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very time they were beginning to apply serious pressure to the bosses and pick up considerable support.

All these strikes were on the upswing when concession contracts were rammed down the workers' throats. In each case the membership was willing to fight, but the labor bureaucrats short-circuited the developing fightbacks.

The union leadership does its best to minimize the active participation of the ranks in the life of the unions. Negotiations between labor "statesmen" and company officials are put forth as a strategy.

The UAW, for example, canceled a demonstration called in support of striking AP Parts workers when the company agreed to return to the bargaining table even though two shifts of scabs were working at the the 1930s and '40s.

The Toledo Auto-Lite strike of 1934 took place in the context of a series of serious labor defeats as strike after strike was broken by court injunctions, scabs, cops, and company goons.

But the important difference between this strike and others at the time was the leadership and the program of union democracy involving the ranks; solidarity among workers-particularly the unemployed in Toledo; and the refusal to allow the strike to be derailed by court injunctions and government mediators.

Union democracy is key in actively involving the most conscious members of the union. It also serves to highlight the need for independence from government intervention in the unions.

Despite the efforts of the companies and union leaders to convince workers that their interests coincide with those of "their" company, the appeal of union solidarity is also strong.

The unions must embrace the demands of all the oppressed. Every attempt to divide the working class by pitting whites against Blacks and Hispanics, men against women, old against young, documented against undocumented, and employed against unemployed, must be firmly opposed.

In the process of the struggle in strike picket lines, rallies, and demonstrations, it will become ever clearer that the courts, legislature, and mediation boards are never impartial-they always favor the bosses.

Just as the boss cannot be trusted to represent our interests on the shop floor, the Democrats and Republicans cannot be trusted to represent our fundamental interests. The unions must break with these two parties and build a labor party.

Socialist Action will be part of the increasing skirmishes and will be a component of future campaigns to run independent working-class candidates based on the unions in local and national elections.

Such campaigns would take the developing working-class struggles into the political arena and would in turn provide an impetus to the struggles as workers begin to see the importance of exerting their own independent political muscle.

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ON GREYHOUND 2MS