Which Way Forward for Labor in the U.S.?

Three months ago, the main labor federation in the U.S. held its national conference, electing a new leadership slate that pledged to fight for jobs, universal single payer health care, new laws to open the road to organizing the unorganized, and for an economic recovery in the interests of working people. But since September’s convention in Pittsburgh there has been no sign yet that these words will be turned into action.

In September, the country’s main labor federation held its national conference, electing a new leadership slate that pledged to fight for jobs, universal single payer health care, new laws to open the road to organizing the unorganized, and for an economic recovery in the interests of working people. This was a step forward which many union members and activists welcomed, including those of us in the Workers International League. But since September’s convention in Pittsburgh there has been no sign yet that these words will be turned into action. The economy is worsening, with the official unemployment rate reaching 10.2%, mass layoffs continue, and despite talk of a recovery, the situation continues to worsen. Millions of working people are looking for a way forward.

Despite a decline in membership and the perception by some, both inside and outside the unions, that the Labor movement is in terminal decline, for Marxists, unions represent a huge potential not just for winning better wages, conditions, and benefit but ultimately, to help transform society as well. The Labor movement as a whole, with its 15 million-plus members, has the potential to mobilize millions of other workers and youth across the country to fight layoffs and cuts in social spending, which would at least soften the impact of the “great recession” on workers by forcing the bosses to realize that they cannot throw workers onto the scrap heap without resistance. The unions must now make this potential a reality.

The new AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka of the United Mine Workers of America union, is a third generation miner and has long been seen in the labor movement as a “militant” and someone “left-of-center” within the leadership. A large part of this stems from the fact that the UMWA has a militant tradition of strike battles, and Trumka himself led the successful 9-month Pittston coal strike in 1979, and also helped build solidarity between U.S. and South African mine workers in the struggle against Apartheid during the 1980s. More recently, Trumka came out in support of single payer health care before the September convention, which in turn endorsed the demand as well. His election was a modest shift to the left in the context of today’s unions, and many rank and file union members will rightly expect him to lead at least a defensive struggle against the bosses’ offensive. But for the AFL-CIO leadership to really mobilize the rank and file depends on their willingness to break with the Democrats, and the ability of the rank and file to organize and push the leadership to mobilize the movement.

Despite being elected to fight for the membership, the new leadership has so far refused to break with the Democrats despite raising mild criticisms. Health care is a case in point. At the time of the AFL-CIO convention, Socialist Appeal explained that the demand for socialized health care could only be won with class struggle methods, meaning mass mobilizations, linking up with the unemployed, up to and including strike action to really put the heat on the bosses and their government. So far, Trumka has come out in favor of Obama’s so-called “public option,” which is little more than a give-away to the HMOs and Big Pharma, while threatening to withhold support from Democratic members of Congress who have spoken against it. This is a far cry from HR 676, the “Medicare for All” bill, which Trumka endorsed just months ago!

On the economy, Trumka has said that the unions should mobilize to fight Wall Street and that working people should not be forced to “pick up the pieces” of the bankers’ mess. In an October 27th interview which aired on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, he went on to say that:

“Workers have had to go through a number of strategies to try to compete. First, we worked more hours. Then we sent more people into the work force. And then we got a second or a third job. And then we started borrowing on our 401(k)s. And then the high-tech bubble busted, and then we started borrowing on our houses.

“Look, the system that the financial economy created has failed. It’s failed. And the American public is saying, we need something different. We speak for those people who say, we want an economy that really works for everybody.”

Words like these coming from the top leader of the AFL-CIO are a step forward, and if Trumka is willing to really mobilize the rank and file to fight to transform the economy into one that works for everybody, starting with the working class majority, we will fight shoulder-to-shoulder with other members of the rank and file to make this a reality. But, the first thing we have to ask is, what is meant by “an economy that really works for everybody”? Does it mean an economy where the colossal resources of the world’s richest country are owned and democratically planned by society as a whole for the benefit all: socialism? Or does it mean a “kinder, gentler” form of capitalism where the banks and big corporations are expected to treat their workers more fairly, to stop worrying so much about profits and instead “do what’s right”?

As the saying goes, you can’t teach and old dog new tricks. Capitalism has existed for almost 400 years, and in all that time it has never been able to resolve the contradiction between private profit and the well-being of society as a whole, which today is overwhelmingly made up of the working class. The capitalist class lives by exploiting the labor of the working class, and the interests of the two are mutually antagonistic. This is the reality of the system.

This is why the Workers International League believes that in addition to fighting for quality, unionized jobs, better wages and day-to-day reforms that improve the conditions of the working class, if we are to really win a lasting improvement in our quality of life, our unions must ultimately set their sights towards the struggle for political power and the socialist transformation of society. Breaking with the pro-capitalist Democratic Party and mobilizing the colossal power of the Labor movement to fight in our own interests would be an important first step in this direction.