PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
A New Era for Labor
...but what kind?
LABOR DAY 1993, INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT A New Day for Labor? DSAction. . .20 Remembering Cesar Chavez by William E. Spriggs. . .3 by Duane Campbell. . .33 DSA Youth as Organizers National Health Care: Women and Unions by Tom Ellett. . .24 The Next Steps book review by Jo-Ann Mort. . 34 by Susan Cowell. . .8 On the Left. . .26 Janie Higgins Reports.. .40 Asian-Americans and Labor DSA Raises the Red Flag by Dominic Chan. . .13 by John Mason . . . 28 co»er photos: Robert Reich b) Rick Reinhard/Impact Reinventing OSHA Global Thinking, Global Action Visuals; wt/du by Pier van lier/ by George J. Kourpias . ..18 by Kurt Stand. . .29 Impact Visuals tionary, simple-minded, and disen Yetduringthesameperiod theCana EDITORIAL gaged -- was nonetheless the most dian and German economies grew ideological president since the New faster than the United States'. In the CLINTON Deal. People believed he stood for U.S. the decline of unions has contrib something. uted to slower growth. Clinton and his advisors act as if In addition, polls demonstrate AND LABOR they don't need people and their in that union members vote in signifi stitutions in order to change society; cantly higher percentages for Demo that politics is simply a technical crats than do non-union members. BY MARK LEVINSON question of crafting policy. The coalition that Clinton put to Bill Clinton was elected presi For example, two leading mem gether in 1992 cannot survive with dent because he articulated an alter bers of the Clinton administration out greater unionization. native vision to Reaganism. While recently questioned the importance To reshape American politics Republicans adhered to a hokey ver of unions. "The jury is still out," ac Clinton must realize that workers sion of "free enterprise," Clinton cording to Labor Secretary Robert and their unions are a crucial force stressed that government had to take Reich, "on whether the traditional for social action and should be responsibility for the economy; while union is necessary for the new strengethened. Republicans emphasized deficit re workplace." And in case anyone Mark Levinson is an economist with duction, Clinton insisted that the missed the point, Commerce Secre AFSCME District Council 37, and a most important issue was creating tary Ron Brown added, "Unions are good jobs and raising living stan member of the DSA National Politic.al okay where they are. And where Committee. dards; while the right spoke about they are not, it is not yet clear what how we couldn't afford health care, sort of organization should represent Clinton promised a national health workers." insurance program. The problem with this is that weak D EMOCRATIC L EFT Clinton's election has made a unions will hamper efforts to improve the Managing Editor difference. His tax program was economy, and will hurt the administra Michael Lighty progressive, and the expansion of the tion politically Production Earned Income Tax Credit is the larg Unions not only raise living stan David Glenn est anti-poverty program in over dards for workers, but research has twenty years. But Clinton's alterna consistently shown that organized Editorial Committee Joanne Barkan, Dorothee Benz, tive vision has begun to fade. The plants are more productive than non investment program gave way to Howard Croft, Mitch Horowitz, union worksites because they have Sherri Levine, Maxine Phillips deficit reduction, the promise of cre lower turnover and have more expe ating good jobs is being sacrificed in a rienced and loyal workers. As Rich Interns foolish attempt to pass NAFfA, and ard Rothstein has recently pointed Theresa Gorman, Lars .Rensmann the jury is still out on health care. out, 20 years ago the United States, Founding Editor Clinton should take a cue from West Germany and Canada had Michael Harrington (1928-1989) Ronald Reagan, who did more to nearly identical unionization rates. Do1McnUc Loft (!SON 016403207) Is published bunmthly •t IS transform the social climate in this Dukh 5t.. I 500, NY, NY 10038. S.Cond-
2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT A New Day for Labor?
Confronting Old Questions and New Challenges
BY WILLIAM E. SPRIGGS he United States first celebrated In recent years, however, the practice of Labor Day in 1882 in New York. One permanently replacing-- in effect, firing -- work hundred eleven years later, the U.S. ers who go out on strike has grown to the point T labor movement finds itself in an un- of poisoning labor-management relations in comfortable position. Many crucial questions America. This comes just when labor-manage remain unresolved and new questions are ment cooperation in the workplace is proving emerging. What exactly is workers' role in essential to boosting the productivity and com making workplace decisions? How will petitiveness of the American economy. (At a changes in international trade patterns affect recent conference sponsored by the Clinton ad workers' rights? And, most centrally, in the ministration, 400 representatives from business, wake of the Reagan/Bush-era attacks on labor, labor, and government watched three presenta how meaningful does the "right to organize" tions on high-performance workplaces. All remain in the United States? three case studies involved unionized compa nies.) The Right to Organize, the Right to Strike Before U1e Wa!,111er Act, state governments Most Americans had considered this issue often attempted to regulate labor relations settled with the passage of the National Labor through arbitration --with stringent restrictions Relations Act (NLRA, also known as the Wag on the right to strike. This was a bleak period of ner Act) by Congress in 1935. Section 7 of that human suffering and social division, symbol Act clearly states: ized by infamous bloody battles at such work Employees shall have the right to self-or sites as the Carnegie Steel Mills in Homestead, ganization, to form, join, or assist labor Pennsylvania, in 1892 and the railroad yards of organizations, to bargain collectively Chicago in 1894 The use of police, state militia, through representatives of their own and private armies to enforce court injunction choosing, and to engage in other con orders to end strikes or stop violence over the certed activities for the purpose of collec use of replacement workers required a legisla- tive bargaining or other mutual aid or • tive response. protection. Strikes were more violent then because at
SrrTr.Mn r.R/Ononr.R 1993 3 1993 auto their core -- regardless of the economic issues at tions helped to create a climate in which perma Industry hand -- was the question. Should workers be nently replacing strikers (a practice that had contract allowed to bargain collectively with manage been permitted by a 1938SupremeCourt ruling, negoHatlons ment? On the issue of employees' right to but rarely carried out) became the order of the begin organize and bargain collectively with their day. UAW President Owen Bieber employer there can be no compromise position: A cntical event was the Reagan administra (left) and GM's either they have such a right or they do not. The tion's 1981 decision to replace permanently Jerry Knechtel refusal of management to recognize this right twelve thousand striking air traffic controllers. shake hands. set up conflicts that could not be resolved Although the NLRA did not protect the control through negotiations. The NLRA brought col- lers, since they were federal employees, the lective bargaining within the law by establish administration nonetheless sent a signal that the ing the right to strike. This freed workers to federal government could end a collecth·e bar organize by making management reprisals ille gaining relationship. gal. Under the NLRA, work stoppages are The Supreme Court also sent a message of meant to be over economic issues, not over the shifting bias toward management. In TWA v. right of employees to bargain collectively. IFFA (1989), the Court extended the striker But the framework for worker rights in the replacement doctrine to cover crossover work NLRA is loose. The act mandates little in the ers (strikers who return to work before a dispute way of specific behavior. It presumes the good- is settled) covered under the Railway Labor Act. InBalknapv. Hale(1983), theCourtgaveemploy Do we really have a meaningful ers the option of keeping replacement workers or retaining striking workers: however, if the right to organize? company offers replacement workers perma nent jobs, the replacements can sue if the com will of both parties because management and pany decides to reinstate the striking workers. labor have an interdependent relationship; Companies can now say that they have a legal when one party acts in a predatory manner, the obligation to retain replacement workers rather law can be rendered useless. than retain their striking employees. During the last fifteen years, however, The cumulative result of these decisions has management has effectively been encouraged to been to create an ominous growth in labor engage in predatory behavior by a series of anti management friction. The number of unfair union court decisions and regulatory patterns. labor practice charges has more than doubled, In particular, the Reagan and Bush administra- from below 10,000 each year in the 1960s to more
4 Df.MOCRAT/C LEFT than 20,000 annually by the end of the 1980s. The for the lower end of wage earners. In explaining number of workers who win reinstatement to why the U.S. pattern was unique, researchers remedy being fired by unfair labor practices has Lawrence Katz and Richard Freeman con gone from a few thousand annually in the 1950s cluded that the decline of unionization, in com to the tens of thousands. These increases have bination with differences with wage-setting in overwhelmed the National Labor Relations stitutions and in training and education sys Board (NLRB). According to a recent General tems, contributed to rising wage inequality in Accounting Office report, the median length of the U.S. time required to. resolve unfair labor practice cases increased from just over 500 days in 1980 to Hope for Change over 770 days in 1990. Th.is long waiting period, A new day may be possible for American combined with the paltry size of the penalties labor in the 1990s. The Clinton administration assigned for most violations, reduces the costs to has appointed a commission to review Amer employers of violating the NLRA and makes a ica's labor laws. John Dunlop, who served as mockery of justice. Atter years of hostility, there Weaker Unions, Growing Inequality Largely because of these attacks by Ameri may now be a chance for can firms on coJlective bargaining, the U.S. has the lowest union density of any democratic in a more constructive era. dustrialized nation. The U.S. also had one of the greatest declines in union density during the Secretary of Labor during the Ford administra 1980s. That trend is not without consequences. tion, heads the commission. Commission Members of Many labor economists have documented members include another former Secretary of the Allied the declining fortunes of America's workers. Labor, Ray Marshall, and leading academics - Industrial Workers Recent research has highlighted the failure of the Richard Freeman, Paula Voos, Thomas Kochan, picket an A.E. policies of the 1980s to reduce poverty or reverse and William Gould Gould, a professor of law at Staley plant In new declines in earnings for African American Stanford, is Clinton's pick to chair the NLRB, Decatur, males relative to white males, high-school-edu and would be the first African-American to llllnols. cated workers relative to college-educated work ers, and high-school-edu- • cated private sector work ers relative to high school-educated public sector workers. The gen eral theme is clear: There was a large increase in wage inequality in the U.S. during the 1980s. Th.is pattern repre sented a reversal. The trend among industrial ized nations during the 1970s had been toward wage equality. In the 1980s, the large increase in wage differentials in the U.S. set it apart from most other industrialized na dHnois is a· tions. Only •ngland, which had pursued some '•Zone! policies similar to those in the U.S., also had a large increase in inequality. But ::::. ...::... {' .u. s...i.,"'· ..... the U.S. was unique in that ...... ,...... £... wages fell so dramatically __ .... ·~ ~"__.....,__ 5£PTEMBER/()croBER 1993 5 serve as chair. The Clinton administration failed in its During the first session of the 103rd Con pledge to devise an effective side agreement to gress, the House passed the Cesar Chavez NAFTA that would protect workers' rights. Workplace Fairness Act to make the use of per Indeed, the side agreements on labor are even m.lnent replacements for striking workers ille weaker than those for the environment- union gal. The measure did not come before the Senate rights are excluded from the proposed enforce prior to Congress's summer break. President ment process that would lead to fines or trade Clinton has pledged to sign the legislation if it sanctions. passes. U.S. trade policy has almost entirely ignored That legislation, along with the nomination worker rights. While some preferential trade of Gould to head the NLRB, the signing of the agreements, like the Caribbean Basin Initiative Family and Medical Leave Act, and the promise (CBI}, protect internationally recognized labor of the Dunlop Commission, presents reason to rights in principle, these have proven difficult to hope that American labor may rebound from its enforce. NAFTA, as originally drafted, repre present low point. After twelve years of hostil sents a step backward from even these minimal ity from Washington toward organized labor, protections. Entire chapters of NAFTA are de there is now a chance for a more constructive era voted to smoothing the differences in intellec in labor-management relations. tual property rights and government procure ment rules among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, but NAFTA does not even address the much The NAFrA Challenge vaster -- and more fundamental -- differences But amidst these positive signs sits a new among the three countries' approaches to work challenge for workers worldwide: the North ers' rights. American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Most international trade economists and other potential new trade agreements. NAFT A policy makers avoid discussing the connection hds, of course, raised serious fears among pro between labor rights and international trade. In gressives; as Walter Russell Mead wrote last trade economists' theoretical world, the w:iges year, NAFT A-style trade agreements will bring of workers reflect their productivity and coun us toward "a global corporate utopia in which tries operate at full employment. That world local citizens are toothless, workers' unions are view sees the wages of workers -- labor costs -- as A May Day tame or broken, environmentalists and con independent of national institutions. So these rally against sumer advocates outflanked." Now, with economists view a discussion of workers' rights NAFTA In NAFTA about to be introduced to Congress, only within the context of a social agenda. Seattle. fears are stronger than ever. The claim, however, that the\.vagesofwork ers reflect their productivity lacks empirical basis. New research clearly challenges this faith with data that shows low wages do not necessar ily mean low productivity. The corporate domestic agenda of the last twelve years has seriously weakened U.S. worker rights. If these rights are not emphasized more in trade policy, then given current trends, workers will face harsher and harsher restric tions on their right to organize. Domestic labor policy debates wiH continue to be dominated by concerns that American worker rights will make American companies less competitive. Just as market forces will tend to level international wage differences, bringing those with higher wages down, so will political forces act to lower worker rights standards. But such a direction is not in the interest of world democracy; and the resulting low wages will not -- to say the least - - support sustained economic growth. :II
William E Spriggs is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT LABOR DAY, 1993 On this Labor Day, we honor over 16,000 Caterpillar workers who are continuing their fight for a fair contract. We salute the miners on strike in America's coal fields and workers everywhere who have been forced by their employers' greed onto the picketlines. We express our solidarity with the half-million auto workers and their families currently engaged in bargaining for a secure future. And we extend our hand to workers in Mexico and other developing countries as they struggle for economic and political justice.
