OCAW convention reflects pressure of rank and file

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1983 Oil workers strike against Union Oil in Rodeo, Calif. The rank and file are fed up with giving concessions to the mighty oil conglomerates. 6 SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1988 A man cried and touched everyone's heart. Delegates were urged to read a radical account of labor history. A slate of officers, who not long ago were bitter foes, was elected. And no one put forth a resolution to endorse the Democratic Party. But a central question, that of merger, was ducked.

This, then, was the 1988 convention of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (O.C.A.W.), which concluded in Hollywood, Fla., on Aug. 19.

Make no mistake about it, it was not a turning point. Rather, it was a reflection of the pressures generated by the takeback demands of the bosses, on the one hand, and of the workers' resistance to those demands, on the other.

In 1981, conservatives won the election for O.C.A. W.'s top offices by less than 1 percent of the votes over the slate led by Tony Mazzocchi. Mazzocchi's slate had called for a break with the Democrats and urged the establishment of a labor party.

Now in 1988, some of those conservatives were allied with Mazzocchi. From 1979 (when Mazzocchi first challenged the conservatives) to 1988, the union has lost half its members-some 90,000. Most jobs fell to plant shutdowns and attrition due to automation and the contracting out of maintenance jobs.

The conservatives' initial solution to the crisis was to merge with the Paperworkers union. This merger would have protected their own positions and attendant privileges at the expense of rank-and-file control of the union. And there would have been little increased bargaining power with common employers. Two efforts to merge didn't pan out.

Conservatives shift gears

Increasingly, the conservatives were forced to call for the abandonment of the status quo. For instance, last year President Joe Misbrener wrote an editorial in which he stated that the challenge of the multinationals' growing power to roam the globe in search of the cheapest labor and the least restrictive safety and environmental conditions had to be met with worldwide industrial trade unionism.

The O.C.A. W. became the prime mover of the first world conference for nuclear workers. The conservatives then found themselves responding to stepped-up company attacks by having to do some of the same things Mazzocchi had advocated, such as forging coalitions with environmentalists.

One of the conservatives, Vice President Bob Wages, noted in his campaign speech for reelection that, although philosophical differences remained, time and events had shown Mazzocchi's vision to have been correct in many respects. Wages said that, for this, Mazzocchi's viewpoints were needed within the leadership.

In 1987, one of the conservatives elected in 1981, Secretary-Treasurer Mike Ricigliano, had a row with his fellow officers-President Joe Misbrener and Vice Presidents Calvin Moore and Bob Wages. Ricigliano was charged with corruption in office. He in turn accused the others of squandering funds on international trips and legal expenses and of exhibiting favoritism in the allocation of organizing funds.

The locals who were attacked for receiving favoritism pretty much defended themselves at the convention. As Organizing Chair during the drive in my local, I spoke on the floor in our defense.

The local, upon being attacked, also sent a delegation of rank-and-file activists who Dave Campbell is an executive member of and delegate to the convention from Local 1-547 of O.C.A.W. had been the backbone of our efforts. They set up an attractive organizing booth which included displays of leaflets and newsletters used in our campaign, photos of plant-gate demonstrations, and a graph chart which showed month by month how many people were recruited in our open shop.

The rank and file pointed out that 305 new members brought in dues of $6400 per month and, therefore, a campaign that spent $13,000 was justified.

Merger with the Mineworkers Ricigliano reversed his earlier position in favor of a proposed merger with the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA), one LOCAL 1-326 OCAW AFL •ea which would have preserved the concept of rank-and-file control and had the potential for increased bargaining strength with common employers. (The Oil Workers and the Mineworkers were, in another time, key forces in forming the CIO, whereas the Paperworkers' heritage was that of the APL)

Ricigliano mobilized opposition to the proposed Mineworkers' merger in the coal regions-Southern Illinois, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Alabama. It was in this region, in which miners would outnumber O.C.A.W. members, where local union elections dominated by miners were a threat to O.C.A. W. local officers' positions.

