USA: Labour's Critical Voices by David Finkel
It wasn't exactly the norm for a U.S. labour gathering: Nearly a thousand convention participants— led by strike activists from the Detroit newspaper unions — left the hall and marched through the city's downtown restaurant district, chanting support for local newspaper workers' 20-month struggle for justice and decent union contracts.
This wasn't a trade union convention, but rather a biannual conference sponsored by the activist newsletter Labor Notes. The event, held in Detroit on April 18-20, was the ninth such conference since the publication's founding in 1979. Long-time participants recall how miraculous it seemed when nearly 600 attended the first conference in 1981, under the banner of "putting the movement back in the labour movement." By 1997 the conference has doubled in size, and become a small but significant institution as a gathering place for a mix of labour activists.
Labor Notes conferences do not adopt resolutions. Instead, they offer a forum for critical analysis of the labour movement's direction; a wide assortment of workshops on everything from organising skills to racism, health care, welfare reform and cross- border solidarity; and opportunities for workers from specific unions to exchange experiences and create networks to dynamise or reform their union. Those in attendance included activist labour officials and staff as • well as issue-oriented groups and a variety of labour radicals.
Participants came from ninety different unions, and from eleven countries-including Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina and the Canadian state. The Labor Notes conference was distinctive in other respects as well. No top-level AFL-CIO officials addressed the meeting, but the opening evening was dedicated to a panel debate and audience discussion assessing "the first year of the new AFL-CIO leadership."
Activists agree that the AFL-CIO's new emphasis on organising, after decades of a declining percentage of union membership, is a welcome development. They also note two severe deficiencies, however: the often debilitating absence of union democracy and membership mobilisation, and the AFLCIO's continuing effort to create "partnership" with the corporations. Indeed, such "joint" union-management schemes as "Quality of Work Life" and "Team Concept" have been the targets of critical analysis in books and articles produced by Labor Notes for over a decade.
The conference also heard a welcoming address, not from some bourgeois politician cultivating a friend-of-labour image, but from Kate DeSmet, a leader of the newspaper strikers and their action arm "Shutdown Motown."
"This is no time for obituaries on our struggle in Detroit," DeSmet stated, emphasising that supporters of the long and bitter strike must not fall victim to the view that the fight has ended in defeat. (Two thousand strikers have been locked out by the Detroit newspapers after the six striking unions offered an unconditional return to work. The unions are seeking a court injunction, under terms of U.S. labour law, to force the papers to re-hire all the strikers.) Action Motown '97!
DeSmet and other newspaper strike activists urged conference participants to organise their fellow unionists for a return to Detroit on June 20-21, the dates set by the national AFL-CIO leadership for "Action! Motown '97," a mobilisation to show support for the newspaper workers and others who face the loss of their jobs to "permanent replacement workers" (strike-breakers ).
For many labour activists, the June 20-21 mobilisation symbolises the positive, though limited, changes taking place in the structures of the union movement. The new leadership headed by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney did call the action — however belatedly — a step that probably would never have been taken under the former regime of Lane Kirkland.
Yet this leadership called for the action only after months of pressure from rank-and-file lobbying by the newspaper strikers and their supporters, and then after the striking unions had made the offer to return to work. Some of the militants regard the AFL-CIO's call for June 20-21 as a "consolation prize" in exchange for the unpopular return-to-work offer-but they are determined to make the most of the opportunity for a mass mobilisation.
Newspaper union activists who attended the Labor Notes conference viewed it as an important opportunity to spread the word among the activists who have the energy, commitment and connections to build the June action. A Network and Information Centre
In many other countries, the activists who attend the conferences and weekend
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Do the workers have a country?
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schools organised by Labor Notes, and read the books it publishes, might be connected through some kind of political network, perhaps as a left-socialist group or the left wing of a social-democratic party. (Though even where labour parties exist, worker activists in this interconnected global economy are finding that they also need to link up through specialised organisations as the Transnational Information Exchange.) Left labour projects
In the United States, where the labour bureaucracy remains loyal to the Democratic Party and the left is unorganised, the vacuum of co-ordination is even more complete. In this context, a project like Labor Notes offers an invaluable centre for exchanging ideas and experiences. Indeed, the newsletter came into existence because a current of activists with experience both as socialists and rank-and-file organisers recognised the possibility of filling this need
Last year a new party came into existence, the Labor Party, organised under the auspices of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers and also sponsored by three other unions. Still in formation, this new party attracts the enthusiastic hope of labour radicals. Its leading organiser, Tony Mazzocchi of OCAW, has been a featured speaker at several Labor Notes conferences. Not surprisingly, the conference workshop on "The Labor Party: Prospects for the Future" was one of the best-attended at the Labor Notes conference.
The conference also heard inspirational addresses from such leaders as Horacio Romo of the Electrical Workers Union of Mexico and Marta Ojeda of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras; Ken Paff of Teamsters for a Democratic Union; Baldemar Velasquez of the Farm Labor Organising Committee; and Ron Daniels of the Centre for Constitutional Rights and Campaign for a New Tomorrow.
