Where are John Sweeney and the heads of Organized Labor

Where are John Sweeney and the heads of Organized Labor?


We are living in interesting times. There is no doubt that U.S. capitalism is in a crisis, in many ways, a crisis more threatening than September 11th, rogue states or the red menace. There can be nothing more damaging than a loss of confidence in the system itself and the present crisis is seriously eroding the confidence that has been built up during the nineties boom. As one worker at Enron put it "The lesson of Enron is that you cannot trust the corporations." This sentiment is a problem for U.S. capitalism not only domestically but also in its drive to impose free market policies on its rivals.

In extreme examples of corporate theft workers lost not only their jobs but their entire retirement nest egg. The stock market declines of the past period have reduced many 401K accounts to rubble, altering drastically the retirement plans of thousands of people. There is definitely a shift of focus in the workplaces of America.

But why has there been no outward expression of this discontent? From Argentina to Paraguay to Nigeria there have been protests, rallies, strikes, and occupations against privatization and neo-liberalism. Admittedly, the crisis is more acute in these examples but it is difficult for a movement to arise when there is no force around which it can crystallize, that can give organizational expression to the anger that lies beneath the surface of society.

That force exists in U.S. society but it is criminally absent from the scene. I am speaking of the leadership of the organized working class here, the heads of the AFL-CIO. Here is an organization with some 12 million members, thousands of locals and councils across the country and a huge staff and budget. The heads of organized labor should be organizing rallies, and coordinated demonstrations in cities across the U.S. protesting the plundering of society's wealth by the corporations. Through such mobilization the real nature of the crisis can be explained and the anger people feel at what they think is simply corruption can be directed in an organizational way at the real source of the problem; the system itself.

From the Middle East to the Enron debacle the labor leaders are silent. The floor is open, our enemies are floundering, but the silence from the heads of mighty organized labor is deafening. And why is this? It is primarily because the strategists at the AFL-CIO are wedded to the Team Concept, the view that the employers and workers have the same interests, are on the same team. It is this ideology that prevents them from defending their members adequately on the job. It prevents them from organizing a generalized fight back against the attempts of the employers to unload the present economic crisis on to the backs of workers here and internationally. Simplistic explanations like "Evil" and "Corruption" for the causes of terrorism or corporate robbery are accepted by working people in the absence of any analysis at all from the heads of our movement.

Were AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and his colleagues to play a different, more combative, role the situation in the U.S. and internationally would be transformed overnight. But this is the danger. The heads of organized labor have built a relationship with the employers and their political representatives based on cooperation and teamwork. Giving organizational expression to the anger and frustration that U.S. workers, the middle class and youth feel would threaten that relationship and lead to chaos from the labor leadership's point of view.

At some point, like a plugged up drain, the obstacle of the labor leadership will be broken and the anger in society will rise to the surface. I think this is an inevitable process and will be influenced by other developments like in Seattle where young people and elements in the ranks of organized labor drew closer together. Something the strategists at the AFL-CIO did their best to avoid at subsequent events. Don't want those young people with their radical ideas influencing their members.

There will be many painful defeats due to the passive role of the heads of organized labor but the courage and determination of the youth in their struggle against global capitalism will inevitably influence the rank and file in the Unions giving new life to many an older trade union activist like this writer and transforming the organizations in the process.

Richard Mellor
member, AFSCME Local 444, Oakland CA