Letters to the editor
Published Sep 16, 2010 8:06 PM
Open letter to AFL-CIO head Rich Trumka
Wall Street, during the current economic depression, has thrown millions of
workers out of their jobs. Public worker unions and the jobs and services they
provide are now coming under attack. Wall Street is demanding that unions give
up hard-won contract benefits, from health benefits to pensions. Wall Street
banks are bailed out with our tax monies, while workers’ homes are being
foreclosed on by those very same banks. At the same time, corporate purchased
politicians in the U.S. Congress are threatening to attack worker benefits such
as Social Security and Medicare and threatening to privatize public services
such as education.
Working people, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Canadian border
to the Mexican border, represent the overwhelming majority of the U.S.
population. The only way for Wall Street to continue to succeed in criminally
stealing workers’ jobs and benefits is by getting workers to fight each
other by broadcasting racist propaganda over the big business media, meant to
prevent workers from uniting to defend their common interests.
Wall Street is funding the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim racist hysteria
because they understand that they must divide the workers against each other,
in order to succeed in their criminal plot. Under these circumstances, the only
way that the union movement can progress is by openly defending immigrants and
Muslims against these racist attacks. If we do not fight this racist propaganda
then we will find our members divided against each other and that will deny
labor the unity needed so as to defend our interests.
It means that every union should have thrown their political weight behind the
9/11 counter-demonstration to the Wall Street-sponsored 9/11 hate rally against
the Islamic community center two blocks from the World Trade Center location.
The official trade union movement failed to mobilize to oppose a vicious hate
rally that was meant to divide worker against worker. Since the official labor
movement did not show up and do what was necessary, we need to begin a serious
discussion about how to make sure that this never happens again.
Racism must not be allowed to infect the labor movement. The Tea Party bigots
and haters are not “populists.” They are funded with millions of
dollars from Wall Street and with lots of free propaganda from the big business
media.
We must properly respond during this critical moment in our history. The labor
movement’s strength is in our numbers and our unity. Take away that unity
and there will be no numbers. We must proclaim, loudly and clearly: An injury
to one is an injury to all!
The labor movement needs to speak loudly against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim
racist attacks or we’ll face the consequences of a destroyed labor
movement that is divided against itself. On 9/11 we should have been front and
center in opposition to the Tea Party hate rally. Our labor movement needs to
show its unity against these bigots and haters. If we show our unity against
these bigots, we will be victorious.
Si, se puede!
— Mike Gimbel, retired Executive Board member and Central Labor Council
delegate of Local 375, AFSCME
Mott’s strike a key test case
I am very glad to see you highlighting the strike at Mott’s in Williamson
on the front page of your newspaper.
While I agree completely that the Mott’s workers are “defending the
rights of all working people,” I think it is justified to go one step
further in this characterization: The Mott’s struggle is one of the key
struggles being waged over the future of the U.S. working class. The strike is
being used as a test case by corporations, who want to see whether worker
solidarity will hold firm. If support for the striking workers crumbles, it
will be a clear signal to other employers that they can proceed apace with
direct attacks on wages.
A broad-scale movement towards wage-cutting is virtually assured by the latest
economic data. Second quarter productivity figures from the BLS released in
August showed a sharp decline of 1.8 percent. This is widely taken by the
business class to mean that we have reached the limits of profit growth
attainable by speedups. A second avenue of profit growth — capital
investment in technology — is also ruled out by the current
“slackness of demand,” that is, we are already over-producing more
than people can afford to buy. This leaves only one clear avenue for growing
profits: a direct attack on wages, bolstered by maintaining high
unemployment.
What does this mean for workers? We must aggressively assert class-wide
solidarity with the Mott’s workers. The three most important ways we can
do this are: Organize support for the Mott’s picket line, contribute to
the Mott’s hardship fund, and build the boycott of Mott’s products.
Even small contributions make a great difference in this key struggle!
You can learn more about these actions at www.mottsworkers.com .
— Sam, New York
Since this letter was received, a settlement in the Mott’s strike has been announced.
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