The Default of the Labor Union Bureaucracy Set the Stage for Trump!

The Default of the Labor Union Bureaucracy Set the Stage for Trump!

From My essay The State of Today’s Trade Union Movement (1998)

The defeat of the air traffic controllers (PATCO) strike in 1981 marked a new turning point in the history of the trade unions in the United States. During the course of that strike, the federal government, in a bipartisan effort, seized all of the union’s funds and successfully bankrupted and broke that union. The lack of solidarity on the picket line, with the International Association of Machinists crossing the lines and the federal government using military personnel as scabs to break the strike, demonstrated the weakness and total bankruptcy of the trade union leadership. The unflinching willingness of the government to break PATCO sent a fear of death down the spine of every union bureaucrat in the nation.

The AFL-CIO leadership at that time responded with the following course of  action:

1. They called for demonstrations in the nation’s capital and in other cities against union busting. But   they covered up the partnership of Democrats and Republicans with the nation’s employers to break unions, to make picketing illegal, etc.. They developed new theories to cover up their bankruptcy.   The code words were:   “We can’t win strikes anymore; we need new strategies—the old ways don’t   work,” etc..
2. Out   of these echoes of   doom, a new strategy, the “Corporate Campaign” and the concept of building a partnership between management and labor was born.
3. They developed the “two tier” wage system whereby   lower wages and worse working conditions were negotiated for new workers entering the industry. In this manner, the AFL-CIO sold out the next generations of workers before they ever went to work. They also began developing other   strategies to avoid strikes and risk the loss of their treasuries.
4. The so-called International Unions pledged to the government and their employers to  police any local areas that did not follow their program of wage cuts and “productivity   increases” (speedup). In the process, the International Unions consolidated their policies. 

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The Result of This ‘Partnership’ Was the Complete Betrayal of the Working Class! 

The Betrayal has led to the unions assisting the employers to drastically cut the standard of living of the entire Working Class! 

This Process has been going on for over 40 years and consequential demoralization of the working class. 

The last 4 decades, in the United States, have been the largest transference of wealth From the Poor, the Working class, and the Middle class, to the rich, the 1%, in the history of the world!

This has been done thorugh ‘normal exploitation’ of the working class, and through Austerity Programs (Cutting the social wages of the working class.), through Government Lies and Statistics, Usury, and with the full Compliance and Silence/Support of the United States Trade Union Bureaucracy!

The Labor bureuacracy have  scapegoated minorities and immigrants for the cuts to working clas standard of living to hide their misleadership and paving the way for Tump’s scapegoating!

Minneapolis General Strike Against ICE

But the mass response to a local call for a general stike in Minneapolis to the ICE muders was an expression of the working class saying enough! But it was also a demonstration of the collective power of the working class! The city was shut down!

It could be the start of mass awakening of the working class!