This is a blog about building labor and community solidarity in Oregon's Mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors only unless otherwise noted.
Saturday April 13, 2024 at 10:00AM | Meet at the Oregon Labor Center in Portland: Join Oregon Labor to kick off election season at a canvass for Willy Chotzen. Chotzen is a former AFSCME member who is running for State Representative in House District 46. Coffee, lunch and training provided.
WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
On Friday, April 26, the Oregon AFL-CIO will hold two ceremonies to commemorate Workers Memorial Day and honor the 56 workers from throughout the state who lost their lives while doing their jobs in 2023.
We hope that you will be able to join us for these important events.
At 9:30am, we will gather with the Oregon State Firefighters Council, the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, IAFF Local 43, elected officials and faith leaders in Portland on the Eastbank Esplanade beside Portland Fire and Rescue Station 21.
At noon, we will hold a ceremony at the Fallen Worker Memorial on the Oregon State Capitol Mall where we will be joined by workplace safety advocates, elected officials, and faith leaders.
* May Day - Dia Internacional del Trabajor - at Salem Capitol. Join PCUN and community organizations for a powerful celebration of International Workers' Day on May 1st! We will gather at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem for a day of impactful community speeches, vital resource booths, and a mighty march around the Capitol Block. Let's unite and demonstrate our deep appreciation for the hardworking and dedicated individuals who keep our society moving forward. The year 2023 marked a significant milestone for workers' rights, and we are determined to carry that momentum forward into 2024 and beyond with unwavering determination.
Let's continue to build our collective power and advocate fiercely for the rights and well-being of workers everywhere. 12Noon at the Salem Capitol. Event page here: https://fb.me/e/4W1lh0WVZ
* Portland DSA May Day Mania. On to the General Strike, 2028. Celebrate International Workers Day! View a livestream of UAW's Shawn Fain calling for a General Strike, May Day 2028 for the 32 hour week (and the 8 hour day!) Get a reportback from Portland's delegation to the Labor Notes conference. Speakers from recent local labor struggles. Live music. No-host food & drinks. All ages. A fundraiser for DSA's Labor Solidarity Fund.
This post does not reflect the opinions of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter (MPYCLC) or the Oregon AFL-CIO.
I think that Sister Davis Gates gave a strong and generally correct speech to the recent convention of the United Electrical Workers (UE). Given that union's history of engagement with progressive issues and its recent growth in numbers and influence, the UE members present were geared up for what the Chicago Teachers Union President had to say. It should matter to all of us that much of what she had to say is being proven true in practice. She isn't making anything up in her speech. And I think that if our labor movement wants to hold on to members and succeed in contract campaigns and politics we have to listen carefully to what is being said here and change course.
Here are some of my takeaways:
1. We let the political parties choose our candidates rather than asserting ourselves way too much of the time. Candidates show up, ask for endorsement, we usually go through a difficult endorsement process, and if we endorse them we spend some time trying to bring them up to speed on our issues while they're busy running for office. Full labor unity behind particular candidates is not always in place, and endorsements and unity do not always guarantee votes. We sometimes run in circles for money, endorsements and votes while trying to bring candidates closer to us, and we may not fully succeed in either attempt. When the not-fully-informed-and-committed candidate wins but doesn't follow through on our issues as we hoped they would we're disappointed or angry, but if you step back and look at how the process works over time you can see why this happens so often.
2. The Oregon Labor Candidate School and the Labor Education and Research Center and whatever programs unions may have in place to encourage union members to run for public office are invaluable. No union member or union supporter should run for office without taking the trainings and classes offered. More than that, these training opportunities graft people in to networks and expose participants to big-picture politics and complex questions that potential candidates should be working with before they run.
That said, trainings are not substitutes for organizing, building movements, producing the people and energy that movements need, creating street heat and winning in negotiations, and defining victories. Sister Davis Gates is saying that movement building is the priority and that you won't understand and exercise power until you have built a militant labor movement that is not afraid of striking. That movement will create activists, organizers and leaders and our candidates and the energy needed to get them over the top should come from the movement and its alliances with community activists and organizers. The money and endorsements will probably come later and after institutions learn that you're serious and committed and capable. See this article and this article.
3. We're putting the cart before the horse by not being about movement building, thinking that we have to choose between candidates who do not come from our ranks, trying to bring candidates along who do not know us and our issues, thinking about winning elections as being about money (and not people power), thinking about people power as something to mobilize every two years or four years (instead of it being about constant organizing and militancy at the grassroots), and supporting candidates who have not been tested in workplace actions, strikes and contract negotiations.
4. Our labor political scorecards are valuable tools. They tell us how a politician has voted on labor issues. I think that the problem here is that as political polarization deepens it gets harder to define what "liberal," "centrist," "conservative" and "progressive" mean in real terms. What is a "labor issue" today and how do we define victories when we're up against the wall and too quick to compromise? The Republican party has moved so far to the far-right so quickly that a politician or program that used to be considered conservative now might look like liberal and a progressive politician or program gets defined as being anti-Republican and left at that. Like many other working-class people, I'm both repelled by the anti-worker and hard-hearted Republicans, who tell me that I don't deserve what I have earned and are taking aim at my rights, and by the weak liberals and progressives who excuse austerity and don't defend public services and many of the gains labor has made over the last ninety years. And we in labor are often playing a weak defense.
