[Peace] Labor Day parade

[Ricky Baldwin]

As proud members of the newly formed local Jobs With
Justice chapter, AWARE members are invited to join in
this year's Labor Day parade.

The parade is, yes, on Labor Day, Monday Sept. 4.
Starts at 10am from Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana.
Ends shortly thereafter at the Brookens Admin Center
on Washington, where there are usually games for kids,
eats, etc.

Look for Jobs With Justice signs or GEO.  We're right
behind them.  Bring your own sign or borrow one from
JWJ.

Come on!  It's fun!


p.s.  There has been much discussion over the years in
AWARE about organized labor in the US, which leaves
much to be desired (to put it mildly).  There is a
truly abysmla history of labor unions supporting wars
and other heinous acts, which I would argue shouldn't
be overgeneralized, but it should also not be
forgotten.  We could also discuss Labor Day, which was
invented by suck-up unions as an anti-Red alternative
to the worldwide celebration of May Day (which began
as a commemoration of anarchist and other union
organizers and activists killed during and after the
Haymarket incident in Chicago, yes, just a few miles
from here).

A couple of comments on this occasion...

1. Jobs With Justice is a coalition of unions and
community groups with great local autonomy.  It can be
what we make it.  In Chicago JWJ was instrumental in
forming USLAW (US Labor Against the War), cosponsors
the Illinois Peace & Justice Coalition (which AWARE is
also part of) and James Thindwa (Chicago JWJ exec dir)
was the keynote speakers at ILPJC's founding
conference here.  JWJ here also includes the Coalition
Against Coke Contracts, the Industrial Workers of the
World, the Campus Greens, and a couple other fellow
travelers.

2.  Workers in this country have fewer and fewer
alternatives to better their lives.  Access even to
the mainstream - and largely conservative - trade
unions we have here (as opposed to some other
countries, where big unions are explicitly socialist
or anarchist, or simply have more fight in them) is
shrinking fast.  Maybe in the long run workers will
have to develop (or redevelop) more radical
alternatives.  That is by no means certain.  What is
certain is that in the meantime, standards of living
and the basic ability to participate meaningfully in
our supposedly democratic society will decline for
millions of people - while naturally rising for a few
others.  

What is also not generally understood in this country
is that union activity, even activities of those
narrow unions who only look out for themselves, can
help others, too.  When union density (proportion of
the workforce) is high, all wages generally increase,
as well as other benefits, safety protections, etc.  

But fewer and fewer unions these days are able to
stick to this narrow model.  Change has come painfully
slow.  And it is still is slow.  But it is happening. 
NAFTA has driven some unions to build coalitions
across borders.  Unions like SEIU and HERE, not just
United Farm Workers, with high proportions of
immigrants in the sector of the economy where they
work, have been active in immigrants rights battles -
especially in the last few years.  As the healthcare
crisis deepens, more unions are involved in efforts
like CCHCC to fight back.  US Labor Against the War
helped organize dozens of local unions, local labor
councils (local AFL-CIO affiliates) and international
unions to pass resolutions against the war, call for
withdrawal, march against war and occupation - and in
the past year the AFL-CIO passed a resolution calling
for withdrawal.  Some of these resolutions are not as
strong as we'd like.  But that's what you get in broad
campaign, similar to the Cities for Peace, which had
similar weaknesses.  Jobs With Justice is part of the
push from the good guys in labor.  We don't agree all
the time (like AFSCME's support of Tim Johnson) but in
a coalition, that's what it's like.  They're better
off with us there than without us.  And, I'd argue,
we're better off, too.

3.  Finally,  it's always good for AWARE to show at a
public gathering.  Like the July 4th parade.  If you
want to bring your own sign, I'd suggest tying war and
labor together, or something that would have the
widest  possibility of persuasion.  If you don't,
carry a Jobs With Justice sign.  It'll show which side
we're on.  See you there!!!

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