Let us all resolve on this workers' holiday to renew our faith, refortify our movement, and redouble our efforts until all men and women can reap the harvest of their efforts and enjoy the fruits of their labor in a world of freedom and peace.
INTERNATIONAL UNION, UAW
Owen Bieber, President Bill Casstevens, Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents: Carolyn Fo"est, Ernest Lofton, Stan Marshall, Stephen P. Yokich
5£PTEMElf.R/0CTOBCR 1993 7 National Health Care: The Next Steps Jttn Insitfe/Outsitfe Strategy
BY SUSAN COWELL Editor's Note: With this article by long-time single U.S. Representatives Jim McDermott and john payer activist Susan Cowell, Democratic Left con Conyers, and using single-payer principles to tinues an ongoing debate within DSA and the health influence the Clinton Health Care Task Force. care refonn movement about strategies to win single Advocates lobbied the Task Force, privately payer refonn. DSA 's organizational position will be and pubhcly,deliveringa million postcards ask decided at DSA 's National Convention in November. ing President Clinton to incorporate single We look fon.vard to your responses to this article. payer principles into his plan. Perhaps the greatest success of the smgle n the eve of the expected release of payer movement was convincing the White President Clinton's health care plan, House that health care reform will not solve our the movement for single-payer crisis unless it ensures comprehensive benefits O health care can look back on some to everyone, regardless of employment, health surprising successes. Since the AFL-CIO lead status, or income. The core of the anticipated ership split, in early 1991, between single payer White House plan is universal entitlement to a and the Democratic leadership's "pay or play" comprehensive health care package, with fi proposal, an informal coalition of unions, con nancing based on ability to pay. Except for some sumer, senior, and oilier groups has kept the very large employers, employers will no longer issue alive with minimal resources. be involved in designing and running health National and local coalitions have per care plans for their employees. suaded 88 members of the House and five sena Based on what we know, this is a real social tors to co-sponsor single-payer legislation. insurance plan, one that would bring the United Even the media has belatedly acknowledged the States into the civilized world. Not as good as power of single-payer advocates to influence Canada, but on a par with many other industrial the health care debate. countries. Only a few years ago, in the Reagan ~ingle-payer supporters made an effective Bush era, how many progressives thought that a transition to the Clinton era by pursuing a dual national plan to make health care a right guaran strategy of gaining new sponsors of HR 1200, teed by government, not just for the poor but for the single-payer bill introduced in the House by everyone, was this close to possible enactment?
8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Yet, waiting for the unveiling provokes group stays reasonably united, it can make more anxiety than congratulations. The White demands and influence the final plan. But if a House proposal is still far from our model. It significant number of congressional single leaves the insurance ind ustry with a reduced but payer supporters reject the Clinton framework important role. It has a managed competition even as a basis for negotiations, then the presi structure that could lead to a two-tier system. dent is likely to retreat to market reforms, such Worst of all, as we saw during the budget de as community rating or efforts to make insur bate, Republican and business opposition will ance affordable to small businesses, which can exert enormous pressure to weaken the plan get support from conservative Democrats and further. moderate Republicans. In this period of uncertainty, the single payer movement may fracture, with some op Health care reform will not solve posing the Clinton plan as not good enough, and our crisis unless it ensures com others supporting the plan as the best we can get. Either option risks abandoning our significant prehensive benefits to everyone. bargaining power -- and losing the historic opportunity to get national health care in the The Clinton Task Force recommendations best form possible. represent an effort to attain such single-payer Given our current knowledge of the Clinton goals as universality, comprehensiveness, cost plan, critical support, which both defends and containment, and fair financing, while accom attempts to strengthen the plan, may be the most modating the realities of Congress and the coun effective response. This approach would build try. The political obstacles to fundamental re on the success of our current strategy of trying to form include a widespread cynicism about gov influence the Clinton plan based on single-payer ernment, a politically powerful popular opposi- SYLVIA by Nicole Hollander
-\-hit.6WC"nl AA'\. -httJOAy, MAR'ft l'Z.. £1\~P Hi4.AAY At-H1e w11ite 1/011.s'- Wh,e- .fu.S -"';s tto1tri1t-1Ct, toLP Hell i..tij~t I fflo116HI of ''ffN4AfstrJ ilh~ U>Mpeti \ie~" AS A Sol"frlH to Ollfl. ffeALtH·CAre ~0 1>!lJ1· y~S 0 r-JN At first sHe wAS defe"'S'~ 1\NO -Hit,., tw.fi.1u.y .JouftNAL sHAMD lie P. f eAft. -ffiAt if SHe aJfJ 1'1~ if'JJ111.H'~ j,N DvstlLY 011t cf .fhe f.gop, it.s MeM&etts will.. tullN .\'o c.p..'1rw•. :r ReASSv1tel7 HeR.1he~ 8011./Ros 8011l1tos ...... ___...... 6ffP.lj CAllC~D Jv$f fo fovc.H ~ e. J J J ~,.,.,':;-,...~-;c:;:.
principles, and it could make it possible for tion to taxes, and a large insurance industry with organizations which endorse the plan to work both political clout and hundreds of thousands with those that do not. of jobs. i What we cannot afford to do is divide the The Clinton approach is based on a proposal ii. forces for health care reform in a fight between advanced by Paul Starr and like-minded reform 1: single payer and the Clinton plan, which would ers who played a prominent role on the Task ~ certainly result in the defeat of real health care Force. The approach has been called "single reform. sponsor," based on Starr's suggestion that the The political math is clear. The Republicans purchasing cooperative mechanism of managed are likely to present a united front against any competition (renamed "health alliance" by the plan that is universal and comprehensive. Al Clinton Task Force) could function as a single ready 41 of the 44 Republican senators have payer if all health care financing in a region were written to President Clinton opposing any man funnelled through the health alliance and if indi datory participation by employers, whether viduals (not employers) chose among plans of through a premium or payroll tax. fered by the health alliance. On the other hand, there is simply no major What has attracted single-payer advocates ity for single payer in Congress. Single-payer co to this approach is that it largely breaks the link sponsors have the numbers to defeat health care with employment. For the vast majority of reform, but not to pass a single-payer plan. If the employers, their only role in the health care
Sr.PTr.MBr.R/OcroBr.R 1993 9 dated benefit package to all employees and their families and contributing an additional pay ment into the health alliance to help cover the unemployed. The other major political compromise is to divide the in surance industry - providing a regulated role for large insur ance companies which can run managed care plans, but elimi nating small companies which cater to healthy people. Single-payer advocates are reluctant to allow any role for insurance companies. However, insurance companies do not get their cloJt solely from the influ ence of their political contribu tions. The waste in the system is not just profits and excessive management salaries, but also jobs of clerical workers The elimination of large numbers of r-/. ~ jobs will face real opposition. SOLIDARln Despite the compromises, WORKS the plan is a long way from the original version of managed competition. The Task Force A marcher at system would be to contribute financially. plan has universal coverage, comprehensive Solidarity Day What makes the proposal compelling for the benefits, financing based on ability to pay and 1991. administration is the way it addresses the politi significant cost containment through global cal obstacles facing reform. The use of the heal th budgeting. Managed competition has none of alliance is a way to avoid the stigma of a govern these. ment-run program. Contributions paid to the While the administration is trying to mini non-profit, consumer-run health alliance by mize the break with the existing system, the re employers and individuals can be called "pre ality is that the premiums are a form of tax and miums," not taxes - dedicated payments to the health alliance is an arm of government. fund health insurance, protected from politi- That's what makes the plan a social insurance system, and worth defending. W e must not neglect the broader The next stage of the fight, in Congress, will be an extension of the program developed d ur political fight to make health care ing the early months of the Clinton administra a right, not a commodity. tion. Advocates have already developed a set of demands which would enable the Clinton plan cians and the inevitable federal and state budget to meet single-payer principles. These demands crises. The White House seems to have adopted include financing based on a percentage of pay a "capped premium" -- that is, a premium roll, no employer opt-out, comprehensive bene capped at a percentage of payroll for both em fits (particularly long-term care and a good· pre ployers and workers, in effect a payroll tax for scription benefit for seniors), no additional pre most workers. mium for fee-for-service plans within the health Both Starr and the White House agree that alliance, public accountability of health alliances the plan works best with no employer-run plans. and the option for states to enact single-payer However, in an attempt to get some business plans. Some, but clearly not all, of these de support, the Task Force has recommended a mands are likely to be included in the Clinton limited opt-out. Companies with over 5,000 plan employees could opt out, by offering the man- It 1s certain that the plan will change during
10 Dtw>eivmr: LEFT congressional deliberations An effective single interests of their -0wn members, but for the payer caucus in Congress, working with mobi broad interests of the working class, including lized coalitions around the country around spe non-union members and the unemployed. Un cific demands, can not only prevent the plan ion leaders and activists have to explain to our from moving right, but even move it in our own members that their benefits can never be direction. But only potential supporters will be secure if we do not make health care a right for able to exercise this kind of bargaining power. everyone. As we lobby Congress around specific In every other industrial country, health demands to improve the plan, we must not care is a public responsibility. Not all those neglect the broader political fight -- to build systems are as efficient, comprehensive or egali popular support for a social insurance system tarian as we would like. None were created that will make health care a right, not a commod overnight. All are the subject of continuous ity. Despite favorable polling data, we cannot political struggle. simply assume that most people are with us on this issue. The opponents of national health care can tap into deep reserves of popular distrust of ingle-payer proponents must main government and opposition to taxes. S Tax-based financing will be the heart of the tain a delicate balance; we must be struggle in Congress. Business and the right are gearing up to oppose any financing plan. If they insiders and outsiders are successful, there can be no national health simultaneously. care plan. Even if they do not succeed outright, opposition to the financing could lead Congress to try to reduce the cost of the plan by cutting the When Canada implemented its national benefit package or increasing co-payments and health care plan in the 1960s, there were few deductibles. insurance companies in the health business be While the number of uninsured is a national sides Blue Cross, health insurance was less disgrace and nearly all Americans have reason widespread, and costs were under control. Even to fear the possible loss of benefits, the majority withqut well-entrenched opponents, Canada of Americans still have very comprehensive achieved its exemplary plan step by step, and health coverage. Most countries enacted na province by province -- and then only after tional health care plans before the development breaking a doctors' strike! of widespread private insurance, ensuring that The toughest task for this country, with its most people would gain substantial new protec deep distrust of politics, will be to create a social tions through national health care. insurance system. That will only be the first step, In this country, national health care means but once benefits are in place as a right, the that the majority of working Americans will political pressure to defend and strengthen the replace the plan they get at work with one that is system will be strong. And if the federal govern similar, but more secure. The current anxiety of ment can establish mandatory financing, then it losing their employer-provided insurance (or will be much easier to enact single payer at the having their benefits cut) must be balanced state level. against the fear of trading the benefits they have In the coming fight, the single-payer forces for a new public plan. While union members, must maintain a delicate balance. We must be through collective bargaining and strikes, are insiders and outsiders simultaneously. We more likely to be conscious of the wage increases must maintain a pole to move the Clinton plan to that have been traded off to maintain health the left, without abandoning the administration benefits, they also have the most to lose in giving and ensuring the defeat of significant health care up the good benefits they have fought to keep. reform. And we must be prepared for the long Unions and single-payer advocates have haul, to ensure that implementation includes persuaded the Administration that the benefit public accountability and quality guarantees, to package must be comprehensive to get broad strengthen the plan over time, and to enact support from union members and other insured single-payer systems state by state, ultimately people. But the struggle for national health care reaching a national single-payer system. Ir.I! cannot be a narrow consumerist one. Our goal is to make health care a right for everyone, not to buy a better insurance plan. Susan Cowell is a Vice President of tlze International Unions must fight not just for the immediate Ladies Gannent Workers Union.
