Freedom Socialist • Vol. 28, No. 4 • August-September 2007

On unions, drawing class lines, and sources of leadership

Clara Fraser

The challenges faced by labor today are not new. Below are excerpts of writings by veteran socialist unionists about the nature of labor organizations in the U.S. and what it will take to transform them into fighting instruments for the working class.

The first excerpt by James P. Cannon refers to the 1930s strike of Minneapolis truck drivers, led by Trotskyists, that helped pave the way for the explosive growth of organized labor over the next decade.

A new type of leadership

I don't think there was any serious difference at all between the strikers in Minneapolis and the workers involved in a hundred other strikes throughout the land in that period. Nearly all the strikes were fought with the greatest militancy by the workers. The difference was in the leadership and the policy. In practically all the other strikes the militancy of the rank and file workers was restrained from the top. The leaders were overawed by the government, the newspapers, the clergy and one thing or another. They tried to shift the conflict from the streets and the picket lines to the conference chambers. In Minneapolis the militancy of the rank and file was not restrained but organized and directed from the top. ...

Trotskyism introduced into all the plans and preparations of the union and the strike, from beginning to end, the class line of militancy; not as a subjective reaction — that is seen in every strike — but as a deliberate policy based on the theory of the class struggle, that you can't win anything from the bosses unless you have the will to fight for it and the strength to take it.

— James P. Cannon
The History of American Trotskyism

Capital versus Labor: that's the way it is

American labor — slave labor, indentured-servant labor, wage-labor, immigrant labor, labor of all colors and both sexes — has created the richest nation in the history of human society. ...

And to keep this wealth out of the hands of its creators, the ruling class has instituted the pervasive culture of racism, sexism, and homophobia; it has bought off the upper layer of white male skilled workers, and it has carefully groomed a labor bureaucracy to perpetuate the murderous, but profitable, class and caste divisions in society. ...

But all lower layers of the working class — the scorned and super-exploited — are increasingly forcing organized labor to represent them, and they are becoming the strongest and most militant sector of labor. As they mature in consciousness and organizational skills, they alter the relationship of class forces from an equilibrium between the labor bureaucracy and capital to a confrontational and antagonistic struggle of clearly inimical class forces.

... The conscious intervention of radicals and militants is the solid foundation for developing a coherent and effective radicalization of labor. And this is where the role of the vanguard party is crucial; without the worker-Bolshevik ingredient, labor protests are condemned to be limited, sporadic, and short-lived. ...

By its very nature, capital must discourage workers from struggles for wage increases and improved working conditions and benefits. At the same time, capital installs new technology and automated processes to cut down labor costs. Layoffs and downgrades follow. But capital's main tactic for increasing the rate of profit is a fierce union-busting and terrorizing offensive against labor.

To this end, Reagan fired 13,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981. Their demands were not too severe for the government to meet, but the political threat had to be met with vicious measures. Had the controllers won, the rest of organized labor would have been inspired to follow their example.

— Murry Weiss, Sam Deaderick, Clara Fraser
The Precarious '80s: Crisis and Opportunity

Women workers — a world to gain

Women bridge all the divisions within the [working] class because they suffer all the oppressions. Their demands express the needs of everyone. They need solidarity because of their own multiple oppression, and this motivation makes them the ultimate representatives of the class.

Women workers have little reason to follow the labor aristocracy, the union bureaucracy, or the ruling class. Only a few careers can be carved out of those rocks. Having little to lose, then, women are better fighters and leaders.

... Women leaders with a program based on rank and file interests will turn the labor movement from a single-issue, reformist movement and abject dupe of the Democrat Party into the fighting arm of the entire working class.

The once dominant attitude among privileged workers of aspiring to be bosses or at least labor aristocrats will give way to the new majority's aspiration for the class to achieve its rights, its potential, and its greatness.

— Megan Cornish and Heidi Durham
Women Workers: Sparkplugs of Labor