AFL-CIO calls unions to ‘Stand for America’ rally L expressing their displeasure with Democrats

Scan page 4

Last month, AP ran a story about union officials by organizing what was described as a “shadow convention” in Philadelphia prior to the boss parties’ nominating rituals. But those organizing the Workers Stand for America rally on Aug. 11 reject that term. I suppose they don’t like the implication of being a help­ less, lockstep background of an illuminated leader. Or maybe they are touchy about today’s union influence being a shadow of its former gravitas.

Unions have seldom had much of a presence at Re­ publican conventions but until the recent past they were welcome and highly visible at the conclaves of their Democrat “friends.” They didn’t come empty handed either; union-hosted “hospitality” events on the convention fringes were often only marginally less lavish than those of their corporate “partners.”

But this is not your father’s Democratic gathering. Team Obama not only passed up the invitation for the president to address the recent NAACP convention— America’s oldest and biggest civil rights group. They also keep union friends at arm’s length. The vice presi­ dent, who knows his place in Constitutional shadows, is assigned to glad-hand and commiserate once feted union and civil rights officials.

The Obama DNC even seemed to go out of their way this time to not just ignore their loyal labor helpers but to insult them. They picked a convention city in a right-to-work bastion of union avoidance and bust­ ing. The local boosters brag that the very convention center they will gather in was one hundred percent built—and is staffed—with non-union labor.

Union officials are fit to be tied—which, of course, they are. So they are going to spend most of what they would have dropped at the Democrat shindig in the City of Brotherly Love instead.

Referring to the Philadelphia rally in an e-mail, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told those of us paying dues to the House of Labor, “Our goal is to refocus the national discussion on the imbalance in our country’s national priorities. ... It’s not about party, it’s not about politics. It’s about people.” They plan to reaffirm a lofty but empty Second Bill of Rights—proposed by FDR in 1944. Whether Lunch Box Joe Biden will attend re­ mains to be seen.

“Imbalance” seems a rather delicate euphemism for Marty Goodman / Socialist Action hardly a peep even from the teacher unions about the privatization of education being championed by Obama. And they make little fuss about the White House promotion of globalization—such as the recent trade deal with Colombia and crucial support of new sweatshops in Haiti that will supply WalMart and Gap.

But our illustrious leaders don’t just talk it up for their Democrat pals—they put our money where their mouth is. Newscorp’s Wall Street Journal last month released a far-ranging analysis of union resources pumped in to election campaigns over the past few cycles. The motivation for this Murdoch muckraking is to paint organized labor as just another big money “in­ terest group,” on the same footing as corporate PACs and SuperPACs.

In fact, union spending remains modest compared to billionaire bankrollers. But it’s not chopped liver either. The unchallenged WSJ-reported statistics show unions spent $4.4 billion in various ways on electoral politics from 2006-2010. They will undoubtedly spend more than ever on their “friends” in this year’s con­ tests—what Steelworkers president Leo Gerard calls the most important election since FDR ran against Herbert Hoover.

If the labor movement invested this money—and the disciplined army of volunteers at its disposal—in to creating a party of labor’s own, it would be a whole new ball game. The Democrats would be left lurking in the shadows. Our side would have an effective politi­ cal champion in the class war raging in America today.

If we do that, anything is possible. As long as we fail to do that, nothing good is possible. n