The sentiment prevailing at this conference was one of cautious optimism that the U.S. labour movement, a "sleeping giant" for so long that many feared it was permanently comatose, is stirring — and not a moment too soon. The newspaper strikers who led the participants through the streets of downtown Detroit expressed the hopes of many with their closing chant: "We'll Be Back! We'll Be Back!" * (Labor Notes forthcoming pamphlet on union democracy and why it matters, by Martha Gruelle and Mike Parker, will be available later this year. For information on subscriptions and books, write Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Avenue, Detroit MI 48210, USA. Telephone (313)842-6262, email [email protected]) [For more information about the Action! Motown '97 demonstration sponsored by the AFL-CIO for Detroit on June 20-21 e-mail [email protected] Contact the Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters (ACOSS) at 313-961-4480 or call the Metro Detroit AFL- CIO Hotline at 888-97MOTOWN.JMay 1, 1997 reviews * comming events
Marxist answers to "globalisation"
(Marxistische Antworten auf die "Globalisierung") 21.-28.June, Vienna, Austria. Contact: Sozialistische Alternative, Postfach 395, A-1070 Vienna, Austria Tel: 0043-1-5233578 Fax: 0043-15265083-4 or VSP, Dasselstr. 75-77, D-50674 Cologne, Germany Tel: 0049-221-9231196 Fax: 0049-221-9231197 E-Mail: <[email protected]> Sweden: SP summerschool
5.-12.7., Oestergoetland (centralSweden). Political "smorgaasboard" sports, nightmovies, literary café and splendid childcare in wonderful natural setting. Adults 1100 SEK, children 500 SEK, families maximum 2 800 SEK. Reduced prices for unemployed, students and those who sleep in tent. Prices include accomodation and all meals Contact: Socialistiska Partiet Box 6087 S-102 32 Stockholm, Sweden. Phone: 0046-8-31 08 50 Fax: 0046-8-33 75 30 E-mail: [email protected] France: LCR Summer school
"Politique et loisirs, convivialite et debats, tables rondes, ateliers, soiries culturelles)" 28.-31 .August, Grenoble Contact: LCR, universite d'ete, 2 rue Richard Lenoir,F93108 Montreuil-sous-Bois, France Tel: +33-1-48704220 Fax: 0148592328 South Asia and the diaspora 50 years after the end of British colonialism School of Oriental and African Studies* Malet St, London. 18-19 Oct. 1997
Organised and co-ordinated by the British-based South Asia Solidarity Group, his unique conference will bring together key academics and activists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Europe and North America. We will discuss the effects of globalisation on South Asia, and the intense organised struggles waged by powerful people's movements: a feature of all countries in the region today.
Speakers and participants will examine the new strategies and theoretical approaches emerging in these movements, and the identities of class, caste, gender and nationality which these struggles are heightening and reshaping. Many of these speakers are well known activists in South Asia, but speaking for the first time in Britain.
Sessions include: workers struggles in the context of industrial restructuring and structural adjustment • globalisation, ecology movements and population control strategies • nation state, militarisation and refugees • communalism, religious sectarianism and fascism • gender and identity in South Asia and the diaspora • land struggles, caste and peasant movements • the relationship between people's movements and NGOs • globalisation and South Asian culture and art • the changing nature of racism in the context of the new world order • the left in South Asia * Sponsored by SOAS, De Montfort University and Luton University Registration costs £3/day for students, low and unwaged,
£10/day for waged individuals, and £25/day for institutions. Cheques payable to SASG should be sent to SASG, c/o Londec, Instrument House, 205=217 Kings Cross Ra, WC1X 9DB. For further details tel./fax +44 171 354 8744 or 713 7907 Raise your banners '97 31_Oct.-2 Nov. 1997, Sheffield, England
Following the enormous success of the 95 festival, plans are under way for a bigger, better, even more exciting celebration of political music.
Invitations have gone out to some of the best known British and international names in political music. An extensive programme of films, drama, performance poetry, workshops, children's events, exhibitions and discussions will complement the more than 20 concerts which are planned for city centre venues, large and small. To receive a programme send a SAE to the Festival Office, RYB, PO Box 44, Sheffield, S4 7RN Labor links, capitalist contradictions: activism, socialism and the "new" labor movement Solidarity summer school, July 31 -August 3, 1997, Chicago, Illinois
This summer school is primarily laborfocused, with workshops including: History of the Labor Movement • TDU and the New Teamsters • Student Labor Activism (SLACs/Grad Unions) • Living Wage Campaigns • Third Parties, Labor Parties • Worker's movements in Latin America • Racism in the Labor Movement • Globalization and Restructuring
Other workshops include: The Rise of the Radical Right • Fighting for Environmental Justice • Women in the Global Economy • Music and Politics Schedule and cost: Begins at noon on Thursday, July 31st and ends on Sunday afternoon, August 3rd. North Park College is centrally located in Chicago and accessible by public transportation. The cost for room and board per day is about $35. A very limited amount of non-dorm housing is available. To reserve your place, send $20 for registration. to Solidarity, 7012 Michigan Ave. Detroit, MI 48210, USA. E-mail: [email protected] • Fax +1 (313) 841-8884 • Tel.+1 (313) 841-0160 Summit of the future
Wednesday, June 11-Friday June 13. A three-day youth-conference in Eindhoven (Netherlands) organised by the Jongerenbond, Rebel and ASJV. presentations include: Europe in a globalising world, Robert Went • Overcoming national-populist xenophobia, racism and neo-fascism, Patrick van der Voort ("Unified against Racism" committee) • Restoring social protection, Jan de Rijk (board member of the Dutch Union in the Food sector) • European unification and the Third World, Wim Baltussen (Dutch SGS-Third World Solidarity group). Participation costs 50 guilders. Information and registration: tel. +31.40.246 44 03
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