Campaign News

Salon - March 10, 2014, by Sarah Jaffe - The photos coming out of Madison, Wisconsin, this week have been both heartening and heart-wrenching.

Heartening, to see the Capitol that was the site of the 2011 uprising that kicked off a wave of protests against austerity, injustice and inequality filled once again with protesters chanting, singing, holding signs. To see people who were part of that uprising, like Mandela Barnes, now standing in the Legislature as elected officials, denouncing Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Party’s push for what is popularly known as “right-to-work,” despite having little to do with rights at work. To see a youth-led protest fill the Capitol rotunda with the chant that “Black Lives Matter.”

Heart-wrenching because the labor protests were much smaller than those in 2011, where tens of thousands clogged the Capitol building, slept in hallways and built libraries. Heart-wrenching because all of that uprising then was not enough to stop Scott Walker’s bill taking collective bargaining rights from public sector workers, and has not been enough to keep him from signing the no-rights-at-work bill into law. Heart-wrenching because another unarmed young man, Tony Robinson, is dead and no amount of protest will bring him or the hundreds of other victims of police violence back.

I am writing about these things together not simply because they happened in the span of a few days, but because their histories are deeply linked. As Jennifer Epps-Addison of Wisconsin Jobs Now tells Salon, “This generational poverty that is being inflicted, particularly on the black community in Milwaukee, is a form of state violence that desensitizes the rest of the Wisconsin community to these killings, and makes the rest of our state see a justification in these police murders.”

And what we now call “right-to-work” laws were spread in part by racist rhetoric that exploited already-existing divisions in order to pass laws that took rights away from all working people.

First, I should explain what these laws actually do. Legally, no worker can be forced to join a union. But if a union wins an election to represent the workers in a particular workplace (“shop”), the contract it wins through collective bargaining covers all of the workers in that shop, whether or not they voted for the union or signed up to pay dues to it. Accordingly, the law requires all workers covered by a union contract to pay a “fair share fee” to the union to cover the costs of representing them — not limited only to contract negotiations but also filing grievances and the like. What “right to work” does is give workers the “right” to the gains negotiated by the union without having to contribute anything at all to its costs.

These laws are designed to defund unions, pure and simple. They don’t make organizing impossible — the history of the Culinary Workers, UNITE HERE Local 226 in Nevada, attests to that. But they drain the coffers of unions, limiting their ability to do other political work or engage in organizing workers who don’t yet have a union.

The fact that we refer to these laws as “right-to-work” is one of the most successful branding operations the right has ever run, and labor has struggled to come up with an answer for it. Yet for years these laws were mostly limited to the South and Southwest, where race-baiting (and Red-baiting) had helped them succeed.

Before they were “right-to-work” laws, the name was, if possible, even more Orwellian: “The American Plan,” as Mark Ames notes, not so subtly aligning unions with things un-American, Communist and not white. (Think of people shouting about Obama’s birth certificate, and you’ll get the gist.) But “right-to-work” was the name that stuck, giving a rights-conscious, progressive-sounding name to a bill sold with virulently racist campaigns that promised to uphold “the color line.” Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies explains:

“Muse and the Christian American Association saw danger. Not only were the unions expanding the bargaining power — and therefore improving the wages and working conditions — of working-class Texans, they also constituted a political threat. The CIO in particular opposed Jim Crow and demanded an end to segregation. Unions were an important political ally to FDR and the New Deal. And always lurking in the shadows was the prospect of a Red Menace, stoked by anti-communist hysteria.”

And as historian Elizabeth Tandy Shermer points out, in some campaigns for these laws, proponents specifically targeted black voters, arguing that union shops kept out black workers and that “right-to-work” would open up jobs for them. (A similar tactic was used in the deregulation of the port trucking industry, where promises of “diversity” were part of a push to turn steady union jobs into poverty-wage “independent contracting” gigs compared to “sharecropping on wheels.”)

The labor movement has been contending for decades with the ramifications of its checkered history on racism. The exclusion of certain workers from New Deal labor protections has come around to haunt labor as more and more jobs now emulate the working conditions of 1940s farmworkers and domestic workers. The fall of Indiana, Michigan and now Wisconsin to “right-to-work” (and the flood of articles misrepresenting just what it is that RTW laws do) should remind us, if we needed the reminder, that legislated inequality will never remain tied to one region or to one kind of worker.

Wisconsin’s 2011 uprising centered around Scott Walker’s successful move to take collective bargaining away from public sector workers (and notably for today’s anti-police-violence movement, allowed cops to keep their rights). The public sector has historically been a place where black workers could get access to decent union jobs that were relatively protected from the racism that they faced in the private sector; the attacks on public-sector union rights were attacks that disproportionately hurt workers of color.

But Walker promised that he didn’t want right-to-work, though many observers figured that to be a line from the get-go, and he managed not only to stave off the recall that the pro-labor movement forced, but to see himself reelected. And now, safe in his second term, he has broken what some workers considered a promise.

The movement, though, continues. On Wednesday, March 11, as part of a national “We Rise” day of action that is slated to include more than 20 events in 16 states, Wisconsin workers and their supporters, organized by groups including the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, Ferguson to Madison, Youth Empowered in the Struggle, and Wisconsin Jobs Now, will come together to draw connections between attacks on union rights, growing poverty, mass incarceration and state violence. Jennifer Epps-Addison explains,

“This action was planned before the murder of Tony Robinson. The real goal for the action was to lift up the voices of young people, of people of color, of nonunion workers in this movement for economic and racial justice, particularly in light of right to work and the impact of right to work on those communities.”