SEPTE.MBER/DCTOBER 1993 11 Working together for peace, freedom, and social justice.
Congratulations to my friends in the struggle for economic justice! I urge you to work on another in· justice, the tyranny of "taxation without representation" in the District of Columbia. New England Regional Joint Board ACTWU Edward W. Clark, Jr.. Manager Support statehood! International Vice President Hilda Howland M. Mason District of Columbia City Council
Labor Day We are honored to participate in the struggle for Greetings equality and greater social justice with our friends at DSA and Democratic Left. from• Breeden-Schmidt Foundation Philo, Atkinson, Steinberg, White, Stephens, and San Diego,• Whitaker 2920 East Jefferson Avenue California Detroit, MI 48207
12 DEMOCRATIC LEFT I Ain't Your Model Minority (Nor Your Yellow Peril) Asians and the Labor Movement
BY DOMINIC CHAN ebates around race usually center on support that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 the bipolar categories of black and was passed. This effectively ended Chine:se white. When Asians are mentioned, immigration until the mid-1960s. American we are often used as a wedge to point Federation of Labor founder Samuel Gompers Dout that minorities who pull by their bootstraps once wrote that "Every incoming coolie means can achieve the American dream. Doth liberal much vice and immorality injected into our and conservatives are guilty of these false as social life." sumptions about the work ethic and the social In fact, many unions up until World War II mobility of Asians. Just like any other stere had by-laws that specifically excluded Chinese otype, these notions collapse upon close exami from membership. It was only after the bomb nation. ing of Pearl Harbor that labor was eager to show Particularly with new immigrants, we find that it was not against all Asians, just the Japa that many Asian-Americans work under sweat nese kind. Organized labor raised no sustained shop conditions in the garment or restaurant opposition to the internment of Japanese industries. Not aware of their rights, workers Americans during the war. often toil under conditions where minimum It should be no surprise, then, that through wage and overtime laws are routinely broken. out U.S. labor history, Asian immigrants have In my work with the International Ladies Gar been used by employers to break strikes. Given ment Workers Union (ILGWU), I have encoun organized labor's early policies, it was easy to tered workers who make as little as ten dollars a divide workers based on race. day while working ten hours. Despite all this, Asian-American workers These conditions contribute to another set of have acted in solidarity on many occasions. A stereotypes: Asian-Americans are said to be milestone was the National Dollar Strike, which passive, eager to work Jong hours, apolitical, resulted in the first chartered Chinese local in and -- of deepest concern to trade unionists -- un the history of the ILGWU -- indeed, in the his organizable. tory of the United States. After thirteen weeks Labor unions and Asians have had a check of striking, the 125 Chinese-American women ered history together. It was with labor's active garment workers involved in thb struggle won
S!PIIA1/ll:R/0CTOflfR 199.1 13 struggle won higher wages, a closed shop, and touch the newly emerging workforce of immi time-and-a-half pay for overtime. One worker grants and people of color. The population of involved in this strike was quoted as saying, Asian Pacific Americans more than doubled "Not even if you come to us with your machine from 1980 to 1990. The U.S. Census estimates guns and rifles would we give up our union!" So that by the year 2000, Asian Pacific Americans much for passive! There are many other ex will number ten million, or 4 percent of the amples where Asian-Americans have demon population. Just as many unions were built on strated their courage and their strength in num the energy of European immigrants, any senous bers, such as in the sugar fields of Hawaii and at attempt to resuscitate the labor movement must the railroad camps of California. be centered on the newly-arrived immigrants Why, then, has it been so difficult for trade who constitute a major part of the workforce. unions to organize Asians? For part of the A backlash against Asians is underway. 1he answer, we need to just look in the mirror. If the L.A. riots may have had their origins as a re labor movement doesn't have staff members sponse toward the white power structure, but and organizers who speak the language of the much of their destruction was channeled toward workers, then it should be no surprise when the Korean-Americans. The economic woes of the workers ignore organizers. As of this moment, country are blamed on the Japanese, and thus on there are slightJy over two dozen Asian-Ameri all Asians. can labor organizers in the entire country! The In 1992, Yoshihiro Hattori, a Japanese ex fact that Asian-American workers are a diverse change student on his way to a Halloween party, group of Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, was killed because he rang the wrong doorbell. Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians means The accused killer testified that Hattori seemed that there is quite an organizing task at hand. threatening because he was laughing and wav APALA Vice Asian workers work long hours under hor ing his arms in greeting his mistaken host. Hat Preskient May rible conditions for the same reasons that work tori's white friend, who actually rang the door Chen ers did at the beginning of the century. They do bell, was untouched. The sub~t1ent acquittal. addresses it because there is fear of an oppressive boss who despite the accused's admitting his deed, brings demonstrators has virtually absolute control over themselves back memories of Vincent Chin, a Chinese In New York and their families. American man murdered several years ago by City. If organized labor is to be revitalized, it must two unemployed autoworkers who thought he
14 OEMOCMnc LEFr ~"as Japanese. They blamed him for the loss of their jobs. Like Hattori's killer, these defendants were acquitted of murder charges. These cases show that images of the Yellow Peril still exist in the minds of many. Recent media hys teria regarding beatloads of undocumented Chinese have only contributed to these negative images. The code words are back: Amer ica is, we're implicitly told, being overrun by a horde from Asia. Unfortunately, many political leaders have been subject to the current anti immigrant hysteria. Presi dent Clinton has promised a new crackdown. Pete Wilson, the Republican gov ernor of California has pro posed changing the constitution to disallow citi zenship to American-born children of undocu trade unionists with the help of the AFL-CIO The fourth mented immigrants, and denying them school have formed the Asian Pacific American Lc1bor annual Asian ing and health access. Various Democratic leg Alliance (APALA). Five hundred Asian-Ameri Labor Festival, islators have proposed such outrageous legisla can trade unionists attended the founding con Brooklyn, tion as taking away the civil rights of asylum vention last year. Since then, APALA has 1992. seekers,creatinga "national identification card" worked with the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute system, and allowing the National Guard to to hold two trainings aimed specifically at Asian assist the Border Patrol. workers and recruiting Asian organizers. Fu In tough economic times, immigrants make ture trainings are planned. At APALA's second easy targets. Immigrants are blamed for every convention, held in August, delegates :.howed social woe even though they pay more in taxes their progressive colors by militantly marching than they receive in social services, and even with Latino/a janitors and pas:.ing a resolution though they work in minimum wage jobs for in favor of single-payer health care. which few Anglos compete. All of this shunts ln my organizing work, 1hear the same fears the blame away from where it really should fall, •1d frustrations from newly-arrived Chinese in the laps of corporate capital. Declining social 11nmigrants that non-Asian workers rdate to my services, deindustrialization, urban decay, and sister and brother organizers. The fear of being unemployment are not caused by immigrants fired, of being blacklisted, the hardships of but by elites and their influence over the halls of working long hours for low wages, the intimida government. It's a formula that seems to work; tion of bosses and supervisors, are familiar :.to blame the brown and yellow people for our rie!> tu any union organizer. Helping worker!> nation's misery, while the top 1 percent increase overcome these fear:; is part of the job of an their wealth and power. organizer. And when this fear i::; overcome, they As trade unionists and progressives, we will fight hard, regardless of their cultural back- have a responsibility to confront and dispel ground or the color of their skin. r:l! these negative images that are perpetuated by the government, the media, and yes, among our fellow brothers and sisters in the movement as Dominic Chan, a DSA member, is an organiZt'r for well. the J11ter11atio11al Ladies Garment Workers U11io11 in To address these and other issues, Asian San Francisco's Clli11atow11.
5£PJEMll£R/0C"rOl1£R 1993 15 Coalition of Btack Trade Unionists Salutes Democratic Socialists of America in recognition of your work as a steadfast ally in the continuing struggle for social change
Wil Duncan William Lucy Special Assistant to the President President
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION AF L-CIO, CLC
John J. Sweeney International President
Richard W. Cordtz International Secretary-Treasurer
16 DEMOCRATIC LF.FT We salute the Democratic Socialists of America
For their support of the labor movement. For their commitment to justice.
