Posted by Gregory A. Butler October 20, 2011 7:58 pm at Facebook: Employed & Unemployed, Unite and Occupy! |
NYC Central Labor Council (CLC) Votes for March on Wall Street
On October 19, the Delegates Meeting of the New
York Central Labor Council (member of the AFL-CIO
representing 1.3 million workers in NYC) voted unanimously for New York’s
unions to mobilize for a massive march on Wall Street on November 5. The
power to act on the delegates’ vote now lies with the CLC Executive Board,
which is composed of the city’s local union presidents.
The CLC brings together delegates from the AFL-CIO and other unions in New York City. If its major unions make a serious effort to
mobilize their members, we could see a truly massive march on Wall Street that challenges the ongoing efforts to make
working-class and poor people pay the price for the economic crisis.
Moved by AFM Local 802 Recording
(musicians) Vice President John O’Connor and seconded by TWU Local 100
(public transit) Vice President for RTO Kevin Harrington as well as other delegates, the motion concluded:
This body call on its member unions as well as all other unions and community organizations to build a massive march on Wall Street of hundreds of thousands, mobilizing organized and unorganized workers, on November 5, the first Saturday of next month; and that this protest raise demands that can unite all workers, poor people and all those facing the brunt of the crisis:
- Working People Shouldn’t Pay for a Crisis That They Didn’t Make!
- No to Layoffs, Budget and Service Cuts!
- Create Jobs, Build Infrastructure with a Federal Program of Public Works!
- Stop Police Harassment of the Wall Street Occupation!
- And to this end, we appeal to other union bodies, council and federations around the country to organize similar protest actions across the country on November 5.
The idea for the march and motion to the CLC was initiated by transit, janitorial, city and college worker union members and young
Wall Street protesters,
many who are supporters of the League for the Revolutionary
Party. A big boost for the motion came when an LRP supporter raised the motion at a meeting of the
City College Chapter of the PSC union and it was overwhelmingly approved. A petition
backing the motion quickly gained the support of other trade unionists and a large number of
Wall Street occupiers and protesters, a good number of whom attended the CLC meeting to distribute the motion and speak in favor of it.
The challenge now is to make sure that the union leaders respect the CLC delegates’ vote and really build the march. That won’t be
easy.
Since the economic crisis broke out on Wall Street in 2008, this country’s union leaders have barely lifted a finger in opposition to the
wasting of trillions of taxpayers’ dollars on bailing out the banks and the terrible wave of layoffs and budget cuts that have followed.
Comfortable in their positions of privilege, the union leaders have mostly been concerned with holding onto their power and channeling
workers’ anger into the trap of voting for the Democratic
Party. (Why this is significant: "Occupy
Wall Street - A Movement Too Big to Fail")
In the CLC Delegates Meeting itself, there were already signs of backsliding. No sooner was the vote being taken than
CLC President
Vincent Alvarez, while promising to respect the decision, seemed to suggest that the CLC Executive Board might need to be flexible
about some of the details of the protest.
Any union leader who takes a real step toward organizing struggles by workers against the attacks on the jobs and living standards
will find us and many militant workers ready to join them in that effort. But in our experience, the pro-capitalist, pro-Democratic Party
union leaders can be expected to use an inch of “flexibility” to avoid organizing a real fightback against the anti-worker attacks.
In fact the way today’s union leaders avoid organizing struggles by their own members, let alone in conjunction with militant young
people like those participating in the Wall Street
occupation, came through in the discussion of other topics of the meeting.
For example, regarding the struggle going to vote down Ohio Governor Kasich’s vicious union-busting laws, a report was given describing the unions’ almost total reliance on phone-banking and door-knocking and very little on mass worker rallies, let alone strikes. But all experience teaches that to defend their rights, jobs and living standards, workers can only afford to rely on their own power to unite in struggle.
In Wisconsin an occupation of the Capitol Building and massive protests against
Republican Governor Scott
Walker’s union-busting legislation led to growing calls for a general strike. But union leaders wasted that momentum and channeled the
struggle into a passive election campaign that was predictably defeated.
So we must make every effort to build further support for the march and to make sure that the city’s union leaders make it happen.
Union members should take every opportunity to challenge their representatives, from Shop Stewards to elected office holders, to
make sure their union does everything it can build for the march. Motions in support of the march should be raised in every possible
union meeting. Organizations and individuals who haven’t already endorsed the march should be encouraged to do so by writing to:
Workers.March.Against.Wall.Street@gmail.com
Importantly, we must watch out for and denounce any tokenism or lip-service from the union leaders. The unions can send organizers
all over to rally support for the march, they can print and distribute leaflets, record and broadcast video and radio messages, send
e-mails and phone messages to all their members to build a mighty protest. That’s the sort of real mobilization we need.
The widespread support for the Wall Street protests (OWS)
shows that workers’ bitter sense of injustice is turning toward a recognition of the
need for action. This is an important chance to take forward the fightback against
the capitalists’ attacks that is so long overdue.
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