Magazine of the Socialist Party USA Editorial the Fighting Spirit of A
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the Issue 3 • 2011 Socialist Magazine of the Socialist Party USA Editorial The Fighting Spirit of A. Philip Randolph ay Day is traditionally a time to revive Socialist heroes of the past in order to be inspired by lives spent strug- Mgling for justice. Most often this means summoning heroes who lead thrilling movements. What’s lost is the grinding determination exhibited by most political activists. Long struggles lack the inspirational qualities of the big moments in history. A. Philip Randolph is one historical figure whose life captures both of these qualities. While he certainly soared to the heights of mass movements for change, he also operated with a patient determina- tion that offers much to socialist activists of today. Randolph began his political life being inspired by the great Socialist Party of America leader Eugene Debs. In Debs’ radical message of socialist democracy, he saw the best hope for African- Americans to relieve the deep burdens of economic exploitation and racial prejudice. These ideas were tested immediately, as ma- jor Black leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois rallied around the call for US intervention in World War I. Randolph refused to support the War. “The Negro may be choosing between being burnt by Ten- nessee, Georgia or Texas mobs or being shot by Germans in Bel- gium.” For this, the newly minted socialist earned a place in jail. Randolph’s position on World War I was an early example of his great contribution to Socialist theory and practice in America. He held a perspective that was equally informed by race and class. This placed him in the ranks of innovative early American social- sented a resolution at the American Federation of Labor’s Conven- ists and radicals in the Black community such as Hubert Harrison, tion calling for the integration of union locals. Randolph wanted W.E.B. DuBois and Chandler Owen. What distinguished Ran- to “remove from the hands of the employing class the weapon of dolph was his firm commitment to the trade union movement. The race prejudice.” His resolution was ultimately squashed, but Ran- working class would always be at the center of his strategies for dolph’s patient determination would outlast the labor segregation- social change. ists in the same way he had defeated the railroad bosses. The organization of the Sleeping Car Porters Union was the In the 1940s, Randolph used the government’s dependence on great accomplishment of Randolph’s life. Here, his patient de- war industries as a wedge to advance the cause of racial integra- termination as an organizer was just as important as the worker- tion. He and other radicals began to mobilize black workers to centered perspective provided by his socialism. As John Nichols demand that the government end discrimination in the war indus- skillfully argued in his recent book The S Word, Randolph was up tries and the military. This pressure from below at a sensitive time against more than just economic exploitation when it came to or- resulted in an Executive Order ending discrimination in state in- ganizing the porters. Decades of racial oppression on the worksite dustries and, perhaps more important, led Randolph to the idea that also had to be challenged. would define the second half of his life. For example, train porters were subjected to being called The March on Washington Movement was the brainchild “George” by customers – a generic named used to dehumanize of Randolph and built momentum toward a mass occupation of them by reducing them to the first name of railroad founder George Washington D.C. A flyer advertising the movement denounced Pullman. This, in addition to a hostile management and a union both Jim Crow and Poverty and quoted Randolph, “Winning De- movement intent on keeping locals race segregated, presented seri- mocracy for the Negro is Winning the War for Democracy.” These ous obstacles to organizing. words carried a remarkably clear vision of the future as the Black Randolph and the Porter organizers relied on a community struggle for freedom became the cutting edge of the overall move- strategy – using a network of Black churches as meeting places ment for democracy in post war America. and relying on support from the Socialist Party and other sources. Though the march was called off in 1942, it became a Twelve years after he initiated the organizing campaign, the Broth- framework for the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and erhood of Sleeping Car Porters was finally organized. Randolph 60s. By then, Randolph was the elder statesman of the move- had translated the youthful militancy of anti-war politics into a ment, but still carried the belief that the movement for socialism concrete organizing victory that challenged both race and class op- needed to work from a race and class perspective. Behind the pression. scenes of the 1963 March on Washington, Randolph served to The country’s