Local 23-25 ILGWU
Edgar Romney Manager
Harris Zinn Associate Manager
Communications Workers of America Salutes the DSA In Solidarity for Progressive Leadership
David Walls & THE CONCUNED ffiTUN·j GVIDf T-0 T!i_E _ The LEADING ADVOCACY OIGANI ZATION/ Activist's Making the American Dream Possible gs Almanac for Future Generations ~HVl~ - rn~tt~
Morton Bahr, President Barbara Easterling, Secretary-Treasurer M.E. Nichols, Executive Vice President
5EPTFMBER/0CIOB£R 1993 17 Reinventing OSHA Reform Requires New, Not Less, Government Oversight
BY GEORGE J. KOURPIAS ot much has changed in the twenty once in its eleven-year history, twenty-five men two years since the Occupational and women would be alive today. Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was Clearly, a new approach must be taken to N first enacted to stop slaughter in the correct OSHA's inadequate inspection system. workplace. In recent data compiled by the AFL One approach would be to require employ CIO, it was estimated that ten thousand work- ers to establish joint safety and health commit ers are killed on the job and that six million tees. By forcing employers to utilize union workers are injured every year. involvement when it comes to safety and health, Today it is crucial to reinvigorate safety and workers who have uruque knowledge and expe health laws and to re-establish this nation's com riences about the way work is actually per mitment to its workers. House Resolution 1280 formed can help to prevent the needless ill goes a long way toward achieving these very nesses, injuries, and events that occur every important goals of OSHA reform. year. There are many problems with OSHA. In In order for such committees to work, general, they reflect serious flaws both in how however, they will have to be the result of true the law is structured and how it has been imple and legitimate employee involvement. This mented. Among other things, inadequate re means that, among other things, the union must sources are devoted to administering the law, at a minimum share equal representation and enforcement mechanisms are ineffective, and have equal power with the company at every workers are excluded from participating in the level of the program. very process that was established to protect At the International Association of Machin them. ists and Aerospace Workers (IAM}, we have OSHA has never received the resources or been working with the Boeing Corporation the institutional commitment that is necessary through collective bargaining to establish a pilot for the Act to carry out the mandate established health and safety program which would make by Congress. While we devoted large sums of worker safety and health a priority. The pro money to the clean-up of environmental health gram is encompassed in the labor agreement concerns, such as the Clean Air Act and Super which establishes the Joint Health and Safety fund, OSHA has received tiny resources by Institute, funded by Boeing at four cents per comparison. hour per employee, with a four million dollar Indeed, the lack of resources for workplace yearly minimum contribution. safety and health has proven to be more costly The Institute consists of numerous commit than anyone could imagine. Many people be tees made up equally of union and management lieve that had Hamlet, North Carolina's Impe representatives. Some of the tasks assigned to rial Food Products facility been inspected even the Institute include: developing and delivering
18 DEMOCR/l.TIC LEFT health and safety training pro- grams, conducting statistical analysis, developing a system for tracking and evaluatine exposure to potentially hazardous materials, evaluating protective clothing and devices, sponsoring health and safety research as needed, retain ing independent experts oversee ing joint health and safety commit tees, and performing other related f functions. H.R. 1280 would require that employees establish health and ASBESTOS safety programs that are similar in CANCER ANO WNG DISEASE HAZARD nature to the IAM's program at AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONlY Boeing. Like the JAM/Boeing program, programs mandated by RESPIRATORS AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING H.R. 1280 would seek to reduce or ARE REQUIRED IN THIS AREA eliminate hazards and to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. It also creates the requirement that employers establish safety and health committees to promote safety and health at each worksite. Given the overwhelming lack of in- ••--k.:.!l!~E! spectors, it is imperative that this common-sense approach of self-policing be util conference, she was not even invited. H.R. 1280 Asbestos ized. would correct many of these terrible problems. warning signs In addition, reporting of accidents must be For example, employees and their represen used in a done on a timely basis, so that OSHA examina tatives would be permitted to participate in safety training tions of the worksites in question can prevent proceedings and would also be permitted to program In "'9re accidents from occurring. Moreover, once seek review of any settlement agreement to de Michigan. citations are issued, employees, union represen termine if the agreement complies with the law. tatives, and families of victims must be allowed OSHA reform must contain other features full participation. Far too often these groups are which include: excluded from settlement meetings or are not » guaranteeing workers the right to refuse given any real opportunity for input. unsafe work The lack ofopportunities for participation in » updating the standard-setting process the enforcement process has placed a real toll on » enhancing the ability to prosecute viola real people. Last year, just three days after tors on criminal charges Christmas, an !AM-represented worker at U.S. » expanding coverage to include public sec Sugar Corporation in Florida was fatally injured tor employees when a piece ofequipment he was working close » including private sector employees, like to went out of control, spilling boiling liquid on those covered under the Federal Railway Ad him. He suffered serious bums all over his body, minis tra ti on barely living long enough to see the new year. We must recommit ourselves to eliminating It took more than six months to get OSHA to death and injury on the job, and H.R. 1280 and its issue citations against the company. Even then, companion bill in the Senate, S. 575, take a giant once the citations were issued, OSHA con step in that direction. 1:25 ducted an informal conference with the em ployer and its representatives to work out a George]. Kourpi.as, a DSA member, is International settlement. Although an IAM representative - President of the International Association of Machin the worker's workplace representative -- was ists and Aerospace Workers. This article is adapted present at the conference, he was not really from testimony he gave before the U.S. House of Rep allowed to fully participate. Sadly, although the resentatives Committee on Education and l.Abor on victim's wife wanted very much to attend the July 29.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1993 19 DSAction------l:Jreaking Bread '1outh Section
+The first two major events of DSA's Breaking Bread Project will take place during the next two months. The Project is Conference designed to bring DSA Honorary Chair Come) West and + Fifty young DSA activists gathered in Slip other progressive and anti-racist leaders together for public pery Rock, Pennsylvania during the weekend of dialogues about how to build a multiracial progressive August 19-22 for the annual Summer Confer movement in the United States. ence of the DSA Youth Section. The first event will take place on October 14 at Symphony The conference participants spent the week Space in New York City. This event will feature West along end electing a new Youth Section leadership, with bell hooks, the feminist theorist with whom he wrote setting political and organizational priorities for Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Irztellectual Life (South End the coming year, and, in their spare time, throw Press, 1991), the book for which the project is named. The ing a couple of parties. The Youth Section will New York City event, which is being prepared by New York devote its resources during the next year to City DSA, the Community Services Society, and other organi defeating the North American Free Trade zations, is designed especially to reach young people. Agreement, supporting labor Jaw reform, de The second event will be held in Los Angeles during the fending reproductive freedom, and fighting to evening of November 12, in conjunction with the DSA Na make education accessible to all. tional Convention. This event, sponsored by Los Angeles Speakers at the conference included Jack DSA, will feature Come! West along with several progressive Clark, Mark Levinson, and Joe Schwartz of the leaders from communities of color in Southern California. DSA National Political Committee; Rafael Piz Confirmed speakers include Gloria Romero, Professor of arro of the Committees of Correspondence; Ju Chicano Studies at California State University at Long Beach, lia Fitzgerald of New York DSA; Terri Burgess and Joe Hicks, President of the Southern California branch of of Cleveland DSA; Hugh Cleland of Suffolk the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. DSA; and Carmen Mitchell of Oberlin DSA. Breaking Bread events are tentatively planned for several The conference included workshops and other cities durin the next two ears. discussions on diverse topics including alterna tive media, the status of political refugees in A Rendezvous in Mexico Guatemala, lesbian and gay politics in the Clin ton age, and exposing the far right on campus. mew Literature • A slew of new DSA literature pieces have been published during the last few months. If you haven't seen them yet, write the national office for a batch. The new pieces include a pamphlet on NAFfA by Noam Chomsky; a On June 24 in Mexico City, DSA Latino Commis pamphlet on military spending by U.S. Repre sentative Ronald Dellums, a DSA Vice Chair sion leaders Dolores Delgado Campbell (left) and who was recently appointed to chair the House Duane Campbell (right) met with Cuahtemoc Armed Services Committee; and a pamphlet on Cardenas, PRD candidate for President of Mexico Clintonomics by Mark Levinson. in 1994. They planned a conference to be called Also just out is a new version of one of the "NAFTA and Human Rights in Mexico," which classic introductory DSA pamphlets, featuring a short profile of our organizational credo and will be held at California State University at Sacra photographs and statements from DSA no mento on October 20 and 21. For more informa tables, including Come! West, Barbara Ehren tion contact the Campbells at 9161361-9072. reich, Ed Asner, Jose Laluz, and Gloria Steinem. 20 DEMOCRATIC LE.FT + DSA National Convention+ - November 11-14, 1993 Los Angeles
THE DSA NATIONAL CONVENTION meets every two years, and is the highest tf decision-making body of the organization. This year's convention will be held at ·- the Radisson Plaza Hotel/Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles. The convention will .-,, elect the 1993-1994 National Political Committee and set organizational and political priorities for the next two years. In particular, this year a discussion will If ,_ be held to determine DSA's organizational response to the Clinton health care 11 reform proposals. 0 e Specia 1 e11ents: 0 +THURSDAY, NovEMBER 11: The DSA Organizing Institute. An afternoon of k intensive organizing training based on the renowned methods of the Midwest e Academy. s k • FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 12: A Breaking Bread forum featuring DSA Hon orary Chair Cornel West, Professor of Chicano Studies Gloria Romero, Joe j Hicks, President of the Southern California branch of the Southern Christian 'Leadership Conference, and other progressive leaders.
+SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 13: The Los Angeles DSA Debs/Sinclair dinner, honoring women in politics, including Maria Elena Durazo, President of Local 11 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union, and Los Angeles City Council e member Jackie Goldberg. Speaking at this event will be DSA Honorary Chair If,, Barbara Ehrenreich and DSA National Political Committee member Jose a LaLuz. a ·- r e n Who may attend? ANY DSA MEMBER in good standing may attend as an observer. In addition, most DSA locals will be e holding elections to choose their allotted number of delegates to the convention during the month g of September. (To run as a delegate, contact the local coordinator in your area; see the list on page a 27 .) Very inexpensive rooms are available at the Radisson Plaza for participants in the convention. ... Attendance at the convention involves a fee of approximately $100 in addition to room charges, to l help us cover the meals and other costs associated with the event. If you have questions, contact the a national office at 212/962-0390.
