Labor split hits close to home for Democrats

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The AFL-CIO splintered on Monday in a dispute over the future of the fading labor movement, and the exodus could have enormous political implications for pro-labor Democrats.

Democratic politicians catch most of the AFL-CIO donations, one reason why party leaders worry about a weakened federation. The AFL-CIO also spends millions on programs that help get Democratic voters to turn out on Election Day.

Some Democrats said Monday they hoped the warring factions would come back together. Others suggested the competition would jolt organized labor out of its decades-old slumber.

"We're in uncharted waters," said Democratic consultant David Axelrod of Chicago. "Obviously, you have to believe a unified and coordinated effort is better than a disparate one and, obviously, the labor movement is a vital part of the Democratic coalition."

Some Democrats cast the breakup in apocalyptic terms. "It's the worst thing that could happen to us as a party," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist with long ties to labor.

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My understanding of this whole dispute is something along these lines. The new Change to Win coalition believes that the key to labor power lies in the grass roots. That is, with US union membership hovering around an anemic ten percent of the overall work force, labor is but a ghost of its once powerful self: the only way to gain political strength is to dramatically raise membership levels, and unionize the massive sectors of the economy that are now unorganized. The AFL-CIO, however, believes that the current political climate is such that organizing won't work: only by currying favor with powerful Democrats can labor create a situation such that increasing union membership is possible.

To me it's obvious that the AFL-CIO is completely full of shit. They've been employing the same top-down strategies for decades now while worker rights, wages, and benefits have steadily decreased. It strikes me as totally nuts that they think more of the same will somehow create different results. The Democrats happily take labor dollars, but have done little or nothing to help workers. Indeed, it's quite the reverse: under the control of Bill Clinton and his pro-corporate Democratic Leadership Council throughout the 90's, the Democratic Party has incrementally moved in an anti-labor direction. As if that even matters now that the Republicans control everything.

This split has me excited, actually. Looking at American history, it's pretty clear that workers have gained no significant rights or advancement without huge numbers of them out in the streets, backing up their leaders' demands. The old labor movement is dead and has been so for some years. It's time to go back to square one, and build a new movement from the ground up. It's pretty cool that the always hardcore Teamsters union is part of the vanguard. They're old school, and know how to bust heads when the time is right; they also know how to take a few for the team. In short, they're scrappers, and that's exactly what workers need to be right now.

Really, when you get right down to it, this is simply the labor manifestation of the same phenomenon that's had all varieties of progressives quitting the Democratic Party and looking for other options: the Democrats are disorganized losers, all talk and no action; they no longer stand for anything except being reelected. The Green Party would do well to quickly forge an alliance with Change to Win.

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