Thinking Globally • Labor and the Left • Election Strategy Vol. XLIV, No. 2, Labor Day/Fall 2016 • the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America • www.dsausa.org From the National Director Struggle and Victory By Maria Svart hat does it mean that ocratic Left to exploring issues facing organized Donald Trump—a man workers today, and why we look forward to support- Wwho has built his career ing and seeing where Labor for Bernie goes next. on stiffi ng small businesses and But we must also discuss our role as open social- his own workers, on exploiting ists, even outside of labor. We think systemically. We racialized fears and pro-corpo- look at the world as it is, we compare it to the world rate loopholes in fi nancial regu- we wish to create, and we develop a strategy that lations—is sounding a faux popu- accounts for the true balance of power and the real list message that combines the barriers in our way. usual right-wing talking points about “parasitic” Right now, we have a weak, but growing left. people of color with attacks on free trade and the Some 13 million people voted for Bernie Sanders in declining standard of living of most of us? the presidential primaries. There is a hunger for an It means that he sees our pain, he sees our frus- alternative to capitalism, and he moved us several tration with a political system rigged by the bil- steps forward in the war of position, to use a term lionaire class, and he sees an opportunity. Yes, it is from theorist Antonio Gramsci. rigged, but Trump’s policies would make it worse. Our job is to continue building our power. The neoliberal capitalist We can not do so by fi ght- class, including many Demo- ing among ourselves. Not one cratic politicians, pushes for of us has all the answers, and free trade agreements such we need each other for the as the North American Free Our job is to battles ahead. In fact, listen- Trade Agreement and poten- continue“ building ing to each others’ stories of tially the Trans Pacifi c Part- how we came to our different nership, for example. Trump’s points of view can make us support comes from speaking our power. better organizers as well as to this reality, as well as to the build a stronger movement. racialized fears and hatred ” Debate about strategy and that are ingrained in the fabric of U.S. culture and tactics must be done in a comradely way. reinforced by institutions. We don’t need to be in unquestioned unity behind The ability to fi ght against these fears is one rea- Hillary Clinton. We do need to be in unity behind son why labor unions matter. Unions are the only the short-term goal of strengthening the left by de- large institutions in this country that are led by feating the far right and in distinguishing between and for working people and that demand a voice in neoliberalism and neofascism. We need to be in uni- workplaces, politics, and the economy. Thus, unions ty about building a grassroots army of democratic can play a unique and critical role in building an socialist organizers. We need to be in unity about antiracist, anticapitalist class consciousness. That’s winning real power, independent power, through why we devote the annual Labor Day issue of Dem- concrete local fi ghts. We need to be in unity about making racial justice central to our fi ght for eco- nomic justice and part of all the work we do, wheth- er electoral, issue, or direct action, in the coming Contents months and years. Unions Turn to Global Campaigns ...................................... 3 People become empowered through struggle and Labor, the Left, and the After-Bern ..................................... 5 victory, and the wounds and distrust that divide us Victory at Verizon Is a Victory for All ................................... 8 are healed through solidarity. None of this is easy. Socialists Crowd Caucus at DNC ........................................9 It’s complicated. We all have lessons to learn. Our Stronger Together: Bianca Cunningham Interview ........ 10 Rediscovering Socialist Unionism .......................................12 future depends on our learning those lessons to- Socialist Party Legacy in the U.S. Labor Movement ........13 gether. NPC 2016 Election Statement ............................................15 And we have a duty to win. Cover art by Frank Reynoso page 2 • Democratic Left • Labor Day/Fall 2016 Unions Turn to Global Campaigns By Kate Bronfenbrenner orker actions and community and labor ary 29, 2003, the workers at Brylane won card-check support remain essential in union orga- neutrality (meaning that the employer agrees not to Wnizing campaigns, but the success of orga- interfere with the union’s efforts to form a union) nizing in a global economy also depends on global and a fi rst contract. But they did not stop within the strategies. In 2001, the Union of Needletrades, In- borders of the United States. The global campaign dustrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) began