On U. S. Labor Against The War (USLAW)
by Mark Williams, Detroit Workers' Voice, May 2003
The U.S. imperialist conquest of Iraq is an accomplished fact. Hussein's tyranny has been replaced not by democracy, but by the military rule of the Bush administration. The war has ended, but not imperialism and militarism. Indeed, the U.S. victory in Iraq will only whet Bush's appetite for more wars of aggression. So the question of how to build the movement against war, militarism and imperialism remains as important as ever.
In organizing against the Iraq war, one of the important issues that came up was how workers will be brought into the movement. Should activists rely on the class traitors who run the AFL-CIO to mobilize the workers? Or should activists concentrate their efforts on going directly to the rank-and-file workers, helping them to mobilize despite what stand the union hierarchy takes?
One of the groups that has attracted some attention as regards organizing workers into the anti-war movement has been U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW). This organization was founded in January at a meeting of about 100 people, mainly local trade union officials and left-wing activists of various types, who were displeased with the top AFL-CIO leaders' silence as the drumbeat toward war grew louder. USLAW has helped push through anti-war resolutions in a number of union locals and city or regional union bodies and has called on workers to participate in certain anti-war protests. Such things shows there's a broad basis for anti-war organizing among the workers.
But it would be a mistake for the anti-war activists to have faith in USLAW's general views on mobilizing the workers. The USLAW leaders have been placing their hopes on the top trade union officials of the AFL-CIO to bring the workers into the movement. Before the war they got excited because the AFL-CIO executive board expressed some doubts about an immediate war, in favor of U.S. aggression with support from the UN and traditional U.S. allies. USLAW took this as a signal that the bulk of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy would become a force against the war. But when the war started, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney announced his "unequivocal support" for it. One would think this would cause a reevaluation of one's opinion of the top AFL-CIO leaders, but the USLAW web site has fallen silent on the issue.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. The anti-war movement cannot progress if it does not go beyond the disputes between the two imperialist parties. And the workers cannot become a powerful force in the movement unless they break from this framework imposed upon them by the AFL-CIO bureaucracy. In order to start making inroads in this direction, activists need to organize independently of the union officialdom and go directly to the workplaces and working class neighborhoods and schools with an anti-imperialist message.
Subheads:
- Anti-war resolutions tailored for pro-imperialist union officials
- The debate within USLAW
- Sitting on the fence proves impossible
- AFL-CIO resolutions and worker mobilization
- Take anti-imperialist politics directly to the workers
- Notes
Full text at https://www.communistvoice.org/31cUSLAW.html.