You would never know it from the carefully scripted pageant called the State of the Union address, which was intended to make the world think that Bush has rock-solid domestic support for his war program and his attacks on workers, but the opposition is growing broader and deeper by the day. The latest evidence of this comes from the labor movement, which in the past has generally abstained from taking a position against U.S. wars of aggression.
Now, however, at least seven national unions have "taken stands in opposition to the Bush administration rush to war and usurping of civil liberties at home," according to the labor Internet group, portside.
The seven are American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and United Farm Workers of America (UFW).
Anti-war resolutions are being drafted and discussed in unions all over the country, spurred on by the recent formation of U.S. Labor Against the War, which had large contingents in the Jan. 18 protests. The contingent in Washington was led by members of 1199 SEIU Health and Hospital Workers, which brought 20 buses to the protest from New York.
One such resolution was passed without a dissenting vote at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor meeting on Jan. 27, the very day that Hans Blix was presenting an ambiguous report to the UN Security Council under enormous U.S. pressure.
The resolution categorically opposes the war, with no ifs, ands or buts. It describes the war drive as "a pretext for attacks on labor, civil, immigrant and human rights." It adds that "the Bush administration's drive for war serves as a cover and distraction for the sinking economy, ongoing corporate corruption and layoffs," and says that "the billions of dollars spent to stage and execute this war are being taken away from our schools, hospitals, housing, and Social Security and services for the poor in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in recent memory, even as the Bush administration simultaneously plans even more giveaways and welfare for their rich supporters."
This resolution, which takes a firm class stand in such ringing terms, also responds to the government's "renewed assault on organized labor which includes use of Taft-Hartley against dockworkers, excluding over 50,000 federal airport screeners' right to organize, privatizing nearly 200,000 federal jobs covered by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and removing collective bargaining rights from these employees."
It also assails the USA Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act for serving "to undermine labor's right to organize and fight anti-immigrant attacks by expanding the government's ability to detain non-citizens, to conduct telephone and Internet surveillance, and to carry out secret searches."
A year ago such a clear, working class indictment of big business's political agenda, which has passed Congress with support from both capitalist parties, would have seemed inconceivable. But since then, the crisis for the workers referred to in this resolution has grown much more intense. The arrogance of the rulers has alienated the whole world.
George W. Bush has taken to accusing the Democrats of instigating "class war," something they have no intention of doing. It is he, in fact, who has opened a war at home against the workers at the very moment that he expects the youth of the working class to be the foot soldiers for his imperial ambitions. There will be no going back once this genie is out of the bottle. A new progressive tide is already beginning to sweep the country, and this time the workers, organized and unorganized, working and unemployed, immigrant and born here, people of all ages, sexes, genders and ethnicities, will shape its course. Those who have suffered the most are in the forefront of the struggle.
