Socialist Action /April 2000
AFL-CIO Backs Anti-IMF, World Bank
Protest in Washington
"Dump the Third World Debt"
By NAT WEINSTEIN
It's no secret that the Mobilization for Global Justice, scheduled for
Washington, D.C., April 16-17, is intended to be a bigger and better sequel
to the Seattle anti-WTO demonstration at the end of last year.
The Washington event has received a fairly wide endorsement-including
that of the AFL-CIO as well as the electrical workers, communication workers,
steel workers, municipal workers, and other international unions. Several
nationwide campus groups, such as the U.S. Student Association and Students
Against Sweatshops, are also taking part.
These organizations, together with a number of environmental and social
justice groups, are joining together-as they did in Seattle-around demands
to "Defund the Fund, Break the Bank, and Dump the [Third World] Debt."
Nevertheless, how much this month's demonstration will contribute to
the groundswell of mass consciousness resulting from the Seattle protest
is difficult to predict. And a related question is how many more of the
general public are likely to be inspired enough to join the Washington protest.
In fact, certain political factors may reduce the turnout in Washington,
compared to the Seattle anti-WTO protest last year.
For instance, in December 1999, we reported that the environmental movement's
leading organizations had run three full-page ads in The New York Times,
one of them headlined "Globalization vs. Nature." The ads' sponsor,
the Turning Point Project, which is described as a coalition of more than
60 non-profit organizations, included 20 of the most prominent environmental
organizations as its endorsers-including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace U.S.,
and Friends of the Earth.
But this time, there is little evidence that these environmental groups
have made the same degree of commitment to this month's action as they did
to the events in Seattle.
We noted at the time that the political thrust of these Seattle demonstration
ads was clearly designed to transmit a leftist anti-establishment message.
And we noted then that while none of these environmentalist groups claims
to be anticapitalist, the message they transmitted in the three ads was
clearly intended to adapt to the radicalizing consciousness of today's youth.
But, this time, barely a week before the Washington action, no such ads
have appeared.
Last December we noted that even though the AFL-CIO at that time remained
committed to its long-standing reactionary protectionist orientation, they
had attempted to put on a more radical, rank-and-file-oriented stance. The
labor officialdom was compelled to adapt somewhat to the sentiments of the
mass of radicalizing young participants in Seattle.
But this time, the AFL-CIO officialdom has emphasized its protectionist
orientation and has zeroed in on opposing China's entry into the various
world capitalist trade organizations, which is to be considered by these
bodies meeting in Washington around the same time.
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney is playing his assigned role as chief
labor lieutenant of the capitalist class by demanding that the bipartisan
Congress reject recognizing China's status among the U.S. government-designated
"most favored nations."
All, of course, in the name of "protecting American jobs."
If nothing else serves to expose the role assigned by American capitalism
to the labor bureaucracy, the giveaway, if such is needed at this late stage
of the game, is AFL-CIO headman Sweeney's unremitting political support
for Clinton and his hand-picked successor to the U.S. presidency, Vice President
Albert Gore.
This support continues without even a murmur of complaint despite Clinton/Gore's,
bipartisan capitalist government's failure to even so much as give lip-service
support for the labor chief's presumed (?) respectful request that capitalists
lighten up on their antilabor policies.
Last but not least, the youth, the future working-class leaders of America,
stand to be the biggest losers if the current trends are not altered. But
history shows that for the very same reason the youth are an important source
of the next generation of political leaders of the coming mass struggles
by the exploited and oppressed victims of the profit system.
It has always been the young workers and their counterparts among students
aspiring to be the future technical, scientific, medical and other professionals,
from where the next generation of revolutionists have always emerged.
While it is difficult to predict how this upcoming, inherently progressive,
demonstration in Washington on April 16-17 turns out, it is vital that as
many as possible participate. The more the better.
Socialist Action /April 2000 |