Labor

Faced with four more years of corporate and political attack, an important debate has broken out in labor about direction and program. In this broader context, what is the role and, what are the principles, of the CPUSA in responding to labor's current challenges to build unity and to change?

Opinion

Labor was at the heart of an incredible people’s coalition to defeat George Bush and the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party. And labor remains at the heart of keeping that coalition together and fighting back against the Bush agenda. (First published in People's Weekly World Newspaper)

"By many yardsticks labor continues to move in a progressive even radical direction...This discussion must also take place with the full realization that labor is under...sustained and intensive attack." In this labor report to the CPUSA National Board, a discussion is started on today's challenges and possibilities facing the labor movement.

Thousands will be marching in the streets of Miami, Florida, during the week of Nov. 17-21, protesting the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). They will pour into Miami from all over the country and from all over the world. The protesters will be trade unionists, anti-globalization activists, environmentalists, family farmers, religious activists, civil and human rights activists. Thousands will come to Miami to make their voices heard at a meeting of trade ministers from around the Americas.

A lot has happened in the world since the last time we had a major discussion of the labor movement in the National Board. In preparation for our National Convention in 2001, we had quite an extensive and lively discussion of a new Labor Program for our Party.

Gathered in the union hall and parking lot on East Bay Street, the dockworkers ofInternational Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1422, mostly African American men, celebrated their hard-fought victory in the case of the Charleston Five.

The labor and people’s movements face a recovery that is full of complicated questions. The search for solutions goes on in a world changed forever by acts of terrorism. The struggle to recover stretches from Ground Zero in New York City to Capitol Hill, which has become a second “Ground Zero” for working families.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the Senate filibuster that defeated legislation providing immediate aid for the 140,000 airline workers who will be laid off as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack "signals an intention to serve workers last and least at the table of economic recovery."

The new Party Labor Program asks participation and cooperation with working people struggling for better wages and working conditions, toward socialism.

U.S. corporations invested one million to buy the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The Labor 2000 campaign, although outspent 15 to1, mounted a national campaign that fought the corporations to a stand-off, a draw.