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Labor Movement Rolls Into Wall Street Occupation
The steel and concrete of Lower Manhattan comes alive every day during rush hour, when gray suits pulse through subway tunnels and the city's arteries get choked with street vendors, construction workers and other folks hustling to make a living. Now that a bunch of rabble-rousers have occupied the neighborhood, the workers who form Gotham's backbone are starting to reclaim their turf as well. 
The convergence between the Wall Street occupation and labor activism may escalate in the coming days amid a standoff between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and public sector workers. (photo: Maurício Alcântara)
It may be too early to draw parallels between the Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti Park (aka Liberty Plaza) and their antecedents in Tahrir Square and Madison. But the movements suggest a general trajectory of grassroots organizing: a spark of protest led by younger activists, followed by the support of labor organizations, bringing up the rear and then moving to the fore.
By Wednesday, the Village Voice reported that the historically militant Transport Workers Union had voted to back, and provide food and services to, the Occupy Wall Street movement. In a video recorded during an evening protest, TWU Local 100 member Christine Williams declared, "The people have finally woke up. And we're here and we're staying and we're not going anywhere."
TWU spokesperson Jim Gannon told the Voice: " A motion was brought up to endorse the protests' goals; I don't know why it took us so long to do it." Better late than never, the union says it now plans to amass on the afternoon of October 5 and march to Zuccotti Park.
Other labor-oriented solidarity actions have been undertaken by professors at the City University of New York affiliated with the Professional Staff Congress union (of which this author is also a member). Their group, Solidarity with OWS, is organizing a demonstration against police abuse this Friday afternoon. (Other notable lefty academic allies include Frances Fox Piven, Christian Parenti, and Stanley Aronowitz.)
According to Crain's New York Business, local unions are collaborating with community-based groups such as Make the Road New York, Coalition for the Homeless and Community Voices Heard -- all organizations that are in daily contact with the struggles of the city's poor and working-class.
The city's doormen, security guards and maintenance worker see common ground with the occupation, too. The Huffington Post reports that their union, SEIU 32BJ, said that a planned October 12 rally would embrace the current protests' theme:
"The call went out over a month ago, before actually the occupancy of Wall Street took place," said 32BJ spokesman Kwame Patterson. Now, he added, "we're all coming under one cause, even though we have our different initiatives."
The General Assembly, a proudly amorphous body that is helping coordinate the demonstrations, has set up a Labor Support and Outreach Working Group, which, according to September 29 meeting minutes posted to the Assembly's website, has encouraged protesters to join a demonstration of the Communication Workers of America nearby. Organizers are reportedly gearing up "to carry out a very creative direct action in support of the phone workers."
The convergence between the Wall Street occupation and labor activism may escalate in the coming days amid a standoff between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and public sector workers. The statewide Public Employees Federation just voted narrowly to reject a five-year contract that would have staved off layoffs at the expense of higher healthcare costs and wage freezes. On Tuesday, union president PEF Brienyen told reporters that when members saw the concessions demanded of them, "The sacrifices were too great, and they said, 'Enough is enough.' "
That axiom would fit nicely among the panoply of anticapitalist slogans that protesters have displayed in Downtown Manhattan, proclaiming "People over Profit" and "Heal America, Tax Wall Street."
As sister campaigns emerge in other areas under the banner of "Occupy Together," the Wall Street actions could serve as a kind of petri dish for future protest tactics, building on the occupational groundwork laid by smaller demonstrations, such as a recent encampment at City Hall to protest budget cuts, and a Wall Street protest in May that drew union support from 1199 SEIU and the United Federation of Teachers.
As ITT's Akito Yokishane reported, the lifeblood of the protests has been the young and the frustrated. But the occupation also represents swelling resentment across all sectors of society -- covering expressly the 99 percent of us who are getting screwed and shafted by corporate moguls and, more tragically, our own elected representatives.
