By Richard Mellor in California
The image above is screenshot from Facebook. The texts says: “End workplace ICE raids, drop charges against David Huerta, and vote against funding the deportation machine. Stand peacefully against military force in our communities.”
Here’s the problem and why the labour hierarchy, including those at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are an obstacle to change and one of the reasons the right wing has gained ground and Trump where he is. It’s the “vote against funding the deportation machine”.
Huerta [an official of SEIU] has been released, which is good, and obviously who could oppose the statements the SEIU leadership makes in this posting about ICE and the general opposition to the militarisation of our communities, except racists, xenophobes and labour haters?
But there’s another side to it. The SEIU leadership is well aware that the Democratic Party is not seen as a viable alternative to the capitalist offensive by millions of workers and trade union members. The reality is, it is seen as part of the problem as well. It is actually a dishonest, sneaky, way of arguing for a return to the status quo that brought us to this point.
Living standards and working conditions, have been savaged, no matter which of the two capitalist parties is in power. Conditions have gotten to the point that the leadership atop SEIU, and indeed the entire leadership of organised labour, can’t call for a vote for this party by name so they leave the “Democratic Party” out of it and the worker is left with, basically, just “vote” for change.
Entire labour movement leadership is politically bankrupt
The entire leadership of organised labour in the US is politically bankrupt and without the rise of a rank and file movement from below, armed with a program that responds to our most important needs for living a decent life, there will be likely be further defeats down the road, as the capitalist system of production is experiencing a global crisis of historic proportions, and it is workers that will be asked to pay the price.
The leadership of a major trade union like SEIU, calling for the election of Democrats (that’s what it is) and simply calling for a vote for the “other” capitalist party, with its dismal record, is at this point a sick joke and an insult to workers. It’s not a serious alternative at all.
The US Congress is a gathering of representatives of US capital, among them, racists, Zionists, white Nationalists and other antisocial elements who are supporting a genocide. They are not the friends or representatives of working class men and women and they do not fear the heads of organised labor; they consider them allies of a sort, maintaining order among a vital sector of the working class in this country.
There needs to be a recognition of this, and a serious response to it. The Democratic Party cannot provide this, which makes the building of an independent workers’ party, based on our organisations and communities, a vital issue.
The assault of Trump and his menagerie on immigrant workers, undocumented or not, is a conscious diversion from the real causes of our decades-old decline in rights and living standards. It is necessary, not to simply oppose the raids on working class communities and immigrant families, but to seriously organise against it.
Community defence organisations in Latino areas
I was told today that working class immigrant communities are beginning to build community defence organisations to confront the raids. This is a critical move and should be broadened to include workplace defence committees and so on.
In addition, it is crucial in situations like these, to have a conscious strategy of appealing to the troops on a class basis, with leaflets and discussions where that is possible. As socialists put it, the military brass is from the ruling class, but the troops are workers in uniform.
The mass media in the US is very powerful and tightly controlled, but as we are witnessing with the Gaza genocide, social media is more difficult to censor. The Internet is vital to market activity, so shutting it down completely is more complicated.
Plus, it is my view that the more aggressive the regime in Washington gets, the more anger it will generate. It is impossible to determine what the mood is within the US military, not simply regarding these events domestically, but internationally as well.
About 19%, or 65 million people, in the US identify as Latino, and the US military has about the same percentage of Latinos as members. Many of the people being vicitmised and arrested will have relatives in the military and many Latinos will not take kindly to the rounding up of people overwhelmingly from this group.
It cannot be ruled out that behind the scenes, many US military personnel will be discussing this situation among themselves and are questioning its validity. If the present situation is not stabilised we could well see some splits developing within the military itself.
Organised labour has some 14 to 15 million members
Now, I stress the SEIU leadership in these remarks and in most of my writing, not because I have a fetish of attacking the trade union hierarchy. I point them out because, I am well aware it is not the dues-paying members of the union that determine policy and strategy in these cases and during organising drives or strikes; it is the leadership. So I don’t simply refer to “the union” in these instances.
So we should not let the heads of organised labour, a national organsation with some 14 to15 million people in it, off the hook. Workers in all major industries in the US are organised. This potential power is kept in check by the labour hierarchy in league with the Democratic Party. This marriage of opportunity, or opportunism might be more accurate, has to be annulled.
From the US socialist website, Facts for Working People. The original is here.