5E.PTEMBE.R/0CTOBER 1993 21 BEST WISHES FROM LOCAL 1180 ACTWU salutes COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA DSA AFL-CIO
for its activism Art11UrChtl10tes 11M-.·1l·L1"' PrtS-1 Baroara Barley unoa Jtnk1ns Gera\O Brown FlfSI va PrtSJdenr Naomi Carpen1er and commitment W11J1am F Herin1no Jr Chartes Garcia Second vu Prts-1 Alan Golcblan E!amt Allman Maroa N11otu Sec1e1ary· rrusur~ to organized labor s.... n C.hse Lvne SUlev P•vne RecO!Omt; Secrtflry G~en RJcnaroson Do11s SUrcy M•klng Government Work For YQy
\'UNE IN TO · THE COMMUNIQUE LOCAL 1180 s \NIN RADlO SHo.Y F EVERY TUESOAY FROM g 00 to 9 00 p m on WNYE 91 5 F'1 Jack Sheinkman, President Arthur Loevy, Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Raynor, Executive Vice President LOCAL 1180 6 H.lrnson SI New YO ~ IN SOLIDARITY New York Democratic Socialists of America For a democratic left slan1 on the Jewish question, Jewish aecuHve committee life in the ex-USSR. Israel, Jewish affairs. Jewish culture, Julia Fitzgerald Chair and Black-Jewish relations, Jeff Gold Vice Chair Frank Llewellyn Political Action Chair subscribe to: MJ. Van Loon Organizational Secretary Marsha Borensiein Treasurer Jewish Currents Bob Ambaras Education Secretary Morris U. Schappes, Editor Amy Bachrach Membership Secretary Steve Oliver Publications Secretary Tony Yarborough Recording Secretary 22 East 17 Street, Suite 601 Juanita Webster Religion and Socialism Branch Dept. DS Kenny Schaeffer Housing Task Force New York, NY 10003 Linnea~ Health Care Task Force David Belkin Economics Branch 212/924-5740 Best wishes from Wil I iam H. IN SOLIDARITY Nuchow, Secretary-Treasurer, Local 840 "l~cmn,'ters LAw OFFICES Labor Day 1993 OF ALVIN DORFMAN BALTIMORE DSA 72 Guy Lombardo Avenue 1443 Gorsuch Avenue Freeport, NY 11520 Baltimore, MD 21218 410/467-9424 516/379-0500 22 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Solidarity Forever! Workers Defense League, Inc. SEIU Local 585 Defending the defenseless since 1936 Leon Lynch, President Harry Fleischman, Cllair Jon Bloom, Executiue Director 218 West 40 Street New York, NY 10018 2121730-7412 237 Sixth Avenue In Solidarity Pittsburgh, PA 15238 Local 259 UAW 4121828-5100 Sam Meyers, President Ralph Diamond, Vice President Rosemary Tru1np, President Frank Locascio, Financial Secretary Israel Horizons +For Zionism, Socialism, and the Kinship of all Peoples+ volume 41, number 3 of 4, Summer/Fall 1993: Anti-Semitism and the Left: Four Views A Mapamnik Views Marx Israel Debates: Health Policy, Gays in Military Interview with Yael Dayan $4.00; subscription rate $15.00 per year. Send your check to: APl-HH, 224 West 35 Street, Suite 403, New York, NY 10001 Srr1uwrR/Oc10RlR 1993 23 Commitment, Vision, Spirit DSA Youth Graduate to the Labor Movement BY TOM ELLETT he DSA Youth Section's Youth Section activists are being built the Congress of Industrial labor-support work is hired by unions because of, not de Organizations. Youth Section Co part of what defines its spite, their membership in DSA. Chair Karen Marie Gibson works for T identity on college cam Chapter activists develop the kinds the Service Employees lnternational puses. In labor's major recent of skills -- communication, strategy, Union District 1199, the health care struggles, Youth Section activists coalition-building, and so forth - workers union. "Because I'm in have been among the first at the bar sought after by unions. The long DSA, they knew I had good politics, ricades. During the Eastern Arlines, hours, intense demands, and peri so they hired me," she says. Gibson, Greyhound, Pittston, and A.E. ods of disappointment require a who was active in the chapter at the Staley strikes, young DSAers were perspective that sees labor work as State University of New York at there, handing out leaflets, walking more than just a job. As socialists, Geneseo, had no previous experi picket lines, and staffing informa we have the vision and the sense of ence with unions, but became inter tion tables. The Youth Section also responsibility to nurture this level of ested in the labor movement pursues broader educational activi commitment. through DSA, just as some of her ties; each year, it sponsors at least Many union leaders recognize forebearers in the CIO were intro one Campus-Labor Institute, a that the future of the labor move duced to unions through socialist weekend designed to bring together ment lies with a return of the kind of organizations. campus and labor activists to de broad vision of a new society that Internships are often the first velop strategies to defeat common enemies. And earlier this year, DSA helped to coordinate a student visit Karen Marie Gibson + SEIU 1199 to the maquiladora zone in Mexico, with extensive assistance from the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and support from DSA 's analysis prepared me the United Auto Workers and the for the seriousness and inten United Food and Commercial Workers. sity of the struggles that U.S. It should be no great surprise, workers are facing. In my then, that in recent years a remark able number of Youth Section activ work I've seen first-IJand how ists have pursued careers in labor elites make life extremely dif organizing. By the end of the term of the 1992-93 Youth Section Coordi ficult for average Americans. natingCommittee, fully one-third of the committee members were em ployed by the labor movement. 24 DEMOCRATIC LE.FT introduction to the labor movement for YS activists. Susannah Davis, a Jeff Lacher + Virginia Alliance of State Employees field organizer for the United Elec trical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), was placed in in ternships with the ACTWU and the American Federation of State, Organizing activities with the County, and Municipal Employees DSA chapter on my campus through DSA. Davis, who gradu ated from 011erlin College, is cur taught me to think strategically rently involved in a protracted and to plan strategically, both struggle with the Ohio State Em ployees Relations Board over the within our group and in coali right of part-time toll booth collec tion with others. Those skills are tors to bargain collectively. essential to the work I do today. Karen Bahow, who is also a UE field organizer and an Oberlin alumna, grew up in a union house hold. She has used her experience as a chapter activist in organizing stu dent support for cafeteria workers at Wright State University in their Karen Bahow +United Electrical Workers fight with Marriott for a decent con tract. "In many ways, organizing against the boss and organizing against the university are similar," she says. It's essential for the labor move The kinds of personal relation ment to survive and to be vi ships developed in the Youth Sec brant. It's the one surviving tion often make the desire to work in the labor movement a reality. Jeff force that can bring diverse Lacher, an organizer for the Virginia groups of Americans together Alliance of State Employees (Com munications Workers of America), for the very serious battles we got his start in the labor movement have ahead of us. with the Graduate Student Employ ees Union (CWA) of the State Uni versity of New York. Lacher won his present job on the recommendation of DSAer Dom Chan, who was then the president of GSEU. Ron Ruggiero + SEIU 1199 One thing that Youth Section labor organizers find in DSA that they find nowhere else is the sense of "one big union." Among DSAers, A socialist perspective, com experiences from many different bined with my own personal ex unions are exchanged. "In DSA, we can put away all the BS about what perience and background, gives union is better," says Ron Ruggiero, me tremendous motivation to do an organizer apprentice with SEIU organizing. The socialist per 1199. 'We get down to the heart of the matter, which is how best to or- spective gives you the ability to ganize the unorganized." Im see how things are intercon Tom Ellett, a former DSA Youth Or nected. gmtzztT, is an organizer for the United E.ltdr:ic.al, Radio and Machine Workers America (UE). 5Em:MBER/OCTOBER 1993 25 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ing in support of the re-election campaign of David Dinkins, and is ln early September DC/MD/ also devoting energy to several City NoVA DSA sponsored two events - Council elections, in the hope of - a women's brunch and a book boosting progressives' strength on party-- in support of DSA member that body. The Housing Task Force Marty Langelan's new book Back of NYDSA, which promotes discus by Harry Fleischman Off: How to Stop Sexual Harassment sion and activism on homelessness and Harassers. and related issues, will be revived this fall. The local is also working to build the October 14 New York ILLINOIS ARKANSAS Breaking Bread event, which will Arkansas DSA held a retreat Chicago DSA mailed out 900 feature bell hooks and Corne! West at Meadow Creek the weekend of postcards to help promote a demon (see page 20). August 28 and 29. The seventeen stration in support of the Allied participants helped to plan the lo Electrical Workers Strike at the OHIO cal's work for the coming months, Staley plant in Decatur. which will include single-payer Twelve members of the West Central Ohio DSA has re advocacy and support for an AFL Suburban branch of Chicago DSA sumed holding monthly meetings. CIO campaign to reform the state's recently participated in an anti At their September meeting, they worker-compensation system. NAFTA demonstration at the home elected new officers and chose dele office of U.S. Representative Harris gates to the national convention. They are organizing a major anti CALIFORNIA Fawell, a Republican. The local will tie in its anti-NAFTA work with that NAFTA forum, to be held in Colum On August 7 fifty activists of the University of Chicago Youth bus later in the fall. gathered in Los Angeles for the an Section chapter. nual statewide DSA convention. James Madigan hosted a PENNSYLVANIA Among the topics discussed were meeting in Evanston on August 29 how to oppose the scapegoating of to explore the formation of a North Philadelphia DSA continues immigrant workers and how to de Cook County branch of Chicago to work in support of agricultural feat an upcoming state ballot initia DSA. mushroom workers in Kennett tive that would create a school Square, Pennsylvania, as they seek voucher system in California and recognition of their independent undercut universal public educa NEwYoRK union. Members of the local a re also tion. The delegates also discussed active in the Philadelphia Health potential future California political Ithaca DSA continues to Care for All Coalition, which fights candidates and issues. push very hard for single-payer for single-payer health reform both San Diego DSA hosted an health care. They have tabled at nationally and at the state level. August 20 lecture on Clinton's eco several locations in Ithaca through nomic program by Ray Boddy, Pro out the summer, and have gener WISCONSIN fessor of Economics at San Diego ated hundreds of letters to Senator State University. The local is also Daniel Moynihan and U.S. Repre Dane County DSA drew 30 becoming active in the fight to de sentative Maurice Hinchey. On people to a July 10 public forum in feat the school voucher initiative. August 1, the public television pro Madison featuring Bob Fitrakis, Los Angeles DSA is devoting gram 'Round About Ithaca presented who ran for Congress in central most of its energies to the upcoming the anti-NAFTA video produced by Ohio as an openly socialist candi DSA National Convention (see page DSA Youth Section members dur date in 1992. The group plans to 21). On September 18, Peter Olney ing their trip to the border area in strengthen its ties with Iowa of the Service Employees Interna January. And, of course, the local is DSAers, and will Mid a meeting tional Union Local 399 will address working to support the re-election October 3 to plan its activities for the the local's fall membership meeting. campaign of Ithaca's mayor, DSAer fall. He will discuss the issue of defend Ben Nichols. ing immigrant workers. New York City DSA is work- 26 DEMOCRATIC LEFT DSA Locals and Organizing Committees Northeast ------ ALBANY Local. Mark Schaeffer, 518-463-5611 IOWA CITY Local. Jeff Cox, 319-338-4551 399 State Street, Albany NY 12210 112 S. Dodge. Iowa City IA 52242 BALTIMORE Local, Laila Atallah. 