The death of Tony Robinson has reminded Madison that even liberal cities are built on a history of segregation and denial of rights to their black residents. Wisconsin, Epps-Addison notes, has the highest incarceration rate for black men in the entire country. And, she points out, the systemic divestment from schools and services in communities of color is itself a form of state violence.

That’s why Wednesday’s event, she emphasizes, will not just be a rally. It will include direct actions targeting employers engaged in wage theft and demanding the immediate release of people who are incarcerated simply because they cannot afford to pay fines. “Our march really is on both, on the institutions that perpetuate these systemic problems, the corporations that benefit from them, and Governor Walker himself,” she says.

It will not be an easy fight in Wisconsin or anywhere else — Scott Walker is already trumpeting his victories over union workers as a foreign policy qualification that prepares him to take on ISIS, and Democrats all too often acquiesce to a kinder, gentler version of austerity. But the coming together of movements for justice in the workplace and the home and the streets to demand a comprehensive agenda for a more just state and society is a development worth celebrating even in dark times. There is building going on behind those dramatic photos from the Capitol.

To move forward, Epps-Addison says, “We fundamentally believe we can’t bring back progressive power in Wisconsin by giving people a Republican-like agenda. What we need to do is make our case and build relationships between working-class white folks outstate, between communities of color in Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, to understand that we’re all in this together, and that these forms of institutional classism and racism impact everyone.”

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Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona was on his way to cast his vote, shortly after announcing his intentions to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, when he was confronted in an elevator by two women who are sexual assault survivors. The women held open the elevator door, telling Flake, through their tears, that he was dismissing their pain. Soon after, Flake surprised his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee by advancing Kavanaugh’s nomination but asking for an FBIinvestigation before the full Senate vote. President Trump has now ordered an FBIinvestigation into Kavanaugh. We speak with Ana María Archila, one of the women credited with helping to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Watch the video here.

“Everyone should go to jail, say, once every ten years,” opined novelist and poet Jesse Ball in a recent LA Times article. It may seem like Swiftian satire, but Ball’s proposal is earnest. Addressed “to a nation of jailers,” he argues that a brief but regular stint in jail would serve as the necessary correction to make such institutions more livable–and perhaps less common. “Just think,” he writes, “if everyone in the United States were to become, within a 10-year period, familiar with what it is like to be incarcerated, is there any question that the quality of our prisons would improve?”

Read the full article here.

Latin post - January 21, 2015, by Michael Oleaga - The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) welcomed Obama's efforts to improve the economy and education for Latinos, and all other Americans.

"These policies can allow more Latinos to rebound from the economic troubles experienced in recent years and pursue their piece of the American Dream, resulting in a more skilled work force and an expanded middle class that is able to 'do their fair share' and fully contribute to our nation's prosperity," added NALEO in a statement.

On immigration, NALEO said passing comprehensive immigration reform, which should include a pathway to citizenship, will help undocumented immigrants integrate with U.S. life and contribute to the growing economy and shrinking deficit.

"Action to bring immigrants who have played by the rules fully into our economy and democracy is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do," added NALEO. "Immigrants who learn English can on average quadruple their annual incomes, resulting in increased revenues at the state and federal level and a more skilled workforce that will reinforce our ability to prosper in the new global economy."

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest organization comprising of unions, commended the president for advocating for working families.

"The President's focus on raising wages through collective bargaining, better paying jobs, a fairer tax code, fair overtime rules, and expanded access to education and earned leave sent the right message at the right time," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "So did his embrace of union apprentices and immigrants who want to achieve the American Dream. The President has again demonstrated his strong commitment to creating an economy that truly works for all working people."

Trumka said income inequality remains one of the biggest challenges despite the world's wealth being in "the hands of a very few." He also said the time has come for Congress to address minimum wage.

On climate change, 350.org, an organization which address the issue and opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, gave their support for the president. 

"He said we need to think beyond a single pipeline, and made a strong case for developing sustainable, clean energy sources like wind and solar," said 350.org Executive Director May Boeve. "The President is clearly beginning to think about his climate legacy, and he clearly understands that it depends on rejecting Keystone XL."

Boeve said this year's State of the Union address was a vast improvement compared to previous speeches, specifically the 2011 address which had no mention of climate change. She acknowledged climate change was addressed among a few paragraphs and attributed to last September's People's Climate March for increasing awareness of the issue.

Center for Popular Democracy Co-Executive Director Ana Maria Archila applauded Obama's progress but said a "range of daunting crises" still exists for U.S. workers, communities of color and immigrants. Archila noted the crises include climate change, racial injustice, and immigrant and workers' rights.

"The president's speech barely addressed racial inequalities and the discriminatory policing that threatens far too many communities of color," said Archila. "The president was right to point out 'different takes on Ferguson and New York,' but families of color who wonder if they, and their children, are safe when crossing paths with the police need stronger national leadership to confront police impunity."

Archila recognized Obama's emphasis for a higher federal minimum wage, child care, and paid sick leave for working families. She added that full-time workers should not be stuck in poverty or encounter the inhumane choice between a paycheck and caring for their family.

"We commend the president for speaking from the right place and with the right intentions. We will continue to fight to build an innovative, pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic agenda. The work ahead of us is real, and we are moving forward," said Archila.

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