most noted socialist then took this perspective temper the language of John Lewis, then a young radical in the into the national trade union movement. As early as 1933 he pre- (continued on page 15) 2 The Socialist | Issue 3 • 2011 Another Front in the War Against Workers C o n t e n t s By Sally Joyner 2.....................The Fighting Spirit s we join youth and the workers in jury. The reputation of unions suffered as a 3.............................Another Front the streets this spring against bills result of this criminalization. Adesigned to destroy both public The injunction also had a radicalizing Sally Joyner sector unions and the standard of living for effect; it was Eugene V. Debs’ time in jail 4.............................After Madison every worker in America, a similar battle for violating the injunction against the Pull- Billy Wharton is being waged in California state court- man workers’ strike that led him from trade 5..........Unions Good for Children rooms, which could ignite an employers’ unionism to socialism. The use of the in- Kristin Schall movement to bring back the era of “gov- junction laid bare the biases of the judiciary ernment by injunction.” and thus the entire legal system—there was 7.........Child Care Empowerment This timely assault on workers by the no veneer of justice to placate workers. Susan Dorazio judicial branch is unsurprising—there has Throughout this era there were lib- 8..................Two Futures of Labor been no greater weapon employed by the eral voices—including then-Professor Zelig Stern capitalists against the people than the com- Felix Frankfurter and Justice Louis 9.............War and Unemployment mon law itself. Fashioned in the context Brandeis—calling for an end to the of individual property rights by judges use of the labor injunction, and unions Lydia Howell who candidly admitted their class biases, fought for decades for the implemen- 10.............Working Class Struggle the common law provides no framework tation of anti-injunction legislation. Matty O’Dea on which to structure substantial collective In 1932, they got it in the form of 12.............................Book Review rights. This renders union rights particu- the Norris-LaGuardia Act (NLA). The Matthew Sundin larly vulnerable to legal challenges. NLA set out the policy of the United States In 1825, England nominally recog- as being in favor of workers acting peace- 13...............................Memphis SP nized unions as legal in order to quell rising fully to assert their collective bargaining 14...................................NJ Update social unrest, although there was no end to rights and opposed to interference from the Greg Pason the ways in which union organizing and ac- courts, and it set forth strict rules on when EDITOR tivity could be criminalized. In 1868, the federal courts could issue an injunction Billy Wharton courts adapted the equitable remedy of the during a labor dispute. EDITORIAL BOARD injunction—used to halt or prevent injury A labor dispute was defined broadly by Jim Marra Convener, Mal Herbert, to property by maintaining a status quo—to the NLA, but its protections were limited Sally Joyner, Steve Rossignol, Kristin apply to concerted actions involving labor to those people acting in “self-interest,” Schall disputes, such as strikes, peaceful picket- meaning within the same workplace or in- LAYOUT ing, or the mere advertisement of a dispute. dustry. This language was explicitly used Marvin Gonzalez The theory was, because such actions by its liberal authors to ensure the contin- caused inestimable harm to the employer’s ued criminalization of class-based solidar- SUBMISSIONS right to do business, his business’ reputa- ity and the general strike. The Socialist is always looking for fresh tion, and his profits, this was an appropri- At least twenty-six states have adopted material, which highlights the struggles ate use of the injunction. Prior to this use, similar laws that limit state courts’ ability of the working class. News stories, first injunctions were only granted to protect to issue injunctions against peaceful con- person testimonials and all forms of the tangible property; legal scholars criticized certed actions related to a labor dispute. arts are welcomed. Please limit letters the use of the injunction in a labor context Anti-injunction laws were initially chal- to 500 words and articles 1,250. from its inception. lenged on the theory that they violated the CONTACT THE EDITOR The injunction was so successful at pre- Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Billy Wharton. SP-USA venting unionization and stripping workers Amendment. 339 Lafayette St #303 of collective power that it was the primary Employers argued that these “special means of regulating labor disputes in the protections” for labor privileged unions New York, NY 10012 United States by 1910, long after England over other groups by allowing them to [email protected] abandoned its use as unsound in law and “trespass” where other people could not.