301-467-9424 KENT OH O.C.. Eric llensal, 216-677-9789 1443 Gorsuch Avenue, Baltimore MD 21218 134 East Oak Street, Kent 011 44240 BOSTON Local, Glenn Kulbako, staff, 617-354-5078 MAHONING VALLEY OH O.C .. Allan Curry. 216-534-9327 11 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138 117 Caroline Avenue, Hubbard Oil 44425 CENTRAL NJ Local, William Volonte, 201-642-0885 MILWAUKEE 0 C.,Tom Sobottke, 414-367-5893 PO Box 2029, Princeton NJ 08543 162 Hill Court. Hartland WI 53029 Cl<...'NTRAL PA Local. Curt Sanders, 717-328-5124 ST. LOUIS Local, Dave Rathke. 314-773-0605 115 Loudon Road, Mercersburg PA 17236 3323 Magnolia. St. Louis MO 63118 CONNECTICUT Local, Mike Phelan, 203-397-5412 TWIN CITrnS Local, Dan Frankot, 612-22-1-8262 194 Alden A venue, New Haven CT 06515 695 Ottawa Avenue, Saint Paul MN 55107 DC/MD/NORTHERN VA Local, Bill Mosley, 202-483-3299 WICHITA O.C., Jim Phillips. 316 -681-1469 P.O. Box 33345, Washington DC 20033 2330 North Oliver Street #219, Wichita KS 67220 HOWARD COUNTY MD Local, Bob Feldman, 410-381-0727 7205 Talisman Lane, Columbia MD 21045 ITHACA Local, Kevin Heubusch, 607-277-8277 South------ 108 Terrace Place #3, Ithaca NY 14850 ATLANTA 0.C.. Cleveland Sasser, 404-982-9680 NASSAU COUNTY NY Local, Mark Finkel, 516-538-8246 1184 Argonne Way NE, Atlanta GA 30324 662 lloward Avenue, West Hempstead NY 11552 ARKANSAS O.C., Jason Murphy. 501-374-5464 NEW YORK CITY Local, Juha Fitzgerald, 212-962-1079 318 1/2 South Barton, Little Rock AR 72205 15 Dutch Street #500, New York NY 10038 AUSTIN Local. Dick Fralin, 512-820-0257 PHILADELPHIA Local, Bruce Haskin, 215-729-2429 2409 West Eighth Street, Austin TX 78703 920 South 48th Street, Philadelphia PA 19143 CENTRAL KENTUCKY Local. Ann Pauerson, 606-268-2983 PITTSBURGH Local, Bill Wekselman P 0. Box 1190, Lexington KY 40589 P.O. Box 5122. Pittsburgh PA 15206 HOUSTON Local, John Peirce, 713-922-5893 READING-BERKS PA Local, Bob Millar, 215-944-0991 11619 Gullwood, Houston TX 77089 RD4. Box 4482A, l·leetwood PA 19522 ROCHESTER, John Roberts. 716-442-0751 109 Linden Street, Rochester NY 14620 SUFFOLK COUNfY NY Local, Hugh Cleland, 516-751-0340 West------528 Pond Path, Setauket NY 11733 ALBUQUERQUE Local. Gerry Bradley. 505-881-4687 6008 Ponderosa NE, Albuquerque NM 87110 EAST BAY CA Local, Dean Ferguson, 510-763-8054 Midwest 150 17th Street #404, Oakland CA 94612 FRONT RANGE CO Local, I larris Gruman, 303-444-9049 ANN ARHOR Local, Eric Ebel, 313-662-4497 3075 Broadway #D, Boulder CO 80304 P 0. Box 7211, Ann Arbor Ml 48107 ALASKA Local, John Dunker. 907-465-3400 CARBONDALE IL O.C.. E.G. Hughes, 618-549-1409 592 Seauer Street, Juneau AK 99801 PO. Box 2201, Carbondale II. 67902 LOS ANGELES Local, Steve Tarzynski, 310-451-8934 CE.VfRAL INDIANA Local, Stacy Fromholz, 317-322-8918 1102 North Brand DlvJ. #20. Glendale CA 91202 _3 North Colorado Avenue, Indianapolis IN 46201 MARIN COUNTY CA Local, Mark Wittenberg. 415-388-6396 CENTRAL OHIO Local, Bob Fitrakis, 614-227-2482 215 Throckmorton Avenue #2, Mill Valley CA 94941 44 Brunson Avenue, Columbus 01143203 PALO ALTO Local. Carolyn Curtis, 415-364-6124 CHICAGO Local. Maggie Shreve, 312-384-0327 69 Lloyden Drive. Atherton CA 94027 l N. Milwaukee Ave.,4th floor, Chicago IL 60647 SACRAMENTO Local, Duane Campbell, 916-361 -9072 CLEVELAND Local, Terri Burgess, 216-476-8560 PO Box 162394, Sacramenlo CA 95816 11316 Dale Avenue, Cleveland OH 44111 SAN DIEGO Local. Virginia Franco. 619-276-6023 DANE COUNTY WI O.C.. Todd Anderson. 608-271-4793 5122 GarJena Avenue, San Diego C:A 92110 PO Box 9038, Madison WI 53715 SAN FRANCISCO Local. Michael Pincus, 4l5·695-01J1 DAN\1LLE ILO.C .• Brian Mitchell, 217-431-8251 1095 Hampshire, San Francisco CA 94110 _ Brentwood, Tilton IL 61833 SEATfLE Local, Craig Salins. 206-784-9695 DETROIT Local, Roger Robinson, 313-822-4639 6221 Greenwood A venue North. Seattle WA 98103 l Pemberton, Grosse Pointe Parle MI 48230 SONOMA COUNTY CA Local. David Wall~. 707-823-7403 943 McFarlane Avenue. Sebastopol C:A 95472 SrPn:MBER/OcroHr.R 1993 27 DSA Raises the Red Flag in Paris BY }OHN MASON his June four DSA mem social costs of the Reagan experi repair the economic divisions and bers met in Paris with their ment in order to underscore the fail social decay brought on twelve years French comrades and a po ures of the conservative market of regressive social and economic litically diverse group of paradigm. In a reversal of the usual policies. They sharply contested in T their presentations the conference's U.S. and French economists to dis flow of trans-Atlantic political fash cuss the difficult transition from ions, these speakers optimistically dominant tone of "economic real Reaganomics to Clintonomics. The welcomed Clinton's election as a ism." David Gordon demonstrated DSA delegation from New York in "social democratic" tum in Ameri in his remarks that the falling in cluded David Gordon, Professor of can politics, which they hoped comes of the U.S. working class have Economics at the New School; Victor would signal a recovery of state in been a major factor in the poor per Sidel, Professor of Public Health tervention in Europe as well. formance of the economy, and that it Medicine at Mount Sinai; Jo-Ann Many of the other panel partici is time to reexamine the role that Mort, Communications Director for pants were U.S. and French econo unions might play in restoring con the Amalgamated Clothing and mists, who were mainly interested in sumer purchasing power and confi Textile Workers Union; and myself. pursuing debates with each other the dence. In a dramatic slide presenta In Paris, we were joined by Penny modernization of labor relations tion, Victor Sidel used comparative Schantz, a former DSA Youth Or within industrial firms. This discus health statistics to demonstrate the ganizer. sion took on a distinctly anti-union widening social gap between rich The conference itself -- formally and pro-market coloration during and poor in terms of their vulnerabil entitled "Today's Changing Ameri the first day's proceedings. ity to major illness and early death. can Economy" -- was the first The fundamentally liberal, pro Jo-Ann Mort testified about her ex Franco-American meeting spon market orientation of many of the periences in union organizing cam sored by La Fondation Jean Jaures, a participants was underscored by the paigns in southern textile mills to "public interest corporation" set up remarks of two French economists, illustrate the extent to which the by the French Socialist Party. Under Elie Cohen and Monique Osuf. ln "new" labor regimes in modem U.S. the leadership of Pierre Mauroy, the their view, Clinton's rapid retreat firms are still rooted in old-fash former French prime minister and from the idea of" public investment" ioned economic coercion and intimi current president of the Socialist he had promoted during the cam dation. I discussed the emerging International, the Foundation has paign simply confirmed the futility Green critique of conventional meth initiated an ambitious series of inter of any macro-economic policy that ods of economic accounting, which national exchanges among socialists, would resist international market measure national growth in dollar democrats and progressives from trends. This was seen as reinforcing terms but ignore hidden environ around the world. the lesson learned by the French mental and social costs. Most of the participants in the Socialists in 1983, when they bowed By highlighting the social as well June meeting shared a common to international mMket pressures as economic cosb of conventional interest in comparing French and and 1ettisoned their early program of capitalist policies, the DSA presenta U.S. views of the end of the Reagan state-led economic growth. tions reminded some of the confer era and ofBill Clinton's election. But Into this rather rarefied discus ence participants nut only of the in the end the conference was polar sion of economic strategy, the DSA dangers of neo-liberal economic pol ized between conflicting liberal eco participants entered like a group of icy but of the ongoing moral claims nomic and socialist political agen outside agitators. While sharing of popular needs for justice and de das. The French Socialist Party some of the skepticism of other con mocracy, which socialists must ad speakers, who included leading ference participants concerning the dress today no less than in the past. party personalities such as Gerard Clinton administration's capacity to Collomb, the director of the Jaures translate its reform agenda into gov Foundation, and Mauroy, all em ernment policy, the DSA speakers folm Mason is an Assistant Professor of phasized the poor record and high underlined the need for rea Iaction to Politics at William Paterson College. 28 Dl:MOCIV\TIC Lt.FT Global Thinking, Global Action The New Ulbor Internationalism BY KURT STAND tis an oft-repeated truism thatweliveinan working conditions. age of global capital. More than ever, the In the face of these disheartening world world economy is dominated by transna wide trends, many of the world's labor move I tionai companies with little loyalty to their ments have worked to nurture a renewed spirit home countries. National markets no longer of internationalist activism. With cold-war-era suffice, as even the largest economies seek re differences rapidly fading and with the world's gional and global agreements to facilitate the economic conditions becoming more dismal, flow of investments and goods. unions have turned to mutual self-help across Yet parallel to these globalizing trends, we borders that relies on the kind of unified activity see a tragic explosion in popular xenophobic that built the trade union movement in the first nationalism worldwide -- in the Balkans, Ger place. Without exaggerating the immediate many, and elsewhere. And economic national impact of the actions that constitute this grow ism has re-emerged in the United States, in ing internationalism, and without overlooking movements associated with Pat Buchanan and the difficulties that will lie ahead, there are Ross Perot. nonetheless reasons for optimism. These two oddly matched trends -- toward an integrated world economy and toward big + Pacific Rim Dockers Conference ry and narrow nationalism -- are not unre The International Longshoremen's and ted. Global capital puts workers in every part Warehousemen's Union(ILWU), along with the the world in competition with one another, Waterside Workers Federation of Australia and undermining local and national standards that the National Council of Dockworker Unions in y,-ere the products of years of struggle. Perhaps Japan, held a conference of Pacific Rim dockers eo.-en more important, international agreements unions in April. Attending were union dele _uch a.> NAFTA and the European Single Mar gates from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Fiji, s i:et seem to make governments even less ac Honduras, lndone~ia, jdpan, Mexico, New ::ountable to their citizens, adding to the percep Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Singapore, Tahiti, bOrl that globalism and democracy are incom and the United States. The conference focused Fabble. This, too, contributes to a localism that on the problems faced by all Pacific dockwork exclusionary and chauvinistic. ers, including job loss from tedmology, privati Globalism has also been accompanied by a zation, government-inspired anti-labor prac irlch~ide attack on labor. In 1992 over 250 tices, and safety issues. All were concerned if ..... -"-"•J>Jts were murdered worldwide; 2,500 with how to find new ways to combat their ere arrested and 40,000 were fired for exercis common enemy -- the multinational shipping therr nghts to demand better wages and companies. The conference's final resolution 5CFICMB£R/ +Solidarity Campaigns Meetings are important, but critical to the new international solidarity is the ability to act in unison. Recently a delegation from two ITS's and the ICFTU toured the U.S. as part of an international solidarity effort in support of the 14,000 United Mine Workers members on strike. Diamond Walnut strikers and workers locked out by Tate and Lyle have also received interna tional support for their struggles. A major inter national campaign is being conducted on behalf of Pakistani workers employed by the Korean based transnational Daewoo. International ac tion has helped win the release of imprisoned Malawi trade union leader Chakufwa Chihana and achieve victory for striking construction workers in Lesotho. 