Ten Principles All Unions Should Be Built Upon

I found this list of precepts from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union(ILWU).  The ILWU is a militant, independent union that most unions could learn a few things from.  The ILWU honors every picket line, which I have written about before here. The ILWU has a long history of successful labor actions and an extremely active membership.  The following is a list of the ILWU's ten guiding principles.  The labor movement would do well to adopt them across the board.

 

I
A Union is built on its members. The  strength, understanding and unity of the membership can determine the union’s  course and its advancements. The members who work, who make up the union and pay  its dues can best determine their own destiny. If the facts are honestly  presented to the members in the ranks, they will best judge what should be done  and how it should be done. In brief, it is the membership of the union which is  the best judge of its own welfare; not the officers, not the employers, not the  politicians and the fair weather friends of labor. Above all, this approach is based on the conviction that given the truth and an  opportunity to determine their own course of action, the rank and file in 99  cases out of 100 will take the right path in their own interests and in the  interests of all the people.

II 
 Labor unity is at all times the key for  a successful economic advancement. Anything that detracts from labor unity hurts  all labor. Any group of workers which decides to put itself above other workers  through craft unionism or through cozy deals at the expense of others will in  the long run gain but little and inevitably will lose both its substance and its  friends. No matter how difficult the going, a union must fight in every possible way to  advance the principle of labor unity.

III 
 Workers are indivisible. There can be  no discrimination because of race, color, creed, national origin, religious or  political belief. Any division among the workers can help no one but the  employers. Discrimination of worker against worker is suicide. Discrimination is  a weapon of the boss. Its entire history is proof that it has served no other  purpose than to pit worker against worker to their own destruction.

IV
“To help any worker in  distress” must be a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its  individual members. Labor solidarity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact  that the solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called  sanctity of the contract. We cannot adopt for ourselves the policies of union  leaders who insist that because they have a contract, their members are  compelled to perform work even behind a picket line. Every picket line must be respected as though it were our own.

V
Any union, if it is to fulfill its appointed task, must put aside all internal  differences and issues to combine for the common cause of advancing the welfare  of the membership. No union can successfully fulfill its purpose in life if it  allows itself to be distracted by any issue which causes division in its ranks  and undermines the unity which all labor must have in the face of the employer.

VI
 The days are long gone when a union can consider dealing with single employers.  The powerful financial interests of the country are bound together in every  conceivable type of united organization to promote their own welfare and to  resist the demands of labor. Labor can no more win with the ancient weapons of  taking on a single employer in industry any more than it can hope to win through  the worn-out dream of withholding its skill until an employer sues for peace.  The employers of this country are part of a well-organized, carefully  coordinated, effective fighting machine. They can be met only on equal  terms, which requires industry-wide bargaining and the most extensive economic  strength of organized labor.

VII 
 Just as water flows to its lowest level, so do wages if the bulk of  the workers are left unorganized. The day of craft unionism – the aristocracy of  labor – was over when mass production methods were introduced. To organize the  unorganized must be a cardinal principle of any union worth its salt; and to  accomplish this is not merely in the interest of the unorganized, it is for the  benefit of the organized as well.

VIII
   The basic aspiration and desires of the workers throughout the world are the  same. Workers are workers the world over. International solidarity, particularly  to maritime workers, is essential to their protection and a guarantee of reserve  economic power in times of strife.

IX
 A new type of unionism is called for which does not confine its ambitions and  demands only to wages. Conditions of work, security of employment and adequate  provisions for the workers and their families in times of need are of equal, if  not greater importance, than the hourly wage.

X
Jurisdictional warfare and jurisdictional raiding must be outlawed by labor  itself. Nothing can do as much damage to the ranks of labor and to the principle  of labor unity and solidarity as jurisdictional bickering and raiding among  unions. Both public support and strike victories and jeopardized by  jurisdictional warfare. This code for rank and file unionism is implemented by the membership’s  participation in organization, negotiations, strike machinery, contract  enforcement and every other aspect of union life. Thus, its discipline springs  out of participation, conviction and the right of the membership to decide its  own course of action. The above principles and steps to implement them, and an  informed and alert membership make the union what it is.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

Is It Time For a Working Class Continental Congress?

In 1905, Big Bill Haywood opened the first convention of the Industrial Workers of the World(IWW) by saying, "This is the Continental Congress of the working class."  Nearly one-hundred and seven years later, is it time for the working class to come together again for a 2nd Continental Congress?  After all, in spite of what anti-labor propagandists would have us believe, many of the issues faced by the IWW in 1905 still exist.

I asked several members of the labor community if they thought that such an endeavor could be successful in galvanizing the working class beyond big labor.  Bill Fletcher, author of Solidarity Divided said, "I think that regional gatherings that built towards something national would be interesting particularly if broad."  Countering that point of view was Chris Townsend, National Political Director for the United Electrical Workers of America(UE), who stated when I posed the question of whether this could be an effective approach, "Yes, but not yet. The level of union activity at the rank and file level may be an an all-time low point. The "left" plays little role in addressing this, choosing instead to rally whatever contacts they have for issues and struggles other than basic union organization and struggle. We have a labor leadership which has relegated organizing the unorganized to marginal status at best, with many having given up on it altogether."

