Many crucial issues are at stake in the Chicago Teachers Union strike. But the school district’s insistence that student test scores constitute a major basis of teacher evaluations seems to have become a particularly contentious point, leading to the vilification of teachers by the mainstream media, particularly The New York Times.
Tag Archives: Bill Leumer
How Unions Could Do Much Better
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
The International Association of Machinists just succeeded in negotiating a humiliating defeat with Caterpillar after a 15-week strike. Workers lost considerable money by striking, and then lost even more with the new contract, accepting almost every concession the company demanded despite the fact that the company was sitting on a record $4.9 billion in profits. [...]
Inequalities, Taxes, and More Inequalities
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer Thanks to Occupy, most working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But for those who lack the specifics, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 [...]
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer In a recent article published on the website of Socialist Viewpoint, Chris Kinder criticized those on the left who call for raising taxes on the rich. Identifying himself as a Trotskyist, Mr. Kinder displayed particular displeasure with Trotskyists who embrace this demand. Yet, as we will argue, [...]
Taxing the Rich and the Jobs Crisis
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer In a recent article, “Pensions Under Attack in America?,” Mr. Leo Kolivakis took issue with a proposal by Mark Vorpahl, a union steward, to defend pensions by taxing the rich in order to create jobs (see Pensions Under Attack). Both authors agree that solving the jobs crisis is indispensable to [...]
Why Corporate Campaign’s Tactics Can’t Win Strikes
Workers Action
Introduction By Bill Leumer Jake Cooper (1916–1990), the author of the following essay, was a veteran of the Minneapolis Teamsters strike of 1934 and a lifelong revolutionary socialist. Like many other Socialist Workers Party leaders, he was imprisoned under the Smith Act in 1944 for opposing the U.S. involvement in the Second World War. Jake [...]
Money, Power, and Politics
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
When it is a question of the efficacy of money in politics and workers fail to put up a fight, money prevails. The moral is: money counts — but only if we let it.
How Not To Be a Union
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer Unions were originally built on the principle of solidarity. Workers soon realized that as individuals they were powerless when trying to defend their interests in relation to their profit-maximizing employers. But when they were organized and stood together, their combination gave them the upper hand. Under the banner of “an [...]
Why Did So Many Workers Vote for Walker?
Bill Leumer
Introduction By Bill Leumer In the wake of a major setback for organized labor, because of its failure to unseat rabid anti-union Wisconsin Governor Walker, many in the labor movement have offered their various diagnoses to explain the defeat. Most gravitate around the convenient excuse that labor was vastly outspent by the right wing. We [...]
AFL-CIO Declares Victory in Wisconsin in the Face of Defeat
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer In the wake of the Wisconsin elections and the failure to unseat Governor Walker, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has issued a victory statement of sorts, resorting to the most tortured and convoluted logic.
How the Democrats Exploit Occupy
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
There has been much talk about attempts by various organizations such as the Democratic Party and some top officials in organized labor to co-opt Occupy in order to steer this movement in directions beneficial to themselves. Such attempts can hardly be surprising, given the use that many in the Republican Party made of the Tea [...]
Gov. Jerry Brown’s Terrorizing Tactic
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer Current political developments in California highlight the gaping chasm that divides the established political process — which is routinely mislabeled as “democratic” — with the positions embraced by the vast majority of Californians. Unfortunately, California is to the United States as Greece is to Europe: both are fiscal basket cases. California has [...]
Bankers and Forgiveness
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer When homeowners have fallen behind in their mortgage payments, whether because of a job loss or because the interest rates just shot up, the bankers have responded coldly. Led by their economic interests, they set their robo-signers working overtime on foreclosures, forcing millions of people out of their homes. Back during the [...]
The Strategic Role of the United Front Approach
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Unfortunately, there are some who regard themselves as Marxists who insist on squandering these opportunities. They argue that all such struggles must be linked to the goal of socialism on the grounds that any working class gains within the framework of capitalism are simply illusory reforms — they will eventually be eroded by the capitalist system in its unrelenting push to maximize profits. A few even refuse to work within the trade unions, because of their limited economic goals, while others refuse to work with the reformist trade union officials.
The Unions, the Millionaires Tax, and the Road to Success
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer This winter the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) sent tremors of hope through its ranks by announcing it was going to spearhead an attempt to place an initiative on the California ballot — appropriately called the “Millionaires Tax” — that would raise taxes only on millionaires (3 percent on those [...]