30 DEMOCRATIC LEFT International. Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO Labor Day, 1993. . . George J. Kourpiu lntemlJIUJltal Pruidall Tom Duey continuing the bonds Gen.enil Secniory-TreasllTf!r GENERAL VICE of friendship, trust and PRESIDENTS Roe Spencer understanding with Dallas, TX John Peterpul WashingUM, DC DSA and Democratic Justin Ostro Oakland. Cf George PouU.a Lefl for dignity, justice Slamford, er Merle E. Pryor, Jr. and equality for all Du Plailta. IL Val BourpGil Ortawa. Ontario. C4llGda Americans. Don Wbartoa Cleveland, OH Lury DowDhl& Washingta11, DC F.d HOUM WashingtM, DC HEALTHCARE FOR ALL LABOR DAY 1993 77 Huyshope Ave., Hartford, CT 120~ Elmwood Ave., Providence, RI IUE Southern Tlus maJOr study provtdcs a new coruext for tmdcrs~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 's 1968 campaign in support of Joins with the labor and poor people and black lab W.dk.-../f.~ William H. Byw~t, .. The DSA Labor Commission International President interim contact: ~~~ Tom Ellett Ed Fire 5152 North Ashland Avenue #2F Secretary-Treasurer Chicago, IL 60640 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1993 31 \ GREETI.NGS LABOR DAY 1993 Bernard and Henrietta Backer Bruce and Helen Brown Leo Edbril The Gray Panthers Los Angeles DSA Maxine Phillips and Tom Roderick Sara and Max Siegel Joseph J. Swartz Steve Tarzynski and Kathy Sheldon Jim Young Alaska DSA Tona Cornette Estelle Epstein Lottie and Joe Friedman Irving Gold Sherri Levine Arthur Meadow Bill Mosley and Lisa Dowden Carl H. Schwartz and Wilda Nuttermoser Eleanor Simmonds Dorothy and Sam Tolmach Philip H. Van Gelder Marje and Mel Willbach Roger S. Wilson Larry Wittner Greetings from the Greetings from Ben Again! peasant/academic Happy Labor Day soviet land of socialist DC/MD/NoVA -- and Happy Re-electi11g our victory gardening! DSA Election Day -- socialist mayor to all who work United for Joseph M. Schwartz, for social justice. Ithaca DSA Marilyn Migiel, universal health 206 Eddy Street Michael Beajamin care and D.C. Ithaca, NY 14850 Migiel-Schwartz statehood! Ruth Messinger 6071273-3009 in memory of Michael Harrington / Labor Day Greeti11gs - Lucille Sydnor / from Westchester DSA KICKIN' Ass FOR would like to contact former SOLIDARITY WITHOUT BORDERS! Libertarian Socialist U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project THE WORKING comrades CLASS! c/ oACTWU Jim Dinsmoor 333 South Ashland Avenue 1511 East Maxwell Lane Chicago, IL 60607 DSA Youth Section Bloomington, IN 47401 312/262-6502 from the birthplace of May Day Labor Day Greetings from Nassau County DSA • .:. Working for progressive politics on Long Island! ChicagoDSA v Carrying on the vision of Michael Harrington to 1608 North Milwaukee, Room 403 keep the dream of democratic socialism alive! Chicago, IL 60647 Mark Finkel, chnir Lottie Friedman, treasurer 32 DEMOCRATIC LEFT IN MEMORIAM Cesar Chavez: "Presente" BY DUANE CAMPBELL The spirit of Cesar Chavez lives on in the struggle for union rights and justice in the fields of California. Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip Vera Cruz, and others, Cesar created the United Farmworkers (VFW). There had been more than ten previous attempts to build a farmworkers union, often with the active participation of the left. Each was destroyed by racism and corpo rate power. The successful creation of the VFW changed the nature of organized labor and par ticipated in the birth of Chicano politics. Chavez chose to build a union that incorpo rated the strategies of social movements. His teachings returned to labor's roots. Today over GY4 20,000 farmworkers enjoy benefits on the job. For myself, for Al Rojas, Dolores Delgado They are incorporated into California's educa Campbell and others in the Latino Commission tional, health, and civic communities. When the of DSA, th.e UFW was a school for organizing. current Republican strangulation of the Agricul Like hundreds of activists in labor and commu tural Labor Relations Board ends, the VFW nity organizations today, we were trained in the should quickly return to its 100,000 membership union. This cadre of organizers is the UFW's size of the early 1980s. second legacy. ·cesar deliberately created a multiracial or Cesar taught us that all organizations have ganization; Mexican, Filipino, African-Ameri problems, that all organizations are imperfect. If can, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Arab work you wait around for the perfect organization, ers have been part of the VFW. This diversity nothing gets done. But we also learned that only was necessary in order to combat the prior divi building organizations builds popular power. sions and exploitation of workers based upon Cesar Chavez taught us how to build people's race and language that left the large corporate organizations. growers always the winner. His legacy for popular struggles, to 01icano Chavez became the pre-eminent civil rights Mexicano self-determination, and to union leader for Mexican and Chicano workers, help struggles is beyond measure. Already the UCLA ing in local struggles throughout the nation. The Chicano Studies Center has renamed itself in his 30,000 people who attended Cesar's funeral in honor. He is present in all of our work. :D Delano knew that Cesar Chavez and the VFW are as important to the Chicano/Mexicano Duane Campbell is a member of the DSA National struggle for justice as Martin Luther King, Jr. was Political Committee and Secretary of the DSA Latino to the African-American community. Commission. 5EPIEMBER/0CTOBER 1993 33 REVIEW A Broader Vision of the Social Good: Trade Unions and Women Workers BY Jo-ANN MORT Women and Unions: Forging a Partnersliip. Dorothy the workplace. This collection is usefully organized Sue Cobble, editor (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1993). 464 into issues areas, to give the full range of options pages, $19.95, paper. available to today's U.S. labor movement, indeed, to the entire country. he summer of 1993 saw a revolution in the Once upon a time - particularly during the New workplace. U.S. women began their long Deal era -- the labor movement spoke on behalf of climb into the interiors of the civilized America. Their vision was the nation's vision, an T workplace by being rewarded with the alternative from the status quo. By emphasizing issues Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA}. Now, of gender equality, labor could once again put forward women (and men, too, if they choose) are free to take a vision for a nation sorely in need of one. 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a child or sick Many remedies cited by authors in this book are relative. obvious. All they require is political will. For example, Never mind that the European Community (EC) Margaret Halleck, of the University of Oregon and just voted to regularize standards, giving each mem formerly of the Service Employee:. lntemational Un ber of the EC fourteen weeks of paid leave -- way ion (SEIU), argues for labor to make wage equality a below the standards for most Western European coun goal. She cites examples from S\.veden and new laws in tries, where leaves range from nineteen months to Ontario and British Columbia whose goals are to three years. Never mind -- it's a beginning as the U.S. equalize incomes. tries to raise itself out of the undeveloped world, But, most germane to today's "pro-family" where it sits in an embarrassing comparison to other agenda is her argument for a re-adjustment of the industrialized countries when it comes to social regu "family wage." It's painfully obvious that men no lations and national work standards. longer need to eam more than women to support a The labor movement can and should claim a lot of family. It's time that myth be debunked through a credit for this new legislation. For over a decade, hard-nosed political campaign for wage equality advocates of women and children within organized which would, in the end, raise wages for all workers labor have been arguing for this type of family-friendly and begin to lift thousands of women and children out policy. The FMLA is critical because it sets a new of poverty. precedent in mandatory workplace legislation, but it's Several articles discuss strategies around pay already become known as the "yuppie law" since only equity struggles. Jean Ross and Ronnie Steinberg, both well-paid professionals can afford to take advantage of whom have been active in DSA, describe their own of it. The goal, of course, will be to push the policy experiences with pay equity battles. Ross traces the further so that all women can, in fact, afford to make history of collective bargaining and equity issues; use of it. Steinberg cites a 1985 New York State comparable As this recent book, Women and Unions: Forging a worth study to begin to re-evaluate what defines Partnership, edited by Rutgers professor Dorothy Sue "valuable" work. Cobble, shows, the opportunities are vast for women Yet, as Gloria Johnson -- a vice president of the and unions in the workplace of the future. Models International Union of Electronic Workers, the new exist throughout the world on how to bring equity into president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and 34 DEMOCRATIC LEFT a newly elected member of the AFL-CIO executive the vast majority of women's jobs in the U.K. Ninety council -- argues, women labor activists need to de percent of part-time workers are women in West Ger velop "strategy packages," combining various op many [sic], 88 percent in Austria, 87 percent in Bel tions for closing the wage gap, from litigation to legis gium, 85 percent in Sweden and 83 percent in France. lation. Where pay equity battles have been successful As in the U.S., most of these women work in the low in the public sector, waged by SEIU and the American end service and retail jobs. Except for the U.K., most Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employ of these workers enjoy a wide range of benefits un ees, these fights must be brought into the private available to most U.S. workers, through national legis sector, too.• lation and increasingly through an expansion of the As critical as increasing wages for women is the social clause in the European Community. duRivage need to change the concept of work and the workplace. and Jacobs conclude by arguing for U.S. unions to U.S. women desperately need some of the social legis expand their fight for women's rights beyond the col lation offered to women in most developed nations. lective bargaining table to push for legislative reme Again, precisely because unions have been in the fore dies. front on these family-oriented issues, unions could As Leslie Nulty of the UFCW points out in her offer an agenda for change in our nation that would comments, many of these part-time workers in Europe increase labor's overall public image and support are immigrants. The debate raging in post-Cold War among unorganized workers. Europe about immigration policy will no doubt have As Susan Cowell, an International Ladies Gar an impact on the future of this part-time workforce. ment Workers Union vice president and DSA activist, Immigrants, too, comprise a large portion of the part writes: "The labor movement offers a distinct ap time, non-union workforce in the U.S. Women of all proach to family policy . . .