Yet the proactive anger has been building in the labor movement far from Wall Street. An editorial by the Socialist Worker points to protests in recent months -- by longshoremen in Washington, striking hospital workers in California, and the groundbreaking Verizon strikers -- as signs of new "fighting mood" among the rank and file:
Workers haven't yet prevailed in all of these struggles, nor will all of them win in the future. But what unites these fights is the activism and solidarity on display, despite a hostile corporate media and aggressive employers.Labor's new sparks of resistance are proof positive that the defiant spirit of the battle in Wisconsin last winter wasn't a flash in the pan, but a sign that growing numbers of working people are rediscovering their capacity to struggle. After decades of a one-sided class war, the fightback has begun.
Whether organized labor is finally catching up to youth activists, or the young occupiers are at last rekindling an older legacy of mass resistance, the cross-fertilization of movements is underway. Don't ask the diverse alliance to state their agenda -- the movement is organically structured, with no formal "list of demands" yet, and that's part of the fun. Not everyone came to Wall Street knowing exactly what they wanted, but everyone there today knows they've had enough, and that they're not the only ones.
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70 Comments so far
Show AllPoor Trumka. Poor Hoffa. Doesn't look like they had a chance to nip this one in the bud before it happened. :-)))))
Most union rank and file realize that their kids will never get a job as long as older workers are forced to delay or cancel retirement due to the upcoming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts Obama's super catfood commission will make.
That is the real irony of all this focus on reducing the debt and deficit.
Yeah, and they'd like to go and pretend they actually work for those six-figure salaries, but Obama won't give them permission.
Yes--hope they don't let the unions water this protest down like they did in Wisconsin when they killed the General Strike!
Trumka has endorsed #OpWallStreet...
http://www.thenation.com%2Fblog%2F163737%2Fafl-cios-trumka-hails-occupy-wall-street-key-unions-begin-endorse-protests&h=aAQCd5-jV
"The Commies go to Wall St." There should be a movie made with this title cause if you examine their ideology, it's the old Russian hammer and sickle Workers Party. "Union"(key word) of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR.
The ignorance of your comment is astounding. Change your screen name.
Jason_Wise ignores the fact that the strength of the American Communist and Socialist Parties during the 1930s is what gave politicians leverage to enact FDR's New Deal which kept the US from becoming as fascist as Germany, Italy and Spain.
Today, with no threat of communism in the US, corporations and the politicians they own are free to make the US ever more fascist.
The GOP understands this concept very well, moving their agenda rapidly rightward, thereby giving Obama and the Democrats leverage to enact more right wing legislation.
After watching Obama's serial strategy of demanding an ounce and getting nothing, the protestors understand that they need to demand a ton in order to end up with an ounce at the end of the day.
Ditto that! The misinformation and lies is apparent in this comment!
We should be so lucky!
Товарищ Джейсон, вы полны дерьма!
eto pravil'no. :-)))
Don't know what they've said but I bet it's good.
According to Google translate the Russian reads "Comrade Jason you're full of crap!"
awww.... my heart is all a flutter just knowing that we have such intelligent folks as fellow citizens. You must be the descendant of some sort of wealth whether real or imagined. Or maybe you are part of the 'Wise Use Movement' from 15 years ago.
Bzzzzt fail wise ass, most modern young activists are anarchists, or anarchist sympathizers the very opposite of state centralist Communism.
Fail and badly so, go troll some less informed people.
You people must of misunderstood me. Union Bosses that are running these Unions like Jimmy Hoffa and company are Socialist. I do not believe in giving money to them or being forced to vote Democrat so they can receive favors from a Democrat president. I am one who is in favor of Right To Work. I do not wish to be forced to join a Union when I apply for work at a company that has been forced into Union control. If Hoffa had his way, every business would be Union in the U.S..
Were you a breech baby who got your soft little baby head squashed at birth wise ass? The Dims far from being "socialist" are reactionary right wingers just like the Repigliecons. Sadly much of the U.S. labor movement has been right wing for decades too, but I think a few are waking up due to globalist outsourcing and bankster malfeasance.
Here is another clue moron Unions protect a living wage that allows working class people to buy a house and send their children to college. Do you think you are going to get that at a "right to work" job like Wal-Mart greeter.
Mega super fail. Go back to watching your Glenn Beck and go back to sleep, those of us looking out for YOUR own good have work to do.
I make $25 an hour at a Non-Union Corporation doing Electrical work and if this corporation was made to be a Union it would of moved to China! Unions are Passay and are not needed in today's world. Unions are breaking the backs of companies being Taxed to Death by the Feds and distroying local governments with thier demands.