The Working Class Begins to Fight Back
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Bill Leumer and Ann Robertson After decades of losing ground and feeling helpless, working people are beginning to fight back. This development has emerged in part because the Occupy Wall Street movement has thrown a national spotlight on the growing inequalities in wealth and the mainstream politicians who have enabled this trend to continue for [...]
Ten Lessons for Today’s Unions from Labor’s Militant History
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Although they bill themselves as “friends of labor” and many in the labor community accept this fraudulent packaging, Democrats are at best entirely unreliable allies of workers and at worst determined opponents. Truman, who claimed he opposed Taft-Hartley and initially vetoed the legislation – only to be overruled by Congress – nevertheless made recourse to it not less than 61 times during his administration
The National Education Association Flunks a Crucial Test
Ann Robertson
Organized labor has the resources to pursue its own political agenda where it defends the interests of all working people in the face of this current historic corporate attack. As a start, it could mobilize working people in massive demonstrations to demand that the politicians respond to the needs of the majority of Americans: full funding for public education and social services, no cuts but a stronger Social Security and Medicare, a massive federal job creation program, and raising taxes on Wall Street and the rich in order to fund these programs. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has already called for a strong independent labor movement. Massive demonstrations could be a first step in this direction, because working people will be standing up for themselves, not sitting back and relying on the politicians. But the logic of this first step will then lead to a second step: the creation of a labor party whose goal would be the defense and promotion of the interests of all working people.
How We Can Effectively Defend Our Unions!
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
This is the text of a leaflet which Workers Action distributed at the April 4, 2011 demonstration in San Francisco in solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin. Working people are confronting a historic crisis. Those of us who are lucky enough to have a job are facing unrelenting attacks on our wages, our benefits, and our pensions, [...]
Why Reject Concessions in Wisconsin
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ordinary people get it immediately when presented with the facts about the growing inequalities in wealth, the ever-decreasing taxes on the rich and the corporations, and the increasingly difficult struggle of working people to maintain a dignified standard of living. Instead of capitulating to the polls, unions must launch their own offensive, stand up for what is right, educate the public by purchasing one-page ads in Wisconsin newspapers across the state, lay out all the facts clearly, and then let the people of Wisconsin make an informed decision. Union officials must not abandon public opinion to the corporate-owned media.
Why Reject Concessions In Wisconsin?
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
At the outset of the struggle, many Wisconsin union officials signaled that they were prepared to accept concessions, which are being demanded in many states by Democrats and Republicans alike. But when Wisconsin public workers themselves were interviewed, one after another rejected the concessions. They know better than anyone that the concessions are not affordable, especially when they come on the heels of earlier concessions they felt compelled to accept.
The Fightback Campaign Stirring Within the Labor Movement
Bill Leumer
Bill Leumer (Remarks made by Bill Leumer at the Emergency Labor Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, March 5, 2011.) Bill Leumer was a member of International Association of Machinists Local 565 for 15 years and President of the local for 10 years. He also was a Teamster for over 15 years, much of that time as a Steward. Bill is [...]
Teamster Head Ron Carey Repudiates Charges at D.C. Hearing Bill Leumer (1998)
Bill Leumer
Defending Carey goes hand in hand with this defense of the members’ right to choose their leadership. The two can’t be separated. The stakes are high. Either we have a democratic union, the only kind that can be turned into what Carey and the membership want and need as “a fighting force for workers,” or we’ll end up with what the employers desire, a government-run company union.
Why Inequality Matters
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
What can be done? The tension resulting from these growing inequalities is rapidly approaching an explosive climax. But organized labor officials, who are in a position to mobilize massive numbers of working people to put up a fight, are giving the impression that they are suffering from a state of complete paralysis. Of course, every two years they come to life and furiously expend huge amounts of money and energy to elect Democrats to office, only to see the Democrats fail to throw anything their way except a few crumbs. And in another two years, all the broken promises are pushed under the rug, and this self-defeating ritual repeats itself.
Por qué la desigualdad importa
Workers Action en Español
Ann Robertson y Bill Leumer [Translation of Why Inequality Matters] El paisaje social y económico norteamericano está cambiando rápidamente. Las desigualdades en la riqueza, que iniciaron su ascenso en la década de los años 80, se aceleraron en los 90. Ahora vuelan ya por encima de los gráficos, gracias en primer lugar a los recortes [...]
