Solidarity Day '91

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BEW BEW IBEW IBEW & EW (continued from page I) do to allow all that we have achieved for the good of all to be swept away without a fight."

But, alas, Kirkland and other top labor officials did nothing during the last 10 years to put his words into effect. As a consequence, the economic situation for American working people has gotten worse.

Ten years later

Today, social services to the poor, sick, and unemployed are at an all-time low, while rises in taxation and inflation continually chip away at every worker's paycheck. Meanwhile, profits for the bosses climbed in the last decade.

The wealthy have grown richer at our expense and get bailed out of failed schemes, like the savings and loan debacle, which have robbed ordinary Americans of their life savings.

Along with these worsening social conditions, the power and authority of the unions has declined. Union membership is at its lowest point in 50 years. The failure of labor officials to mount an effective response to government and business attacks on our standard of living has largely contributed to this decline.

These were some of the factors which undoubtedly led Lane Kirkland and other leaders of the AFL-CIO to call for another national march.

In the last several months alone, there have been two examples of why labor should flex its muscles on a regular basis and not just on Labor Day holidays.

A 22-month strike against Eastern Airlines ended this year with Eastern going bankrupt. Strike solidarity among all airline workers, with the full backing of the AFL-CIO, could have shut the airports down until Frank Lorenzo backed off his Wall Street scheme to bust the union and auction away Eastern assets to the highest bidder. Instead, over 30,000 workers lost their jobs—while junk bond raider Lorenzo walked away with millions of dollars.

On April 7, some 230,000 rail unionists stopped work after rejecting a humiliating package lowering wages and eliminating jobs. By midnight, President Bush and Congress passed emergency legislation forcing everyone back to work. Last month, a Congressional-appointed board ruled that rail workers must swallow the companies' terms.

When have the Democrats and Republicans in Congress ever acted that fast to stop layoffs or to halt pay cuts?

These are only a few of the reasons why working people should flood into Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31. The New York AFL-CIO has already reserved every available bus in the metropolitan area. Several labor councils throughout the country are following New York City's example by cancelling regularly scheduled Labor Day activities in order to increase participation in the Washington protest.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) also took a big step by declaring 19CW LOCAL Friday, Aug. 30, a national work-free holiday for union coal miners. Workers will be able to take the day off to make it easier to travel to Washington.

These examples indicate that the projected attendance of 200,000 is realistic.

Working class power in action As we face the certainty of increased employer attacks on our standard of living, the need for more Solidarity Days in every town and city throughout this country will become more evident to the thousands marching up Constitution Avenue.

Unfortunately, the top leaders of the AFL-CIO who are organizing Solidarity Day '91 are not promoting this idea. In fact, notwithstanding the importance of initiating Solidarity Day '91, there is no indication that the labor bureaucrats have changed their fundamental orientation of relying on liberal Democrats rather than on the mobilized power of the union membership.

Douglas Fraser, then head of the powerful United Auto Workers of America (UAW), told the massive audience at Solidarity Day in 1981 that he saw the rally as a way of "stiffening the spine of some of our friends" in Congress. Ten years later, his successors are repeating the same mistake.

George Kourpias, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers of America (IAM), recently commented on Solidarity Day '91 and made the same point. He said that we should see the demonstration as a chance to "hold leaders accountable for the misery their political decisions have caused."

If pressuring labor's so-called friends in Stick Together NIALI 1805 Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action Congress, and expressing labor officialdom's disappointment with the 1989 election of George Bush was all that Solidarity Day '91 was about, there wouldn't be much point. But the impact of the march goes well beyond the conservative intentions of its main organizers.

There are certain to be more struggles in the months and years ahead, and each of these fights will challenge workers to relearn basic political lessons of labor history which have been long forgotten or ignored: To rely on the power of their numbers, their organization, and their strategic role in production.

Those who attend this year's Solidarity Day will see for themselves a vivid example of labor's potential power to reverse the setbacks of the last decade.

Labor power and politics Extremely significant is a project which has been recently organized, called Labor Party Advocates (LPA), This new committee seeks to channel labor's potential power in a new direction. It is based on the idea that the power of working people must be brought to bear on the political level if workers' interests are to be defended and advanced. The LPA promotes the formation of a labor party, based on the unions, and independent of the Democrats and Republicans.

The campaign has been launched by Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) Secretary Treasurer, Tony Mazzocchi.

LPA seeks to popularize the idea that the bosses have two parties, so working people should have their own political party. Mazzocchi reports broad popularity for the idea. Clearly, there are millions of disaffected eligible voters. On average, 65 percent don't vote in national elections.

But these figures do not simply represent workers' apathy. The betrayals of the two capitalist parties, and their role as the representatives of big business, is provoking a more extensive discussion of a labor party in this country than at any other time in decades.

In a speech to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Mazzocchi reported that in his polls of over 50 unions, an impressive average of 40 percent to 60 percent responded in favor of an independent party of labor.

Mazzocchi also reported a recent surge in the number of invitations to speak before local unions since he began agitating for the idea several years ago. For example, he stated that he is inundated with invitations to speak from rail unionsthemselves the most recent victims of the government working hand in glove with the bosses.

The Solidarity Day '91 marchers can be expected to be even more responsive to the LPA call. The radicalizing impact of participating in a massive, labor-led solidarity demonstration will be far more significant than the affect of any of the ill-advised speeches which ask workers to give the Democrats another chance.

For more information, call 1-800union presidents when he lamented,