slips.

 

Clearly, U.S. workers need a strong defense against Big Finance — the capitalists who control the highest levels of government. But while Big Labor won gains from Congress in the past, such as social security, nowadays it’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling all the shots.

 

Still, the AFL-CIO is not without muscle. The federation has the capacity to focus the fury of working people, with its 500-plus state and local bodies and 57 member unions representing 8.5 million workers. But its fire is misdirected.

 

In the 2008 federal elections leaders enlisted 250,000 members to doorbell and phone bank for politicians. The AFL-CIO and rival Change to Win federation spent $400 million to win the U.S. Congress and presidency for the Democratic Party; they have little to show for it.

 

Imagine that muscle channeled into large strikes and street heat to demand billions of dollars for public jobs instead of bank bailouts. How the AFL-CIO uses its resources is of extreme concern.

 

Whither the AFL-CIO?

 

In September 2009 the AFL-CIO set its agenda for the next period at its national quadrennial convention. Delegates adopted resolutions in favor of healthcare for all and for withdrawing all troops from Iraq.

 

They also elected new leaders, a trio led by President Richard Trumka, who was Secretary-Treasurer under former president John Sweeney. Arlene Holt Baker, the new Executive Vice President, was an organizer with American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. She also is the first African American to serve as a federation officer. Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, the youngest person to hold that office, wants to reach out to workers under 35. She is from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

 

Despite this updated leadership, not much has changed so far. Upon taking office, Trumka championed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would base union recognition on a simple majority of signed cards. But when President Obama and Congress defanged the bill, and then dumped it, Trumka excused the politicians.

 

As Congress debates healthcare reform, Trumka is pushing for a public option but not abortion coverage. On both fronts things look grim. To save jobs, he calls for protectionist tariffs on rubber and steel goods, a shortsighted solution that pits U.S. labor against workers of other countries. He should demand the traditional socialist remedy of shortening the workweek with no loss in pay; a 30-hour week would force management to hire 25 percent more workers.

 

On the plus side, Trumka is determined to replenish AFL-CIO ranks by recruiting young workers, and is using the Internet to reach more people.

 

But he is taking over a troubled organization. The AFL-CIO is besieged by the same anti-union tactics and neoliberal policies that have enabled multinational corporations to ravage much of Latin America.

 

These external pressures are one challenge. Another challenge is the political weaknesses of the AFL-CIO’s own top leadership: officials’ historic collusion with management, orientation to the most privileged workers, resistance to correction from the ranks through lack of democracy, inattention to women and people of color, and refusal to aggressively unionize the low paid and unorganized. All this has cost the working class dearly.

 

From comprising one-third of U.S. workers in the 1950s, union membership has fallen to 12 percent today. Union treasuries are also smaller.

 

In 2005, several unions, including Service Employees International Union and Teamsters quit the federation to form Change to Win. CTW charged that the AFL-CIO had squandered resources lobbying politicians rather than organizing workers. But in 2008, CTW also bet the farm that a Democratic administration would bring beneficial laws and new union members.

 

It remains to be seen if Trumka, who is saddled with many of the same officials on his Executive Council, will reverse the paralysis, betrayals and defeats of the Sweeney years. What is certain is that the ranks can’t wait.

 

Resistance at the bottom.

 

In contrast to the compromising playbook at AFL-CIO headquarters, dynamism is apparent among the ranks who are fighting for survival.

 

Organized anger is building in people who were initially stunned by the economic meltdown. Stories of fightback, once rare, are becoming common: An Oregon labor/community coalition won and is now defending a state tax on rich people and corporations. Employees at Republic Doors and Windows in Chicago, and Stella D’oro in New York, fought closure of their workplaces. Their stories in previous FS issues can be read on socialism.com. Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity pushes for cross-union collaboration in Seattle. International Workers of the World (IWW) in Minneapolis are signing up baristas at Starbucks. Vital to many of these efforts is building support outside the workplace.

 

Class solidarity is key.

 

Florida farm workers, mostly Hispanic, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants, who formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, won better wages against huge odds by using lessons of international struggles. They made their fight a project of the entire town and thereby also built protection against immigration cops.

 

Workers at Berkeley, too, are showing the way. Years of tax breaks for the wealthy left the Golden State practically bankrupt. When takeaways were imposed on University of California staff they allied with embattled professors, students who faced tuition hikes, and radicals in the community who framed the fight as one of saving public education.

 

The unions, American Federation of State Employees (AFSCME) and University Professional-Technical Employees-Communication Workers of America (UPTE), went on a two-day strike and linked it to a statewide student walkout. This spurred teachers in Los Angeles to oppose a labor agreement that condemned many teachers to part-time temp status. Class-wide self-organizing efforts like these, led by women, immigrants, the young, and low-paid, that build mutual solidarity between unions and community groups, are where labor’s power lies.

 

Now is the time to form radical rank-and-file caucuses that can push unions and the broader labor movement to embrace and act on this orientation: an injury to one is an injury to all.

 

Workers can’t wait for change from AFL-CIO officials, but can press for it while organizing in self defense. Onward to radical change throughout society — flowing from the ranks of the working class!

 

Henry Noble, former National Secretary of FSP, and a retired member of the International Association of Machinists, can be reached at [email protected].

 

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Reprinted from  Freedom Socialist newspaper, Vol. 31, No. 1, February-March 2010

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