Although I agree that union members should have more say in how much of their dough goes to Democrats, keep in mind that those companies that complain about being overtaxed are actually not paying any tax to the Feds (they ARE getting tax credits that assure they will never pay any taxes).
Although I have been in a labor union less than 25% of my working life, as a manager I HAVE worked with many different unions, finding that only 10 to 15% of unions pushed demands to the point that any company's survival was threatened.
As far as living in a right-to-work state, I have been there, done that and determined that the correct term is RIGHT TO STARVE state.
Exactly which companies are those that are being taxed to death? I'd like to know. Names please. Hard to think it's unions and workers or even taxes breaking the backs of "companies", when executive wages, and packages have probably been the most excessively inflated costs any company has had to absorb in the last few decades. Where's your concern about that issue?
And the word is "passe" not "passay".
Love it! "those of us looking out for YOUR own good have work to do." These idiots who think that a 40 hour work week was a gift of the upper class are absolutely astounding! Without labor unions mr. wise ass would be working at Right to Work establishments for less than minimum wage, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, no vacation, and if he missed a day or even an hour due to sickness his job is gone to the next line. The Right to Work establishments provide what little benefits they do only because they have to in order to compete with unionized establishments. Get a clue, the benefits these paranas provide are not provided from their altruism.
Good one!
Congratulations! As a result of efforts such as yours, many more now have the right to work - without decent wages, safe conditions, health care or retirement benefits. Keep up the good "work"!
Unless he wins the lottery, Jason better be able to keep doing that electrical work until the day he dies.
Right to work is the right to work for slave wages --
Capitalism is dead in America -- except on Wall St --
It's a ridiculous "King-of-the-Hill" system intended to move the wealth and natural
resources from the many to the few.
Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime --
Capialism is an evil -- you can't regulate it --
We need to move on to economic democracy and it ain't capitalism!
Great news. Power to the 99%. It's time to tax the 1%.
...And add a penalty tax for being so god damn arrogant about their assumed superiority. Every time I see a friggin' BMW tailgating me and then blow by in a fit of rage, I want to get even with asshats that think they are better just because the have the dough re me. Just even, mind you.
To hell with taxing the 1%, I say let's BBQ the bastards. Their soft doughy haven't worked a day in their life skin will just fall off the bone. Or if you prefer we could turn them in to sausage for a real Oktoberfest.
This was my yesterday comment on the Tony Balogne thread:
Back in the day, the cops came in with thier "Serve and Protect" slogan on the sides of thier cruisers. The roar came up from the crowd: "Serve the Bosses, Protect the State". (I think it came from the PLP contingent). Make no mistake about it, this most certainly IS Class Warfare. And the Pigs are there to protect the interests of thier bosses, the ruling class. Never what cops do are individual, isolated events. They are the enemy!
I would like to add that, see, we can know that the movement will become a united front of workers and students and oppressed people of all stripes and across national lines. And yes, let's understand the nature of our 'have and have-not' societies. We only empower ourselves as we know the class struggle that we wage. Let's try to not rely on the celebrities: Michael Moore, Susan. S., etc. to validated the movement! Leadership will come. That's all...
Since the MSM is hushing this up to protect their corporate masters I'd recommend taking the protest to their respective buildings with some placards asking why they are censoring news. That publicity alone -and world wide- would be gold.
Totally agree! The corporate mafia media and the minions they hire are only serving their masters. They are a huge part of the problem in the US of A. They need to be broken up like to big to fail banks, start enforcing Sherman Anti-Trust laws that haven't been enforced since before Reagan.
We need a organized March on Wall Street, NBC,ABC, CBS et al CNN, CSpan, et al, K Street and DC and we need to get are so called progressive radio and TV people organizing these marches in the millions. We the people who have not had an actual adjusted for inflation raise for many years need to get cheap airline tickets, hotels or home housing on East Coast. Us Westerners cannot just hop up to NYC or DC. We need to be in the millions. I am going to be 65 and we need alot of people like
You forgot MSNBC and PBS. They are not better than the rest of the MSM whores.