a continued until they won a code of conduct agree- drive to organize 800 workers at Brylane’s India- ment with Brylane to address substandard working napolis distribution center. Brylane, an apparel and conditions in the sourcing factories in the Global home furnishing distribution South and Eastern Europe. center for nine mail order The ripple effect of the cam- catalogs, was a major sub- paign helped workers in oth- sidiary of French catalog and er companies. When UNITE retail apparel giant Pinault- began to organize Sweden- Printemps-Redoute (PPR). based H&M, the possibility of PPR also owned luxury fi rms a Brylane-like global OECD Gucci, FNAC, and Conafor- campaign was enough to get ma, with lines by big name H&M to agree quickly to the designers Stella McCartney same card-check and neutral- and Alexander McQueen. ity agreement that was won According to Brylane’s own at Brylane. records, in 2000, one in ten Research found that there workers at the Indianapolis were three key elements to distribution center suffered the Brylane victory. First, a repetitive motion injury, a the supply chain research rate nearly 18 times higher gave the Brylane workers a Frank Reynoso than the industry-wide aver- connection to workers in the age. It was this issue that jumpstarted the organiz- supplier factories and the retail stores that was es- ing campaign. sential both for the success of the Gucci campaign Both Brylane management and PPR responded and to keep Brylane workers and their allies mo- by intimidating and harassing employees. Faced tivated to hold out for the code of conduct for the with aggressive opposition from the employer, the suppliers after the Indianapolis victory had been union recognized that it would need to run a cam- won. Second, the strategic shift away from catalog paign that reached well beyond Indianapolis. Re- sales toward luxury goods gave the campaign lever- searchers at UNITE had learned that workers in the age that it did not have with a catalog company, be- supplier countries were organizing with the Clean cause McCartney and McQueen were public fi gures Clothes Campaign against sweatshop conditions in with a brand and an image that could be damaged their factories that included cases of sexual harass- with an association with sweatshop labor. Third, ment, child labor, and subsistence wages. Thus, the the Gucci investment was highly leveraged, which fi rst step of the international campaign was a glob- meant PPR had to maintain high profi t margins or al customer campaign followed by a multi-country the lenders might call in the loans. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel- UNITE succeeded at Brylane because the cam- opment (OECD) complaint linking the health and paign was based on in-depth, strategic research safety conditions and labor law violations in the analysis of the entire corporation combined with a United States with the labor and human rights vio- multifaceted, escalating campaign that built on that lations in the supplier countries. research. The campaign was carried out by workers Opening another front, Brylane workers and and their labor and community allies locally, nation- their global labor allies began picketing and leafl et- ally, and internationally. This story has been repeat- ting Gucci stores and designers Stella McCartney ed over and over again in organizing campaigns in and Alexander McQueen, asking them to tell PPR to the United States and around the world, whether “get in fashion—respect workers’ rights.” On Janu- with security guards organizing in South Africa or Democratic Left • Labor Day/Fall 2016 • page 3 3,000 TÜMTIS members in Turkey gaining union Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross- recognition and a fi rst contract from United Parcel Border Campaigns (Cornell University Press, 2007, Service (UPS). Unions are learning, and my research Kate Bronfenbrenner, ed.). The other reason is that has confi rmed, that these elements together—strate- for the last 17 years, at least 30 or more students gic corporate research, escalating multifaceted cam- each year have been trained in strategic corporate paign, involvement of workers and allies—are key to research at the Cornell School of Industrial and La- the comprehensive campaigns necessary for unions bor Relations Summer Program and have moved to win in the hostile organizing climate that workers into strategic corporate research and/or strategic face today. campaign positions in the la- Today, 50% of all organizing bor movement. That does not campaigns (including NLRB, include the students gradu- the National Mediation Board, Today, 50% of all ating from the residential public-sector, and private- organizing campaigns programs of the University sector non-board campaigns “ of Massachusetts and Cor- combined) involve multina- involve multinational nell University, which include tional corporations, and 30% classes in the same subject.