nursing a solid grudge

  i wonder 

   if  either

 the in clique
of rust stack 
gub flub
   and monkey wrench pie cardery 
  in control
   of  the executive soviet

    or 
its  rival 
 waiting in the wings 
  the stern hoffa gang 
  dares straight up
                answer 
       this lady 
              of the struggle's
                          10 points  ?


=============================================

By Rose Ann DeMoro

July 21, 2005   
1.  There are no real ideological disputes,
 in part
because the current AFL-CIO 
leadership and programs
were, mostly,
 put in place
 by those now challenging
them. 

It appears to be 
more about egos 
and an effort
 by
specific unions
 to anoint themselves 
as the group who
should control the AFL-CIO.

2.  No workers 
or rank and file union members 
are
involved, 
and it is their labor movement.

 Much of the discussion 
is based on recommendations 
of consultants

 Madison Avenue approaches 

such as branding,
 polling
and focus groups,
 and scripted blogs, 
rather than 
engaging the membership 
and the public 
on helping shape
the future 
of the labor movement.

3.  No issues affecting 
the majority of working
Americans 
are being debated 

 1)declining real wages,
 
 2)the health care crisis

3) the continued erosion 
of democracy
in the workplace

 4) outsourcing of jobs
 across the skill
and pay spectrum

5) a deteriorating 
social safety net

6) declining support
 for public education

7) environmental
degradation, 

 8) social justice
 and ongoing racial
 and
gender inequality

9)  alienation and disaffection 
from the
political process.


4.  No real solutions 
to these problems are being
proposed

1) curbing corporate control
 of the political
and economic system

2) single payer-universal health
care 

3) a progressive tax system 
that restores fair share
taxes 
on corporations and wealthy individuals

4) taking
corporate money
 out of politics,

5) a new industrial trade
policy,

6) a peace, not war economy

7) a strategy
for reforming repressive/crippling 
labor laws and
enforcement bodies

5.  The specific proposals 
by the Change to Win group
are structural and bureaucratic
 not programmatic
rebating union dues
 forcing unions to merge
 limiting the executive council
 to the largest unions, 

claiming sovereignty 
for unions
 by industry or sector
based on a union's density 
in that area
 There is no
evidence any of these changes
 would solve labor's
problems.

6.  The notion that the salvation 
of the labor movement
reduces to "density as manifest destiny" 
is
historically false, 
and analytically shallow. 

Equally,
for the unions 
that are proposing the monopolistic
changes, 
seemingly self serving.
 Some unions that have
achieved density 
have been decimated by corporate
sponsored political
 economic
 and social policies

Besides, forced mergers
 are anti-democratic
 and could
silence the voice
 of the most active and militant
unions and union leaders

7.  If the issue of organizing
 was simply dues rebates
we could all rest easy
 But that notion is painfully
oversimplified
 Some unions 
in and out 
of the Change to Win unions 
are organizing
 within the current structure
others have not organized for years

 Even if the AFL-
CIO paid per capita
 to some of these unions 
they still
would not 
or could not organize
 And forcing mergers is
not synonymous with organizing
 and in fact could
silence the voice 
of the most active 
and militant
unions and union leaders 
who are fundamental in
building this labor movement

8.  Perhaps because 
the corporate right 
is so extreme,
some 'progressive' analysts 
have been portraying 
the dues rebates 
and proposed forced mergers
 as core
issues. 

But more troublesome 
are those pundits
 who
write glowingly 
about the Change to Win group's 
greater
expansion 
of   labor-management partnerships
 with their corporate-friendly
 cost savings schemes
 worker speed
up programs
 explicit endorsement of globalization,
deskilling
 outsourcing and privatization
 as Labor's
salvation

 These proposals 
can only serve to further
alienate 
the American worker
 from the labor movement
further erode labor's power
 and harm 
the very society wide communities
 with which labor
 needs to align and
                  nurture.

9.  Limiting the executive council 
to the biggest
unions 
would further reduce 
the influence 
and voice of
women 
and people of color
 in labor leadership.

10.  No discussion
 of non-bureaucratic strategies
 are
on the table
 including 
1) expanded coalitions 
with non-labor
 community religious
 and environmental groups;

2) active grassroots education 
and mobilization campaigns
to challenge 
the corporate/far right agenda; 

3) building
genuine political independence 
and holding the democratic party 
accountable
 to worker and public interests
 and serious consideration
 of  - imagine, 
a labor party 
for a labor movement.

Rose Ann DeMoro :
 executive director 
of the California
Nurses Association