This is getting interesting. The Left in this country died, practically speaking, when labor and young radicals (galvanized by opposition to the Viet Nam War, and the civil rights movement) diverged in the late 60's and early 70's. The New Left largely scorned organized labor whose rank-and-file (in the most) supported that war and, let's face it, were not too anxious to see blacks gain some measure of economic equality. But social justice and liberation movements without workers are rooms without oxygen. Maybe it's a sign that labor is on the ropes, or maybe folks realize more unites them than divides, but convergence would be serendipitous. If we are going down, the nameless, faceless victims of a lethal, virulent, utterly inhumane capitalist system, better together.
Great analysis mere p.c. identity politics listing of grievances, without a more abstract socioeconomic analysis inclusive of ALL people IS a dead end. We need to not just list grievances but imagine grassroots local processes, mean of direct citizen governance, and workplaces that are beyond both statism and finance capitalism, that's where the action is IMO. The old IWW anarcho-syndacalism is good place to look in history of how to tie Union labor into left activism IMO.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that not just blue collar jobs are going over seas but the white collar jobs are going with them.
Even at 7% of the workforce, America still has enough union members (plus union supporters among their dependents) to apply some SERIOUS counterweight against the fascists now running the economic, political and mass media Roman Circus--at the State and Federal levels in much of the country.
The AFL-CIO alone has 11 million members. Throw in the UAW, AFSCME, the teachers unions, the nurse's unions, the skilled trades unions (electricians, plumbers, masons, etc.), the Hollywood unions, etc., plus their supporting dependents and you begin to see what could come together.
America's unions just need to realize and organize that power across multiple unions and throw off their fat, overpaid, corporately co-opted leadership where it exists. Only the unions working together with the rest of left-of-DLC America can put MILLIONS in the street in Washington D.C., NYC and around the corporatist, militarist mass media HQs--and keep the pressure up for as long as it takes. And that's EXACTLY what we need.
We need to be able to create the logistics (food, water, sanitation, critical protest shelter in sympathetic citizens' homes and elsewhere, medical care for protesters brutalized by rogue cops, bailout & legal defense funds for protesters, etc.) to put, in my opinion, close to two million protesters at every major event we focus upon and keep them there for months at a time if need be.
We need clear, short, easily understood lists of demands for each major event--three to five demands. We need to simultaneously develop and use, to the greatest extend possible as soon as possible, OUR OWN MASS MEDIA to get our messages out without having to go through corporatist, militarist, blindly pro-Wall Street mass media owner/editor filters and censors. Low power FM radio station licenses for non-profit organizations will be opened up by the FCC for the first time in 30 years next summer.
Lastly, the surveillance/Police State that treacherous Republicans and Democrats have assembled over the last 20 years in anticipation of rising civil suffering and civil unrest that their policies deliberately set in motion is designed to fully exploit Americans' over-dependence on electronic communications. Critical protest-related communications should be person-to-person between at least reasonably well-known (and preferably very well known) fellow activists and union members.
We need to get off our asses and start meeting each other face to face in small and large meetings like the old union organizers did in the days before telephones--you know, to actually get to know each other as intelligent, sensitive, flesh and blood human beings to raise our level of commitment. We need to publicly reassert the old but effective tactic of public speaking in public spaces with plenty of muscle to protect the speakers--especially outside areas were lots of non-unionized labor go to work. We need pamphleteers and folks to walk with and protect them, too.
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Occupy Wall Street micro-movement has been the EXCELLENT posters that have been created in support of it. I already have a collection of about 25 of them.
AMERICAN ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND PLAYWRIGHTS AWAKE! NOW IS YOUR TIME TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT USING ALL YOUR CREATIVITY WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!
"Don't fear the media; BECOME the media!"
-- Jello Biafra
Metal,
Bravo! Excellent observations and summation! Thank you!
I fully agree, we need to stop believing that it cannot be done without gobs of money and the "major media" it can buy ....
I am going to spread your post around ....
Thanks! Please do!
Low power FM radio stations with simultaneous online web streams have the potential to mimic audience market penetration now exclusively dominated by corporatist FM radio stations in medium and large cities.
