Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551510
58 CINEMONTAGE / SUMMER 2015 LABOR MAT TERS Yet the very labor movement Walker loves to bash is probably the only thing that can save what's left of our middle class, writes Thomas Geoghegan for Reuters. "The aim of many leading Republicans now seems to be to defund labor: to starve it of money so it is too weak to bargain in the public or private sector… Still, it is shocking that Michigan, the home state of the United Auto Workers — the union that established the high wages that lifted the boats of everyone in America — is now a 'right to work' state like Mississippi. How did it happen?" In part, through redistricting. It turned many states toward GOP control, many of them with not just Republican governors but also Republican-controlled state legislatures. Billionaire Republican donors, particularly energy magnates Charles and David Koch, have proven to be significant supporters of such candidates, especially Walker. Their foundations and sprawling networks of political organizations have given tens of millions of dollars to support 'right to work' laws. None of this would be possible without voters. Sadly, there are plenty of Americans who may be driving freight for minimum wage and are full of resentment for Teamsters making $33 an hour driving for United Parcel Service Inc. "One Teamster local officer put it this way: 'You'd think instead of saying, "It's outrageous that UPS drivers make $33 an hour," they'd be saying, "Hey, what can I do to make $33 an hour?"' But 'right to work' laws have spread to 26 states…because most Americans aren't in unions and don't see what stake they have in them." BERNIE FOR LABOR "When I first met Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders, he was a relatively marginal figure in his adopted state of Vermont," writes Steve Early in Jacobin. "It was 1976 and he was running, unsuccessfully and for the fourth time, as a candidate of the Liberty Union Party. "Sanders' appeal for working-class support in 1976 seemed most persuasive to rank and file representatives of the United Electrical Workers. They were, of course, members of a left-led national organization that had long favored political action outside the Democratic Party. "However, in deference to their more cautious colleagues, the UEW members politely went along with the Labor Forum majority, which, per usual, voted to endorse Vermont Democrats, despite Liberty Union's superior labor bona fides. "When Sanders comes knocking Job categories where union membership has fallen off most. Courtesy of Pew Research Center, Washington, DC. April, 2015) www. pewresearch. org/fact-ank/ 2015/04/27/ union- membership/ on doors, looking for support in his presidential primary challenge, trade unionists in other states should remember his long history of helping Vermont workers get their act together, in politics, organizing and contract strikes. It's a track record that few 'friends of labor' can match. Sanders' appeal for working-class support in 1976 seemed most persuasive to rank and file representatives of the UEW. "The result, according to Sanders, was that 'large numbers of people who previously had not participated in the political process got involved.'" Now a senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders formally launched his long-shot bid to set aside Hillary Clinton from the left in May in a Burlington, Vermont park, writes Ben Jacobs in The Guardian UK. Sanders, calling himself a "Democratic socialist," began a populist campaign focused on three issues: income inequality, campaign finance reform and fighting climate change. He told the crowd of flag- waving supporters on the sparkling shore of Lake Champlain, "Today, with your support and the support of millions of people throughout this country, we begin a political revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially and environmentally. "There is something profoundly wrong when 99 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent," he added. "This grotesque level of inequality is immoral. It is bad economics. It is unsustainable. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about… "The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. And we will address it." f