The Strategic Role of the United Front
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
The united front, then, is the necessary approach that workers use to unite themselves, as members of the same class, in order to put up a fight. It lies at the heart of class struggle. Here, workers put their political differences aside and come together because of their common grievances over a single or a few immediate issues, based on their common class membership and the economic oppression it entails. Their political perspectives are too divergent to unite them at this early stage. The necessity of the united front flows from the fact that the economy is the most fundamental determining factor in people’s lives; political perspectives ultimately are based on this economic foundation, but not as a simple, mechanical reflection.
Jerry Brown Widens The Chasm Between Labor and the Democratic Party
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer With the November elections rapidly approaching, most Americans are unimpressed and uninvolved, having concluded that elections have changed little in their struggling lives, despite all the promises of politicians. But a minority of the population is intensely immersed in partisan politics, doing whatever they can to promote the politicians of [...]
Hoe stakingen winnen — Inleiding door Bill Leumer
Translations
Harry DeBoer werd in 1903 in Crookston, Minneapolis geboren. DeBoer is de uitvinder van de zogenaamde vliegende piketten. Hij bleef trouw aan zijn principes doorheen zijn leven, en op hogere leeftijd gaf hij les aan jonge vakbondsmilitanten over stakingen en tactiek. Het volgende pamflet geeft kristalhelder de lessen weer die Harry en zijn kameraden leerden [...]
The True Nature of a Revolutionary Marxist Party and Its Common Distortions
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
The following passages, written by Leon Trotsky, appear in “A Letter to the Convention of the French Communist Party” (October 1922) and is included in The First 5 Years of the Communist International, Volume 2. Virtually all parties in the U.S. today that call themselves Marxist are guilty of the error that Trotsky is describing [...]
Il vento sta cambiando
Translations
di Ann Robertson e Bill Leumer (The Political Winds Are Changing) 10 novembre 2009 Il movimento sindacale sta cominciando a muoversi dopo decenni di arresti e sconfitte. Avendo abbracciato il concetto di una partnership con i datori di lavoro, la maggior parte dei funzionari sindacali hanno rinunciato ad ogni ricorso agli scioperi, l’unica arma efficace [...]
Why Join a Revolutionary Socialist Party
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer
There are basically two benefits to being a member of a revolutionary party. The first, an educational benefit, plays out on several different levels. (1) Having a strong command of Marxist theory can be extremely valuable on many different fronts. (a) For example, Marx’s Capital provides a sharp analysis of capitalist society so that one [...]
Message to the May 9 Teach-In from the Interim National Steering Committee of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign
WERC
From the Interim National Steering Committee of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign Presented by Bill Leumer The following greeting was delivered by Bill Leumer to the May 9, 2009, “Bail Out Working People — NOT the Banks!” Teach-In in San Francisco on behalf of the Interim National Steering Committee of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign [...]
California Labor Federation Endorses Call for Solidarity Day III March in Washington DC for Jobs, Peace and Justice
WERC
California Labor Federation Endorses Call for Solidarity Day III in Washington, D.C., for Jobs, Peace and Justice Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign The Executive Council of the California Labor Federation, representing two million organized workers, over one-sixth of the membership of the AFL-CIO, passed a resolution on Feb. 23, 2010, calling on the AFL-CIO and Change [...]
The Real Reason The Big Three Are Failing!
Bill Leumer
he failure of a particular industry is consequently not entirely rooted in the industry itself. Given the competitive nature of the system, when the economy turns bad, some industries will fail regardless of the quality of their management. So while one can blame the Big Three for various decisions, these missteps were only bad in relation to their competitors decisions and in relation to the entire economy. Had the Big Three made different decisions, then their competitors might be facing bankruptcy with equally dire consequences.
Ron Carey: Class Struggle Teamster Leader Dies At 72
Bill Leumer
On December 12, 2008, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a reform caucus in the Teamsters Union, sent out the following message announcing the death of Ron Carey. Ron Carey, the message stated, “was the first Democratically Elected Teamster President Remembered As A Corruption Fighter And Vindicated Reformer. “Ron Carey, a former UPS driver and [...]
Articles of Interest
CORE slate re-elected in landslide in Chicago Teachers Union
Richard Trumka: The 'grand bargain' is a dead end
On the Impotence of the Progressive Movement
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced
Cutting Social Security–More than a Bad Idea
The Forgotten Radical History of the March on Washington
Freedom Rider: Obama and the Class War- Hong Kong Dockworkers Strike Attracts Huge Solidarity
Understanding the Venezuelan Presidential Election Outcome
