by Mitch Jones
Yellow TimesApril 15, 2002
Thousands of protestors will meet this year in Washington D.C. for the IMF and World Bank's annual meeting on April 20th. A mass mobilization has taken place that includes four coalitions: the Colombia Mobilization, the April 20th Mobilization, the Mobilization for Global Justice and International ANSWER. A wide variety of issues will be addressed from U.S. militarism/imperialism in Colombia, the ravages of globalization and neocolonialism on the third world, the U.S. government's support and training of repressive Latin American governments through the SOA (now WHISC), the loss of innocent life in the name of wars on terrorism, international racism, the drug war and even prohibition of marijuana, as well as a wealth of other issues that are interrelated.
Unfortunately, the labor movement has not made an attempt to join the action or any of the coalitions. Most of the groups involved are student activist or human rights groups, not unions. In 1999 in Seattle, the Teamster and AFL-CIO unions, including many locals, were involved in the actions against the World Trade Organization. Still, labor tried to stay within the boundaries set by authorities for designated march and rally areas.
Although some did stray, the official stand of the union movement was to have a so-called "legal" protest that would not incur the wrath of the authorities. The police brutality seen in Seattle made some unionists take a more militant stand in protecting their fellow protestors, but such efforts relied on individual action, not the union as a whole.
Fast forward to 2002. Several other demonstrations resisting globalization and free trade have taken place; some of which labor has been involved in, some of which they haven't.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the AFL-CIO both resisted the fast track legislation through rallies and marches in Washington, D.C. this year. Last year they vocally resisted the Free Trade Area of the Americas; an agreement that would expand the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement into South America. So why is the labor movement basically silent about the World Bank and IMF meeting this month whose delegates will almost certainly discuss expanding free trade agreements which unions have opposed in the past?
Big labor is often concerned with their public image, as most shops and companies that employ union and non-union workers are. Unions want to break the idea that collective bargaining is "un-American." The protests in D.C. on April 19-22 will deal with more than just labor issues. Protestors will chant and carry signs opposing the "war on terrorism" which the United States and Israel are perpetrating; they will oppose the occupation and repression in Colombia and other grievances regarding foreign policy.
Unions are only concerned with foreign policy when it affects the union workers. For example, free trade agreements can cause American union members to lose jobs, decreasing the amount of dues unions receive. This is why the labor movement vocally resists globalization.
The labor movement, though, should not be completely uninterested in human rights and foreign policy. What affects working people in one part of the world affects all working people. Colombia is a place where ultra-right wing paramilitary groups that have murdered union leaders have been connected to the government, supported by the United States. International labor solidarity would mean that unionists from the United States would resist U.S. support for the Colombian government until they stop supporting groups that have a history of violent repression of labor.
Unfortunately, the labor movement in America does not want to support an action in which some issues that may be considered unpopular will be discussed. Therefore they will not be present, for the most part, in D.C. this month. Public relations pressure has overwhelmed a once militant movement.
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