BY MALIK MIAH
SAN FRANCISCO — There is an old saying: "When your neighbour is out of work, that's a recession; when you're out of work, it's a depression". In California, the wealthiest state in the United States (and the sixth largest economy in the world), that's now the majority sentiment. While the collapse of high-tech dot-coms has had little impact on the manufacturing industry, it has been a blow to mass psychology. People are asking: "If the 'new rich' and those earning six-figure salaries can be fired, what about us?"
President George W. Bush and the Republican Party leadership has used the growing lack of confidence to push through a US$1.3 trillion tax cut that mainly benefits the rich and big business. Outside of a few consumer groups and activists, the working class is rudderless.
The discussion of the "R-word" (recession) takes place in this context. What is a recession? Officially it is two consecutive quarters of declining real gross domestic product. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research summarises a recession as "a significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, visible in industrial production, employment, real income and trade". From peak-to-April 2000-2001, industrial production declined by 2.8%; payroll employment by 0.2%; real business sales by 0.9%; and real household income increased by 0.8%.
The Federal Reserve, which sets US monetary policy, has cut interest rates five times since January. These rates directly impact on the cost of loan repayments for workers to purchase homes, cars and other products. Consumer confidence, however, continues to stagnate.
The trade union officialdom's response to the economic slowdown has been to circle the wagons around the Democratic Party and to deepen the unions' partnerships with "their" employers. "Organise the unorganised" is given lip service but is irrelevant to the top officials. They blame dissident members, Republicans and anyone else but themselves for the crisis of the unions.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US unions lost 200,000 members last year, partly because of lay-offs, retirements and factory closings. There are only 16.2 million people in US unions (13.5% of the working class), yet more than 16 million jobs were created since 1992.
The union leaderships' defeatist policies have led some workers to question the country's peak trade union body, the AFL-CIO, and even consider (taboo of taboos) whether an alternative exists outside the federation. For example, the Carpenters Union voted recently to stop paying dues to the federation. While some on the left see this as a bureaucratic manoeuvre to "raid" other building trades unions, the fact is no other union leadership has done what the Carpenters did. It sets a precedent. Many workers, especially those fighting for reforms, see this as a positive development.
In the airline industry, where I am employed as a mechanic at United Airlines, mechanics at the fourth-largest carrier, Northwest Airlines, voted to leave the AFL-CIO in 1998. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) is the most democratic union in the country. It negotiates with management and functions with complete transparency to the rank and file.
Mechanics at United Airlines, the second-largest carrier, are seeking to take control of the union by establishing an AMFA unit. The response of the official labour leadership is complete hostility to AMFA — even refusing to offer solidarity to Northwest workers when they were under attack by management and the Bush administration.
The 11th Labor Notes national conference held in Detroit in mid-April also reflected this new sentiment. Under the theme, "Can Labour Change the World?", some 1000 labour activists came together to discuss and exchange experiences. Labor Notes is a monthly independent publication advocating democratic unionism.
At one workshop that I attended, Billy Robinson, a local leader of the auto workers' union in Kentucky, told the story of his local's fight against management and how the national union leadership undermined its efforts. The local membership stood firm against the boss and forced the national auto officials to back down.
Transit workers, at another workshop, discussed how their rank and file caucus took over the city's largest union. At a meeting of airline workers, an airline flight attendant discussed his experiences in fighting for a democratic union.
What is common in all these discussions is the conflict most workers face when pushing for genuine democracy so that leaders can be recalled and the ranks can oversee the daily functioning of the union. They must take on the employers and, at the same time, challenge the bureaucratic layers within their own trade unions. This contradiction is a key reason why established trade unions are in decline. So long as the bureaucrats' rule, they will always focus on defeating "dissidents" and not fighting the employers.
Ajamu Dillahunt, an African-American union activist from North Carolina and a keynote speaker, best summarised the task facing union militants today.
"Tonight I want to answer [can labour change the world] in the affirmative: Yes!! Hell yes!! Labor can change the world. But I want to add several caveats: yes! If we understand and act on the fact that labour is broader than the trade union movement. Yes! If we change the trade union movement dramatically. Yes! If we understand and act on the reality of class and class struggle. Yes! If we are internationalist in all of our thinking and activities. Yes! If we build solid coalitions. And Yes! If we organise the South."