[Peace] USAS: Police Out of the House of Labor -- A Demand to the AFL-CIO

[Robert Naiman]

This is a striking data point to me because of the historic relationship
between USAS and the AFL. I personally dislike this line that police
shouldn't have unions. It's democratically elected local governments that
agree to these contracts, and local governments could be pressured to
change these provisions. But regardless of that, this does show how pissed
off people are about this, that it's generating this kind of letter from
USAS to the AFL. There are things the AFL could productively do about this
short of disaffiliation, and I wonder if they will do so.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: United Students Against Sweatshops <organize at usas.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 2:35 PM
Subject: USAS: Police Out of the House of Labor -- A Demand to the AFL-CIO
United Students Against Sweatshops demands that the AFL-CIO disaffiliate
with the International Union of Police Associations



Friends,

On behalf of thousands of student activists across the country, United
Students Against Sweatshops, demands that the AFL-CIO disaffiliate with the
International Union of Police Associations. The following statement
<https://u1584542.ct.sendgrid.net/mps2/c/3wA/ni0YAA/t.32c/9zyGKUJkRU-CayEks3kTcQ/h0/kEE5Y0K81t9HzHifM8Te4N3OPA9t4fg-2FfxvhrwmxDI5W1ofc5wJ0cb5VJWNPyFknSr0rlbQkdz8xrFt-2Fy1eu8VvPyST6KsAwYnrXUsiJNBOsn7-2BR7cDmrre20bOlp3yQDIaNvJp4DRV3pwh-2F6gcCKfnI7V1PQR07e4O5DS39mL7m0fyokJeBZV7HU7gEGDal-2Fq2Rve1L4SRrpGyUUEwWvKHqka5EppYYzZNCBEeEaAuX2wzKAb8y8J-2FLyaIkIyLRbEw0bQK54MW-2FP6Y2cgj2hbf-2BbWGx0eslhJnmdoDbWiouSKCgGNBhhZHFLQsol2ywISsA0hThPEZw1hSbIDJtFYzC7akeWZx8mqdC26h2aHQ-3D/srfO>
(also included below) provides more background and the sentiments of our
organization which represents over 150 locals at colleges and universities
across the country.

Love & Solidarity,

USAS


*USAS: Police Out of the House of Labor -- A Demand to the AFL-CIO*

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the nation’s largest student-led
direct action campaign organization, is in solidarity with the uprisings
for Black lives across the country and globe. #BlackLivesMatter and we
won’t stop fighting until liberation. George Floyd’s murder at the hands of
police is not just one isolated awful event, but an everyday reality that
Black people face. The brutal lynchings of Black people must end! Say their
names: #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor #TonyMcDade #DavidMcAtee #SandraBland
and the countless others who should still be with us today. Police don’t
make our communities safe and have no place in our labor movement. USAS
demands that the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO) disaffiliate with the International Union of Police
Associations (IUPA).

The issue of police brutality and rampant anti-Blackness is nothing new.
Policing in the U.S. started with white supremacist groups acting as slave
patrols. Since then, police have continued to suppress, intimidate, and
murder people with every movement for justice - from the Stonewall Riots
which were led by Black and brown trans people, to the Civil Rights and
Black Power movements, to union strikes, to #BLM protests, and more. The
fact that “Black lives matter” needs to be said over and over again just
goes to show how much work we still have to do -- from participating in
protests, to having conversations about anti-Blackness with our families
(both white AND non-Black POC), to supporting Black-led organizing efforts.
Enough is enough!

We know that the struggle takes many forms. We want the police out of
schools, universities to cut ties with law enforcement including campus
police, military equipment and surveillance technology out of our
communities, the severing of police training with the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF), and more. We also want a better labor movement. There is no worker
justice without Black liberation. We must understand how these struggles
are intimately connected, and to win we will need to fight together. To be
clear, Black workers have been and continue to be crucial leaders in the
labor movement. We commend ATU Local 1005 bus drivers in Minneapolis, ATU
Local 627 bus drivers in Cincinnati, and TWU Local 100 bus drivers in New
York City for refusing to transport police and arrested protestors, among
other unions, locals, and worker organizations that have taken a stand. As
the Minnesota AFL-CIO wrote in their statement on June 2nd, “There is no
room for white supremacists in our movement.” We agree, and we also assert
that there is no room for police in our movement -- some of the biggest
perpetrators of white supremacist violence.

Police unions have no place in the labor movement. They actively threaten
the solidarity we have, and must continue to build, for complete societal
transformation. By bargaining for contracts that keep abusers, murderers,
and white supremacists in positions of power, police unions are inherently
opposed to the interests of workers that the labor movement is meant to
protect. Abolishing police unions is an integral step in the fight for
worker justice and Black liberation. When workers are on strike,
protesting, and on the picket line, where are the cops?

They aren’t joining the picket line en masse, instead, they’re called upon
by the bosses to protect capital. It is clear in these situations that
police are never on the side of working people, but always on the side of
the oppressors keeping workers down. Police say they protect and serve, but
who? What they’re really protecting is capital and the ruling class. Why?
Because they are protected in turn. Cops don’t want to lose their most
coveted possession: impunity.

Police union collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) serve to protect their
impunity, and this is unacceptable. CBAs are supposed to protect the wages
and conditions of the working class, not the actions of the police officers
terrorizing and murdering the working class -- Black people in particular!
Workers face consequences for their actions and cops do not. For example,
why are police unions so easily able to bargain for contract provisions
that block effective investigations into their violence, when food service
workers, domestic workers, farmworkers, and countless others are constantly
fighting tooth and nail for just the ability to be covered by a CBA? Cops
are not workers! Unions are for workers. The bottom line is *unions aren’t
for cops.*

Since we know that police unions are illegitimate and directly oppose the
goals of the labor movement, we see no reason why organizations such as the
AFL-CIO continue to affiliate with the IUPA. Police unions have no place in
the House of Labor, and as the official student partner to the AFL-CIO,
USAS demands that the AFL-CIO disaffiliate with the IUPA. We call on others
to join us. As stated previously, some unions have already taken action to
support Black lives, which shows the potential for workers at large to
understand the necessity of Black liberation to the struggle for labor
justice. There’s so much potential to build a better labor movement; let’s
start by cleaning house. #IUPAoutofAFL #NoCopUnions

Contact: media at usas.org

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