Richard Trumka declares labor's independenceThe man who shamed Democrats for anti-Obama racism vows to put AFL-CIO cash into its own future, not the party's
BY JOAN WALSH - Salon
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011 08:30 ET
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One of the shining moments of the 2008 presidential campaign came when AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka confronted the racism that was making some white union members, even staunch Democrats, reluctant to vote for Barack Obama. The son and grandson of miners from Nemacolin, Pa., who went into the mines himself, then went to law school, then became UMWA president, Trumka described the way he challenged an old family friend and local Democrat who confided she wouldn't vote for the Democratic nominee because he was black. He told the story in a series of speeches that summer; one went up on YouTube, where it's been viewed more than a half-million times, becoming a case study in the way courage and candor can fight racism.
I said, ‘Look around. Nemacolin’s a dying town. There’re no jobs here. Kids are moving away because there’s no future here. And here’s a man, Barack Obama, who’s going to fight for people like us and you won’t vote for him because of the color of his skin.’ Brothers and sisters, we can’t tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of folks out there just like that woman.
A lot of them are good union people; they just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a black man. Well, those of us who know better can’t afford to look the other way…. I don’t think we should be out there pointing fingers in peoples’ faces and calling them racist; instead we need to educate them that if they care about holding on to their jobs, their health care, their pensions, and their homes — if they care about creating good jobs with clean energy, child care, pay equity for women workers — there’s only going to be one candidate on the ballot this fall who’s on their side… only one candidate who’s going to stand up for their families… only one candidate who’s earned their votes… and his name is Barack Obama!
Three years later, Trumka is still teaching and preaching, only now his target is often that same Barack Obama, and other Democrats who've let Republicans set the terms of the debate over the deficit and the economy. With the spontaneous public backlash against anti-labor GOP governors from Wisconsin to Ohio to Maine, Trumka and other union leaders have an unexpected opportunity to rebuild the sagging labor movement -- but it's not obvious how to do it. There's new political support from non-union members bewildered by an ultra-right GOP assault on working people. But there's also a disappointing three-year record of Democrats looking for compromise with the anti-labor, pro-plutocrat GOP. What's a pillar of the overmatched, underfunded Democratic Party to do?
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Much More:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2011/05/06/trumka_on_new_labor_independence/index.html:kick:
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