It was here that District Directors would no longer be appointed but would have to stand for election among all those miners.

At the convention, the issue of merger with the UMWA was avoided like the plague. Richard Trumka, Mineworkers president, was the only one to mention it. He reiterated his desire to collaborate with the O.C.A. W., whether it be in coordinated bargaining with common employers or in a merged organization.

Trumka said miners were no longer fighting Old Ben Coal Company but were now fighting multinationals. These multinationals who owned the coal, he pointed out, now owned the oil and uranium too. Trumka said that the multinationals sought to make "us all beggars in our land" and that, therefore we should all unite in a common fight.

Trumka also spoke on the subject of the Democrats. He urged their election, but stopped short of posing them as labor's saviors. Trumka said, "We have to rely on ourselves.

Next to speak were members of the Louisiana delegation. They described the situation in Geismar, La., where BASF, a German-based company, has locked out members of O.C.A.W. Local 4-620 for Joseph RyarSocialst Action over four years. They thanked the international union and the various locals which had contributed to their Adopt-A-Family program. They also thanked the International for its leadership in generating international and regional solidarity.

Upon returning to their seats, one of the Louisiana workers got the mike and said that he was scared of talking in front of so many people. The battle had been hard, he said. As he choked up and fought back tears, he continued:

"Thanks from the bottom of my heart to the brothers and sisters who made a real difference in making it so my family could eat, who showed they cared. I don't know if I'll ever get back to work, but I'll fight that company for the rest of my life, God willing."

Convention delegates got a chance to see an O.C.A.W. video production about BASF, which has not yet been released to the public. The video details the historical roots of the company, which under a different name had been a pillar of Hitler's fascist regime.

Nuremburg, with all its publicity, prompted the company's name change to BASF. Now BASF is trying to crush workers in Louisiana, displaying what one worker in the video calls an evil presence with no regard for human values—only for profit.

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• Mr-x... BASF workers in other countries. It shows workers at the main plant in Ludwigshafen, West Germany, collecting funds for the Louisiana victims and holding demonstrations. The solidarity committee successfully pressured the German Parliament to send a delegation to Louisiana to investigate the situation.

"Labor's Giant Step"

Tony Mazzocchi then gave a campaign speech. He said that the O.C.A.W. would be involved in political action but that if the November results proved to have been a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, then his views on the labor party deserved fair consideration.

He went on to give a big plug to "Labor's Giant Step," a history of the American labor movement written in the 1950s by Art Preis, a member of the Socialist Workers Party. Mazzocchi called the book "Labor's Bible" and urged everyone to read it.

Mazzocchi said the labor movement had to be revitalized in order to recapture the power, passion, and hope best expressed in one passage of "Labor's Giant Step," which Mazzocchi then read.

This passage recounts the moments leading up to the time when a night-shift man reached over from his machine, threw the plant's power switch, and stopped the rhythm and noise of the plant. The workers in perfect synchronization all stepped back from their machines and stood in the "deafening silence." Finally, one of them yelled, "By God, by God, we shut it down!"

Mazzocchi said it is this spirit which will truly build the new world from the ashes of the old.

This reporter, one of 538 delegates, is now hoarse from the floor fights. District 1, representing the West Coast, started the roll call with solid block votes for international solidarity, for organizing, and for a leadership which espouses the call for a labor party.

As the roll call went through midAmerica we picked up more votes. Then the East Coast finished it off. We elected a slate of international union officers which seven years ago no one would have thought possible.

The conflicting pressures on the union bureaucracy of the bosses' demands and those of the rank and file is causing cracks in the less-entrenched union tops' reformist programs. In order to retain their positions, they are having to align themselves with those who openly say the Democrats have no solutions for workers. They themselves, are very cautious about posing the Democrats as a solution to the rank-and-file problems.

This was the significance O.C.A.W. convention.

