BY RON BLASCOE, STEWARD, WPEC LOCAL 4848
This spring we saw massive rallies of immigrant workers, here in Wisconsin and across the country.
For the most part, non-immigrant union members watched it on TV. Individual response ranged from giddy to hostile, on the extremes, but most of us probably just didn’t give it too much thought.
That response shouldn’t surprise us. Most union members in this country have never known or (if they’re old enough) have forgotten what a real labor movement looks like. And basic union principles have been supplanted by the ideology of capitalism, so that instead of “An injury to one is an injury to all” we are left asking, “So, what’s in it for me?”
And maybe that’s a good place to start, because what’s happening with immigrant workers affects all working people in this country: unionized and non-union, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.
We should first get clear on one thing: what we saw in the streets this past spring was a movement of immigrant workers. These people didn’t come to the US on vacation or to admire our culture. They came to work. All the talk about legal status, language and where people were born obscures the simple fact that these folks are part of the working class of this country.
While some of these workers we saw in the streets are union members, most are not. But they certainly are organized. Call it what you will, what we witnessed on May 1 was a nationwide general strike. Something like that doesn’t happen spontaneously.
So what we have here is nothing less than a militant mass movement of organized labor. And it’s largely outside of the existing AFL-CIO or Change to Win structure.
We have to go back some to find an historical parallel. In the early 1930’s workers began organizing mass strikes, quite independent of the AFL leadership. Many of these workers were later signed up by the CIO and the AFL, but this independent movement continued with militant mass strikes into the late 1940’s.
There is general agreement that the upsurge that began in the ‘30s resulted in widespread industrial unionism which, in turn, lifted a segment of the US working class out of poverty and changed the political balance of power in this country. At least for awhile. The gains of that upsurge largely have been frittered away to the point where less than 10 percent of the private sector workers in this country are unionized today. And the impact of that de-unionization is evident in the dwindling standard of living and political power of the US working class.
As in the ‘30s, we have an opportunity to link this new immigrant workers movement and existing unions for our common benefit. From the union’s standpoint, it is the people and the spirit of this new movement that will breathe life into our often lifeless organizations. For the immigrant workers movement, existing unions can provide resources and political cover in a risky venture. Together we can create the conditions for a new upsurge that can restore the power of the labor movement.
But it’s only an opportunity. Nothing is guaranteed. There are things non-immigrant union activists can do – or fail to do – that will determine our common destiny.
First there is the tendency for a lot of US-born workers to fall for the idea that immigrant workers are somehow the enemy: that they take our jobs, live off of our taxes, undermine our national values and all the rest. For some, we have to admit, there is also the element of racism.
The employing class is well-practiced in promoting divisions among the working class. Divide and conquer. They keep doing it because it works. If we are going to rebuild labor’s power based on the strength of this new immigrant labor movement, we are going to have to confront these divisive ideas in our own ranks head on.
Those of us who are in unions have a special duty to help link up our organizations with the immigrant labor movement, which is largely outside of the unions.
Probably the major danger of close collaboration between the unions and the immigrant labor movement is the potential that the relationship would cause the movement to lose its edge. To be effective, a labor movement must confront the power of capital in the workplace, with militant direct action. Certainly one of the reasons that this new labor movement originated among immigrant workers is that many come from places where class consciousness is still alive and sharp class struggle is still practiced.
Longtime union activists probably have a right to be pessimistic. We’ve experienced defeat after defeat and we’ve felt the strength of organized labor wither over the years. Some have lost hope and may be just going through the motions. Others seem to be eternal optimists.
But now we’ve seen 10 million immigrant workers demonstrating their power in the streets. And we can imagine linking up with this immigrant movement to create a new labor upsurge. What we do in the coming weeks and months will determine whether this is an opportunity taken or lost.