As for myself, I believe that the time has come for the working class - both organized and unorganized - to begin meeting in a sort of workers' councils at the local level.  Once these have been established, then the planning of a 2nd Continental Congress of the Working Class could commence.  What must be guarded against is the tendency that big labor has had in the past to usurp control over any movement of this type.  Bill Preston, President of AFGE Local 17 in Washington, DC, also mentioned that big labor might try to take over control of  the movement, " I am for experimenting with any tactical form that advances the cause of expropriating the capitalists and making the working class the ruling class...I think the labor fakers will try to hog the limelight as you say, once they see their unions' members active."

As we have witnessed over the last 18 months or so with the Tea Party and Occupy Movements, sometimes it is better to not have one organization or individual driving a movement.  If the workers in the United States have had enough, now just might be the right time for action.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

Cuba: Where The 99% Kicked Out The 1%

From the remarks of Bill Preston, President AFGE Local 17, at a November 18 panel sponsored by U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba and the Metro DC Coalition to Free the Cuban Five.

Cuba is a country where the 99% actually took over and kicked the 1% out of power.

While we in the imperialist countries learn about current developments in Cuba's socialist economy, we cannot forget the internationalist duties of those of us who reside in the land of U.S. imperialism:

We cannot "forget even for one moment," Lenin argued, that "our" imperialists stand for the exploitation, oppression, and annexation of the nations and peoples who form the greatest masses of humanity, in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

For someone who lives in the U.S. who thinks they support socialism to fail to do this—to forget U.S. imperialism's historical and ongoing rapacious desires to exploit, oppress, and, yes, to annex Cuba—makes that U.S. person, as Lenin would put it, "an abettor of imperialism in practice."

In Lenin's time the struggle for the right of self-determination within the ranks of the Second International centered mainly on the advocacy and fight for freedom of secession for oppressed countries. "Without this," wrote Lenin, "there can be no internationalism." ("The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up," 1916.)

Today the struggle for the right of self-determination includes the right of socialist countries, like Cuba, where the working class is the ruling class, to independent development free from imperialism.

Cuba's freedom from foreign imperialist control, its right to develop its socialist economy in the way Cuba determines is in her sovereign best interests, is inextricable from consistent internationalism today. By supporting Cuba's rights actively, we help fulfill our internationalist obligation to struggle for the right of self-determination.

Demands Of The Occupy Movement

As the Occupy Movement continues to spread across the nation, there has been a lack of cohesion within the movement.  Sure, people are angry, but what do they want?  In the union business, this is known as a remedy.  When you have a grievance, you always present a remedy to the problem.  So far, the Occupy Movement has failed to display a clear vision outside of We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. While this is good, it would seem that the time has come to begin constructing a remedy for the culture of corporate greed, and political corruption that supports it.

I'd been tossing the idea around for a few weeks, and a couple of nights ago, I jotted down the following:


Nearly two hundred-fifty years ago, women and men in the not quite united states of America started a movement against a government which had become detached from the realities that made up their daily lives.  It was a government rife with corruption that protected only the interested of the wealthy elite, while ignoring the well-being of the vast majority of its citizens.  Our forefathers took it upon themselves to rid themselves of this tyranny not through violence, but by social action and mobilization of the oppressed.  It was the oppressive government who first resorted to violence, but in the end, the people were victorious.


Now, in our present times, we find ourselves living under similar circumstances.  Aided by a corrupt government, a small plutocracy oppresses the remaining 99% of the population.  The time has come for all people who are endeared to freedom and equality, who truly believe in the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to mobilize in a movement for the people's democracy.  

Some among us have already engaged this struggle in the form of peaceful occupation of the monuments of oppression and corruption.  Now that the struggle has begun, it is time for us to state our demands who have sought to control us for far too long:
 
1. UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL.

2. IMMEDIATE FORGIVENESS OF ALL FEDERAL STUDENT DEBT.

3. UNIVERSAL PUBLIC EDUCATION THROUGH COLLEGE.

4. INTRODUCTION OF THE STANDARD 35 HOUR WORK WEEK.

5. THE COMPLETE END OF DISCRIMINATION FOR GENDER, RACE, AGE, RELIGION, AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

6. INSTITUTION OF A BAN ON ALL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS.  ALL ELECTIONS WILL BE PUBLICLY FINANCED. 

7. IMPLEMENTATION OF CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS - 3 TERMS IN THE HOUSE, 2 TERMS IN THE SENATE.

8. AUTOMATIC COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT(COLA) FOR SOCIAL SECURITY TO KEEP UP WITH INFLATION.

9. ENFORCE THE RIGHT OF ALL WORKERS TO JOIN A UNION IF THEY CHOOSE TO DO SO.  ALL NLRB ELECTIONS MUST BE HELD WITHIN 5 DAYS OF PETITION.

10. GUARANTEED HOUSING FOR ALL CITIZENS.


As was the case with our forefathers, the government has resorted to violence in response to our peaceful protests - but just as they were victorious, so shall we, the 99% prevail in this struggle.

In Solidarity,

Joseph