USA week by week US labour bureaucrats talk of 'coalition against Reagan Build a Labour Party

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Reagan: can only be fought through workers' party. discuss the political crisis within labour and the relationship between the unions and the Democratic The conference was called by the 1.7 million member state AFL-CIO and was chaired by its secretary John Henning.

Henning began the conference by declaring that the Democratic Party is run by millionaires with the unions being allowed no special representation at the upcoming Democratic Party convention in Kansas City.

He also noted that there is little discussion within the trade unions of independent politics because of the basic federation structure.

He finished by noting that Local 535 of the SEIU had a meeting on the labour party and the United Steelworkers District 38 had passed a motion for a labour party at their western conference in Phoenix.

Throughout the conference, delegates complained about the impediments in the trade union structure that prevented the unions from developing an independent political party and the necessity of building that party.

Tony Ramos, secretary of the California State Conference of Carpenters, called for a new "coalition" to work within the Democratic Party for now but build a new party down the line.":

His statement fell far short of the labour party resolution passed by the Carpenters State Conference calling for a labour party movement now.

Delegates from the floor were müch more adamant about the immediate necessity of starting quickly.

An auto worker reported from the UAW convention that the Democrats had provided no legislation to defend against layoffs, yet there was no presidential candidate to vote for.

choice He called for a coalition against Reagan but that the movement needed .. a party to have a real choice.

Support for a labbur party also came from carpenters, WA members, bus drivers, steelworkers and SEIU members.

The afternoon session was headed up by Alexander Barkan, national director of the Committee on Political Education (COPE)..

Barkan made no secret of the national AFL-CIO's continued support of the Democrats.

"Our real enemy is Ronald Reagan, and we will endorse President Carter, if as now seems certain, he is nominated at the Democratic convention."

He was supported by Jack Crowley, secretary of the San Francisco Labor Council and even Henning who, while talking about a labour party, proposed to «wait until January 1 to search out labour candidates" Carter Dick Groulx, secretary of the Alameda Labor Council, called for labour to "scare the hell out of the candidates the unions now support" yet was forced to admit that laboursupported candidates in the recent election spent thousands of union donated funds to advertise on KRON-TV, a struck station in San Francisco.

In that race, the United Farm Workers gave $30,000 to Democrat Santana only to see their money spent on a scab station where the office workers are still on strike.

Henning closed the meeting by calling for more discussion with another. meeting in December and two or three in 1981, yet no firm proposal was made to call a congress of all the unions to begin the construction of a labour party.

Trade unionists and socialists must demand that their union act now to move forward the struggle for a labour party.

Waiting for Henning and Barkan will not create a mass movement in the working class for a labour party; a labour party must be constructed in the unions without waiting anymore for these fiddlers and dithering opportunists. Let'sMate america