This can be achieved by blanketing these audience markets with several low power FM radio stations with contiguous broadcast ranges that cover the same broadcast footprint as the corporate Big Boys.
I really do feel that ideas like low power FM, labor participation in the occupation movement protests and the independent candidate nominating process set up by americanselect.org (where anyone can register as a delegate, nominate whomever they choose to run for office and get them on the ballot in all 50 States because it's not a Third Party but a parallel nominating process) are three of the best ideas for us to take up and build on right now.
metal,
Well said. Low power radio stations blanketing the country is the only we to ensure a vigilant and educated populace. I hasten to add that, if the population count of 30,000 per representative (as in the original Constitution) were restored instead of one rep per 700,000 like it is now, the reps would be more beholden to that informed public being reached by those low power radio stations. As a matter of fact, 30,000 population size districts are IDEAL for low power radio stations.
Of course getting back to 30,000 population per rep would be wildly popular in the USA among the voting public. That's probably why you don't hear a peep from the oligarchy owned media about it. Also our reps are probably not too keen on sharing power with many other reps (they SO love their perks). But it must be done if we are to keep the oligarchy in check (please read my other post).
And I don't care what the supine supreme court, congress or the white house corporate whores say about our present form of "representation" being "Constitutional". That's a lie. We are a corporatocracy completely unresponsive and unaccountable to the people. That form of tyranny is unconstitutional and we need to get our original representation back from the liars and crooks who stole it from us. We need to get in the face of our reps and senators and YELL that our government is illegitimate BECAUSE it's UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
You might read an "Opinion" piece written by Danny Schechter Sept 27 on the Al Jazeera English site titled "Behind the Scenes of #OccupyWallStreet" and the following reader comments make interesting reading - Al Jazeera English being one of the few international news channels that seems not to be manipulated by unnamed US Intelligence services and report things as is and are covering these Wall Street protests. Naomi Klein's husband Avi Lewis has done and is doing some excellent documentaries on it and has stated that Al Jazeera has "a unique philosophy... Put simply, it is an unabashedly ambitious project to reverse the information flows on the planet and let people of the Global South give their version of events to people in the richest countries; to give a voice to the voiceless, and to speak truth to power." Sad that it is not widely available to view in the US and you get fed by such channels as Fox News!
Just looked it up in my little copy of the Constitution, put out by the ACLU:
Art. 1, sec. 2, para. 3 - "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand ....."
In other words, there can be NO FEWER than 30,000 folks per Rep, but it doesn't put a MAZIMUM number on how many there can be.
So if you want to argue that 30,000/Rep is a good idea, that's fine, but i don't think you can argue that it is a Constitutional requirement ....
Freedom of the press is guaranteed to those who own a magic marker!
Hitler banned unions, and now we're going to see why.
They pose a serious threat to the profit-mongering gluttons of Wall Street and around the world. This old 60's union and movement activist--unable to get there for many reasons--has been smiling all day!
Went to the Longshoreman rally in Longview, Washington yesterday and say about 10 unions represented there and lots of public enthusiasm. The cops are out in force supporting the corporations but the union has started a recall of the Sheriff and suddenly the cops aren't so militant and aggressive. I suggest others to the same. Start attacking the body politic that surrounds and protects the abusers of unions and workers. It's a fair play thing, you know. NO INCUMBENTS is the only real way to survive this rotten and corrupt government! VOTE NO INCUMBENTS. Voting for bad government won't get us good government!
Labor unions and Demoks both require the people to compromise in two important ways that are similar and yet different:
Labor unions require people to give up their economic/industrial autonomy and thereby become dependent on ... DAS KAPITAL!!! for the ownership/management of industrial production. This dependency subordinates the people to das kapital, and enslaves the people to das kapital. Before the 20th century it was known as wage slavery and it was strongly opposed by anyone who cared about the people. But labor unions in 20th century Merka helped usher in a false acceptability for wage slavery and now they must accept accountability for this crime. We see no such acceptance in the article above, and so labor unions' involvement in this social movement will very likely compromise its long-term effectiveness.