[F]ederal government poli ages -- including too many who work underage -- are cies to ensure adequate income, family and medical left with almost no legal protection or social benefits. leave, and high-quality affordable support services, The U.S. labor movement, as it did in the much including child care, elder care, and health care." heralded days of the great CIO organizing drives, Cowell stresses that labor's ability to negotiate this must develop a sophisticated campaign which com agenda into the public debate was hindered by the bines the best of collective bargaining with political Reagan/Bushera. Now, she supposes, labor may have organizing in the streets, statehouses, and halls of an easier time. The trick, of course, is for labor to Congress. But organizing by itself is not enough. DSA develop a strategy to stretch the available political activist Roberta Lynch points out in one of the con space more to the left so that these issues can be cast cluding essays that "Labor will need a broader vision 1 from labor's -- not corporate America's -- point of of its role, and a more compelling and credible vision view. Federal child care policies and a reorganization of what society should be." of the eight-hour work day are tops on the list. As There is no way, finally, to enhance the position of Cowell concludes, "Labor's ability to articulate and women in the workforce without strengthening the implement its own family policy will determine the U.S. labor movement. So, labor law reforms which answers to these que!itions for all Americans." would allow workers the right to organize without Several authors investigate the issue of part-time fear of job loss or recrimination may be number one on work and the evolving position of unions toward this the list of fighting for women's equality. Indeed, phenomenon. Historically, part-time work has been inventive campaigns have successfully swelled used to undermine a stable, unionized workforce. women's ranks in the labor movement in the tradi That is still the case in many instances, as employers tional blue collar sector and in the clerical, service and attempt to circumvent any responsibility to pay full professional sectors. time workers their benefits. However, even that is not enough. Labor can only However, both single-paycheck earners and two increase its numbers if the majority of non-union wage earner families increasingly will depend on Americans think that a strengthened labor movement workplace flexibility to enable them to take care of is good for the country. One of the most effective ways family responsibilities. It's therefore imperative that to convince a skeptical America is to fight for the kind unions be open to part-time work as an option; but it's of social agenda which mixes economic necessity with increasingly important to either federalize social stan the social good. . dards and benefits for all workers or to extend organ That's the essence of women and unions. This ized labor's numbers into the part-time workforce. volume is a helpful tool in organizing the debate Part-time work is becoming a world-wide phe among trade. unionists and others. t:l! nomenon. Virginia duRivage and David C. Jacobs reveal in their essay that part-time work now accounts fo-A1111 Mort is director of comm1micat1011s of ACTWU, for over 40 percent of the jobs held by women in and a member of tile DSA National Political Committee and Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and of the editorial board of Dissent. Srnu.1r1rR/Ocrour 1< 1993 35 DSA IS A FRIEND AND ALLY OF WORKING WOMEN AND MEN AND THEIR UNIONS. THANKS FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT. JAN D. PIERCE, Vice President COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA District One TheILGWU Southwest District Council City University NewYorkDSA Salutes DSA & Democratic Left announces the twelfth annual Socialist Scholars Steve Nutter Antonio Orta VP Regional Director ~ MaPUJgtr Conference CristiPUJ R. Vazquez Political & Educ:ational Director ILR Press April 1, 2, 3, 1994 "CHIM" •nd Unton.-: Forcina • hrtn~rshlp Dorothy Sut Cobbl•. oditor Thlo .Ulutoftt bc>Ok uploru the fact II of• n-U A.. llab le •I lo 36 D EMOCRl\TIC LEFT Congratulations to DEMOCRATIC LEFT from Agree with or dissent from Dissent -- but don't be without it! O Single copy: $6 O Subscription rates: $22/year; $40/two years O Students: $15/year O Institutions: $30/year; $50/two years N&w: ______ADDRESS------ CITY STATE/ZIP------Make check payable to Dissent. 521 Fifth Avenue. New York. NY 10017 5EmMB£11./0crosr.R 1993 37 Books, Videos, Etc. Available From DSA! Essential Reading for the Clinton Era 0 New! Race Matters 0 New! The Activist'sAlmanac: The Concerned by Corne} West Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy The bestselling collection of essays by DSA Honorary Organizations in America Chair Cornet West. Broad, insightful, prophetic thinking. by David Walls Beacon Press, 1993, hardcover, $12.00. A stunningly thorough and useful directory. Simon and Schuster, 1993, 432 pages, softcover, 0 New! A~er the Flood: World Politics $18.00. and Democracy in the Wake of Communism by Bogdan Denitch 0 Reclaiming Our Future: An Agenda for DSA Vice Chair Bogdan Denitch refl.ects on the historical American Labor implications of the demise of Leninism. Thoughtful and by William Winpisinger timely. A radical vision for the U.S . labor movement. Wesleyan University Press, Softcover, $17.00. Westview Press, 1989, 268 pages, softcover, $9.00. 0 Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black 0 The Worst Years ofOur Lives: Intellectual Life Irreverent Notes From a Decade ofGreed by bell hooks and Cornel West by Barbara Ehrenreich This provocatiue and captivating dialogue discusses is· A collection of shorter pieces by DSA Honorary Chair sues ranging from theology and the left to contemporary Barbara Ehrenreich. Serious but fun. music, film and fashion. Harper-Collins, 275 pages, 1991, softcover, $10.00 South End Press, 1991, 271 pages, $12.00. 0 The E11d of the Cold War: European Unity, 0 Organizing for Social Change: A Manual for Socialism and the Shift in Global Power Activists in the 1990s by Bogdan Denitch by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max An excellent, thoughtful analysis of recent history. An incomparable handbook. University of Minnesota Pre~s. 1990, 123 pages, Seven Locks Press, 1991, 271 pages, softcover, $20.00. soft.cover, $12.00. Autobiography National Health Care 0 Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the 0 "Health Care For a Nation In Need" Communist Party by Victor W. Sidel, MD by Dorothy Healey and Maurice Isserman Find out more about health care reform and the prospects Oxford, 1990, Hardcover, 263 pages, $20.00 for national health care in this compelling booklet. Published by IDS, 1991, 36 pages, $5.00 QA Margin ofHope by Irving Howe HBJ, 1982, Softcover, 252 pages, $7.00 · 0 "Health Care For People, Not For Profit.. Published by DSA, 1990, pamphlet, FREE 0 Button: "Health Care For People, Not For Profit!" Youth/Campus Politics DSA, $1.00 0 "Organizing for Reproductive Freedom" Published by DSA, 1990, 46 pages. SA buttons! $1.00 each special price: $1.00 Socialism ~ 0 "Youth Section Organizing Manual" 0 Dem3cracy I 0 Published by DSA, 1990, 72 pages, $3.00 Democratic Socialists of America 38 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Books by DSA Honorary Chairs Michael Harrington Classics ':l New! Tke Ethical Dimensions of Marxist CJ Socialism: Past and Future Thought by Cornel West by Michael Harrington .".searching look at Marxism by 011.I! ofAmuica's liveliest In his last book, the late Michael Harrington, a DSA :hinkers. founder and longtime co-chair, traces two centuries of so· Monthly Review Press, 1991, 18.00 cialist history. Penguin USA, 1989, softcover, $10.00 0 Socialism and America by Irving Howe Thoughts on the histcry of.soclalism in America from the CJ The Long-Distance Runner time of Eugene Deb:; tc the present. by Michael Harrington HBJ, 1977, Soft.cover, 218 pages, $7.00. Fascinating autobiographical account ofone ofAmerica's most provocatiue thinkers and committed activists. Cl New! Prophetic Thought in Poshruxkrn Ti~s Henry Holt, 1988, hardcover, 260 pages. by Cornel West Special price, now just $9.00! Reflections on the preservation of "non-market" values. Common Courage Press, 1993, 210 pages, $15.00 Cl The Next Left by Michael Harrington A still-relevant analysis and prescription for building a Cl New! Prophetic Reflections: Notes on Race vibrant, effective democratic left. and Power in. America Henry Holt, 1986, hardcover, 194 pages. by Cornel West Special Price. now just $7.00! Recent speeches and interviews. As always, challenging and enlightening. Cl "Socialism Informs the Best of Our Politics" Common Courage Press, 1993, 244 pages, $15.00. by Michael Harrington Published by DSA, 1988, 4 pages, $1.00 Cl Fear ofFalling: The Inner Life ofthe Middle Class by Barbara Ehrenreich Cl The New American Poverty Ehrenreich dissects the middle class and examines how by Michael Harrington its anxieties shape its political and cultural outlook. A challenging analysis of poverty in the context of new Pantheon Books, 1989, soft.cover, $11.00 economic patterns. Penguin Books, 1984, 270 pages, softcover, $9.00. Cl The Mean Season: Th~ Attack on the Welfare State by Fred Block, Richard A. Cloward, Barbara • ORDER FORM • Ehrenreich, and Frances Fox Piven A healthy antidote to neoconservatfoe rhetnric Pleasecheck offi terns youwislt to order. Ifyou are ordering more than one of a partic11lar item, fill in a'1UJ11nt ordered in box. Tlten, fill out Pantheon Books, 1987, softcover, 205 pages, $9.00 below. POSTAGE AND HANDLING New socialist outer\\Tear! For orders $2.00 and under add $.SO Fororde"' from $2.01 to $5.00 add Sl.00 0 DSA T-shirts $10.00 For orde"' from SS.01 to $10.00 add $2.00 For orders over $10.00 add $3.00 M L XL 0 DSA bicycle caps $6.00 one size fits all Cm/STATEIZ1P ______NOW ON VIDEO! PHONE ______ Billy Bragg 0 Pete Seeger 0 Gretchen Reed 10TAL AMOUNT OF ORDER$. ______0 Q- THf CoNcERT FoR Joss, PEACE & FREEDOM ti' Produced by IDS, $20.00 0 Payment enclosed 0 Charge my credit card If pllyingbyVis:. or Mastercard please fill In credit card number,expinillon 0 THE OTHER SIDE OF FREE TRADE dotte, and sign below. 0 VISA 0 MASTERCARD A 10-lfTh"UIE VIDEO DOCUMENTING THE DSA YOUTH Credit Card Number ______SECI!O~ .JA.. Nl.JARY 1993 INVESTIGATIVE \"lSIT TO Expirabon Date------Signature~------Man:.... ~ IUQt'lLA.OORA. ZONES -- A GREAT ORGA.,'1Z· P/tQse r SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1993 39 Janie Higgins Reports FLYING LIKE GEESE stitute reveals that when work and family demands clash, a worker's family is more than three times as · We're all too familiar with the un- likely to suffer than his or her job performance. ' substantiated right-wing scare story Rather than refuse overtime, cut their work produc that thousands of Canadians allegedly tivity, or risk their bosses' wrath, workers will give up flee their health care system by coming leisure time with their families, neglect housework, or to the United States for treatment. Now experience bad moods. comes news of a very different phe nomenon: The province of Ontario esti- mates that over half a million foreigners, WIMPY INFILTRATES mostly U.S. citizens, come to Ontario CAPITAL'S INNER LAIR with false Canadian health-care ID's. The province estimates that this sort of fraud costs Canadian taxpay Unions are increasingly winning representation ers $760 million (U.S.) annually. Now we know which on the boards of airline companes. The Pilots A':>so health-care system people are really desperate to flee. ciation and the Teamsters, who represent flight atten Memo to future health care policy wonks: Ifwe've gotta dants, each have one seat on the board of Northwest have national health care cards, make them with photo Airlines. And unions have a total offour seats on the ID's, okay? board of lW A, where their representatives include DSA Honorary Chair William ("Wimpy") Winp1sm ger, the retired pre~ident of the International Associa GRIM "CHOICES" tion of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (JAM). A new reminder of how life in a job-scarce, wage When asked by a iournalist whether Wmpisinger's based society perverts human priorities and possibili selection means that an old socialist will be joining the ties: A just-released study by the Families and Work In- board, an IAM official replied, "He's not so old." Democratic Socialists of America Join us! Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in immediate struggles for justice -- as we build a movement for long-term social change. We bring to our work a strategy for building alliances among social movements and a vision of a more just and equitable society. Join DSA and become a card-carrying member of the largest and most exciting democratic socialist organization in the U.S.! Cl Send me more information about DSA. NAME ------~----~~ ADDRESS ______~ Cl Enclosed are my dues! Crrv /SrArE/Zw ______a $50 sustainer 0 $35 regular a $15 low-income/student PHONE~~------~-----~~ UNJON/5cHOOL/0R~ANIZATION ______Cl Enclosed is $8 for a subscription to Democratic Left 0 Enclosed is a contribution of$__ Make checks payable to DSA, and return to DSA- to help DSA's activism. 15 D1llch St., #500, NY, NY 100.38. (212) 962-0390