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... Workers and students revolt Burmese student at Bangkok, Thailand, rally protests repression military auSocialist Action launches fall fund drive (continued from page 1: “Rally honors 50 years of the Fourth Int'l, special 8-page inside”)

against that country's one-party dictatorship. One million people demonstrated throughout Burma on Aug. 23, bringing the economy to a standstill and forcing the government to lift martial law.

The ruling party, which has appropriated the name "socialist" but in reality is capitalist, has been paralyzed by the movement for democracy, which has become the biggest challenge to its rule in over 25 years.

One Burmese journalist, Sein Win, was imprisoned by the government on July 29 and released on Aug. 25 as a result of the recent demonstrations. Win was caught up in a mass demonstration upon his release and commented afterwards with satisfaction, "When I left prison yesterday, I entered a new country." (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 28)

Mass strikes and occupations In South Korea, the entire year has seen massive strikes and factory occupations by workers fighting for their share of the Korean "economic miracle." In early August, the first effective national rail strike in South Korean history shut the country down.

Along with the labor struggles, militant students have been waging a fight for North and South Korean reunification, trying to link up with their North Korean brothers and sisters. Both of these struggles have been met with police clubs and tear gas by the South Korean government.

The capitalist opposition parties have done nothing to aid these struggles, and the students and workers are relying on their own strength to move forward.

In Poland, the Stalinist bureaucracy is facing the biggest labor upsurge since the declaration of martial law in 1981. Almost 100,000 workers took over the shipyards, steel mills, and mines throughout late August demanding an end to austerity and the legalization of Solidarnosc.

Tanks, water cannons, and riot police were met with defiance by workers fighting for the gains of the socialist revolution— promised, but not delivered, by the Polish bureaucracy.

The struggle Polish workers thorities in Burma.

been accompanied by demonstrations and strikes in the other workers' states. In Czechoslovakia, 10,000 demonstrated on the anniversary of the "Prague Spring" of 1968, which preceded a Soviet inyasion of that country. It was the largest demonstration in Czechoslovakia since 1969.

A small but significant demonstration took place the same day in Moscow demanding "U.S.S.R. out of Czechoslovakia." Both of these demonstrations were broken up by police.

In Hungary, over 300 m ners struck on Aug. 24 against cuts in pay bonuses and a new income-tax law, both of which have been demanded by the International Monetary Fund. Strikes of this nature are rarely reported in Hungary.

socialist democracy The thread running through all of these struggles is that "peace" without democracy, without a decent standard of living, without control over one's own life is no peace at all. It is simply an empty phrase used to keep people from all that which is worth fighting for; all that which working people are entitled to.

But no amount of phrase-mongering or sweet-talking can get around the fact that society is divided between hostile classes which can't be reconciled through diplomacy. The tiny minority that owns the wealth of society is very happy with the current situation, and will not give up its position to the majority which produces the wealth—without a fight.

This is the class struggle which, despite periodic ebbs, rages continuously. It must end with the victory of the working majority, because defeat would be a mortal blow for humanity as a whole.

Despite the propaganda from the imperialists in Washington and the Stalinists in Moscow, working people from Poland to Burma to South Korea are seeing through the lies and fighting for their interests.

A revolutionary leadership What is needed now is a leadership which can struggle effectively against the capitalists, expose the Stalinist bureaucrats of the world, and provide the workers with a revolutionary socialist alternative.

The Fourth International was founded by Leon Trotsky 50 years ago for that purpose. Its program offers the only revolutionary perspective for the millions of people suffering under capitalist exploitation and Stalinist betrayal. In many countries, its partisans are in the forefront of the class struggle.

Socialist Action, which is in political solidarity with the Fourth International, held a meeting on Aug. 6 in San Francisco to commemorate 50 years of the Fourth International.

This meeting, which brought together revolutionary socialists from around the world, is a demonstrable example that it is possible to forge an international working-class leadership based on the historic program of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky, to fight for socialism on a world scale.

The coming world revolution will usher in a democratic socialist future, with the wealth of society owned and controlled by its majority. Only then can there be true peace. This is the task to which we in Socialist Action are committed.

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