The Demok party requires people to give up their political autonomy and let das kapital run public institutions. Hilarious! Run them into the ground! And yet Merkans remain attached to the Demok party as one of only two choices at the voting booth, one of only two that has any chance of 'winning' an election. These Merkans have to learn that the object of the game has to be redefined: The only way the people can really win the game is to beat both the Demok/Repuk parties. Vote third party candidates. Just ask yourself if the candidate is being puppeteered by das kapital. If you can imagine the slightest possibility of this, keep looking until you find a real 'people's advocate', and write in the candidate's name on the ballot if necessary. The candidate will not be a member of the Demok/Repuk parties.
I spent a few hours at the occupation today. The best part of it is that we are starting to talk to one another among ourselves. One-to-one. No pre-set agenda, but a common ground in understanding that the oligarchy must go. The oligarchy wasn't elected to determine our future. They seized power. Now we are talking to one another about how to end that situation and grab the power back for the 99% of us who have been pushed to the margins. When a Wall St. banker walked by and shouted to us, "get a job, hippies," we all knew enough to respond "Wall Street stole all the jobs." In that we are united, and the Wall Streeters had no rejoinder. Now let's make sure that the agenda isn't set only by the unions that are arriving to piggy back on the occupation.
loopless,
As you said, the oligarchy must go. The oligarchy is conspIratorial, canny and mendacious. Their constant, generational plotting to control and enslave most of the population never stops. Our original form of government (which we long ago ceased to have - thanks to the oligarchy) needs to be restored. The oligarchy cannot be reasoned with. They will always attack and distort social safety net programs with Luntz type Orwellian buzzwords and every form of trickery and authoritarian tyranny in their extensive tool box. They must be prosecuted and stripped of their assets and economc power to buy politicians and promote the actual nation destroying status quo. Otherwise, no matter what concessions are wrung out them, they'll change a few names and issue some token slaps on some wrists and continue their calloused, predatory capitalist behavior without missing a beat.
So how do we restore truly democratic representative government free of corporate malfeasance and manipulation AND maintain a vigilant populace which will always nip oligarchic tricks, traps and scams in the bud so we can really live up to Constitutional ideals like preserving domestic tranquility and providing for the common welfare?
Would not metal's idea of community low power radio stations blanketing the US be 100% effective in making our government work for us if a congressional district had MAXIMUM population of around 30,000? Of course it would. Not only that, but as long as a representative has 700,000 in his or her district, you guarantee corporate fascist tyranny instead of a democratic representative republic. You can't pretend it's going to get better. We change it back to 30,000 per representative or it's OVER! All other issues are secondary to adequate representation.
Here's the elephant in our undemocratic room:
The first Congress in 1789 had 65 Representatives. The Constitutional requirement was one representative per 30,000 ("not less than 30,000").
The present form of government in the USA is no longer a shadow of the original because, thanks to Rockefeller, Carnegie and other industrial predatory capitalists that loved fascism and hated representative government, a MASSIVE CORK was put on the House of Representatives count (1913). As the population grew, the value of your vote declined and the power of corporate money increased. Now a Representative in the House covers 700,000! Your vote is now worth less than one TWENTIETH of what a vote was worth in 1789!
For those who still believe that elections for Representatives matter and Corporations have not totally destroyed our republic, I have this to say: If, in 1789, we had the same level of "representation" that we have today, the first Congress wouldn not have had 65 Representatives. THE FIRST CONGRESS WOULD HAVE HAD THREE REPRESENTATIVES!
Wake up! The corporate elite STOLE our democracy. With modern technology, we CAN go back to 30,000 per rep. That would be Constitutional. That would be too many reps for corporations to buy or threaten. That would keep the oligarchy from regrouping to attack social safety nets again.
Why do you suppose that women, Native Americans and Jim Crow free voting rights all came AFTER 1913? It didn't matter any longer because we no longer had the representation to keep the greedy elite in check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_population_per_representative.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives#Number_of_Representatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment#Constitutional_text
IF WE DON'T GET BACK TO 30,000 PER REP, THE OLIGARCHY WILL ALWAYS BEAT US!
THINK!
Agelbert,
This is a very good point. Downsizing democracy is essential. Thanks for mentioning. I would also add that perhaps regionalizing the federal govt into region-based networks, or perhaps even autonomous regions would radicalize the idea further and may be worth exploring.