UnionBook

Labor's so-called friends are proving once again to be a treacherous, two-
faced crowd. After helping themselves to hefty union campaign
contributions, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire and the majority
Democratic leadership of the House and Senate are proposing drastic
public service budget cuts, pay freezes, and layoffs of over 8,000 state
workers, citing a serious $9 billion shortfall.

How did the state get into this fix? It is the consequence of years of
Democrats and Republicans giving one tax break after another to big
business. This policy has left state reserves far below the level needed to
weather the current crisis.

Killing worker protections
Just as it does in Washington D.C., where corporate opposition has
effectively blocked adoption of the Employee Free Choice Act, union-
busting large employers are pulling all the strings in Olympia, directing the
actions of both political parties. Their lobbyists work for Boeing, Microsoft,
the Building Industry Association, and Washington Association of
Business, to name just a few of the corporate heavy hitters.

This became clear when Governor Gregoire and leading Democrats
conspired to kill the Workers Privacy Act, the top priority for Washington
labor this session. The act outlaws the use of mandatory, employer-called
meetings to discuss politics, religion or union matters.

Acting as shills for corporate interests, Governor Gregoire, House Speaker
Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown tried to justify
sabotaging the act by throwing up a smokescreen of bogus ethics charges
against the Washington State Labor Council. Its crime? Having the
audacity to say that Democrats who fail to support this important piece of
legislation would not get "another dime from labor."

Only after the State Patrol and the Public Disclosure Commission had
cleared the Labor Council of any wrongdoing for its statement did it come
out that Governor Gregoire had previously promised Boeing that the
Workers Privacy Act would not see the light of day if it impacted the
company.

As it turns out, Boeing executives were the real extortionists, threatening
once again to take more 787-airplane assembly work out of state if the
legislature doesn't give it additional concessions and tax breaks.

A simple, effective budget fix
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer carried an article a while back stating that in
2007 there were more than 130,000 Washington households with over $1
million in annual income. They currently pay no state income tax. A 10%
tax--on their earnings only--would yield $100,000 or more per millionaire
household, for a total of over $13 billion in new revenue. Budget crisis
solved!

But instead of taxing corporations and the rich, the Democrats are
imposing all the burden of the cuts onto state employees, working people
and the poor, causing untold hardship and injury and even death. It is clear
whose interests they represent--and it sure as hell ain't the hard working
laboring class whose money and support got them elected.

Workers need a fighting party of their own
In addition to mishandling the budget crisis, Democratic legislative leaders
have used their power to block almost every piece of legislation supported
by labor and to advance all sorts of anti-union legislation, including
privatizing child welfare services.

If there are any Democrats out there with a conscience and a sense of
accountability--and I know there are, particularly amongst the ranks of
labor--they need to mobilize to challenge the actions of this politically
bankrupt leadership.

Rank-and-file Democratic Party legislators, instead of following in lock
step, voting overwhelmingly for one bad bill after another, should be
walking out of the party in protest, in my opinion. They should keep on
walking and break with the party, controlled by political opportunists whose
true loyalties are for sale to the highest bidder, and help to form a Labor
Party that can withstand the lure of corporate corruption.

In the last 30 years, I have attended dozens of labor conventions as a
member of Washington Federation of State Employees. Over and over
again unionists have endorsed the idea of calling for a workers' party and
have passed resolutions calling on the AFL-CIO to do just that. State
Labor Council leaders often met my arguments for independent political
action with the retort that "the Democratic Party is Labor's party." There
is just one problem with that: the Democrats have divided loyalties and
business has the upper hand when it comes to buying candidates and
elected officials.

Broken system needs a complete overhaul
Reforms like taxing the rich are necessary to meet the basic survival
needs of the working class majority in this country, but they can't fix a
broken system. Economic and political democracy is impossible as long
as the major industries, and the wealth created by workers' labor, are in
private hands. As recent events have proven, corporate crooks will go to
any length, including out-and-out robbery, to satisfy the greed of their
executives and stockholders. They will continue to use the parties of Wall
Street to try to prop up this outlived, capitalist order with its escalating
booms and busts wreaking misery around the globe.

Political corruption under capitalism exists everywhere, but there are
countries where the workers and poor have pushed their rulers to
nationalize resources and industries for the benefit of the majority--Bolivia,
Ecuador, Cuba, and Venezuela to name a few. This can also be done in
this country. If banks, the auto companies, the utilities and energy
companies, airlines, the medical system and other large industries were
nationalized under workers' control, the public, first of all, would know
what these industries' real financial situations are and, secondly, could
decide how to run them efficiently in order to share the wealth created by
workers' labor and provide medical care, housing, education and
meaningful employment for all.

Now is the time to end the abuse of power by corporations here in
Washington State and elsewhere. We, the people who produce society's
wealth, must go to our union halls, strike lines and the streets to fight for
our future. Workers in Europe, Latin America and around the world stage
militant national general strikes against governmental policies that hurt
poor and laboring folk. We can do it here and reorder spending
priorities--in the richest country in the world--so that the needs of those
who are suffering most are met. One for all and all for one is a powerful
rallying cry against injustice and a call that can change history and the
tired old "political realities" of this system.
____________________________________________________________
Fred Hyde is a civil rights and civil liberties attorney, a writer for the
Freedom Socialist newspaper and a longtime unionist who has been on
the frontlines of labor battles in the Northwest for 30 years. He can be
reached at fhyde@igc.org or 206-854-9057.

This column is being distributed by FSP Views at fspnatl@igc.org. For
more information, call 206-985-4621.
___________________________________________________________

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