By Martha Grevatt
July 25, 2024

Many militant, left-wing trade unionists recognize the need for organized labor to break its subservience to the Democratic Party. However, few saw any glimmer of hope as they witnessed Teamsters President Sean O’Brien put on a disgusting display of brown-nosing, speaking positively of former President Donald Trump and his ultraight cronies at the Republican National Convention.

This was not the “independence” labor needs.

O’Brien complimented Trump, saying he “has proven to be one tough SOB.” He promoted Rep. Josh Hawley as “not willing to accept [the wealthy’s] pillaging of working peoples’ pocketbooks and individual rights” and even made a point about Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance supposedly being “among elected officials who care about working people.” (Newsweek, July 16)

O’Brien mixed anti-corporate rhetoric with fawning praise of these blatant white supremacists. By catering to the most chauvinistic, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQIA2S+ “America First” elements, O’Brien exacerbates the divisions within the working class. This is not in any worker’s class interest. What the working class needs is militant, anti-racist unity — all the more so with the danger of fascism on the horizon.

Instead O’Brien offered the olive branch to the ultraright. This is a big step backwards, back toward the days when many unions were off-limits to workers of color and women.

When Trump took the podium at the RNC, he took the opportunity to attack United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain. Without proof, Trump blamed Fain for supposedly allowing Chinese auto companies to build plants in Mexico and ship low-cost vehicles to the U.S. “The leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately,” the ex-president proclaimed. (Detroit Free Press, July 19)

Fain fired back swiftly, calling Trump “a scab and a billionaire.” But Fain’s glowing endorsement of President Joe Biden — and now presumably Vice President Kamala Harris — still keeps the UAW within the confines of the capitalist two-party system. And what is Biden doing about the latest attack on the UAW by a monitor representing the federal government? Nothing!

Class struggle vs. relying on ‘lesser evil’

Not that long ago Fain, O’Brien and Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, were holding joint rallies together calling for a countrywide general strike. With a combined membership of about 1.75 million workers — and more if union retirees are included — the three unions could have initiated an independent, class struggle-oriented movement away from both the Democrats and Republicans.

This would have been a big step in the right direction, even if it didn’t change much in November.

Now the presidents of the Teamsters and the UAW are divided over whether or not to support Democratic Party politicians — nearly all of whom are solidly behind the genocide being committed against Palestinians. O’Brien’s idea of “independence” means catering to union members who have been duped by the ultraright, at the expense of the most oppressed workers and their communities.

Loyalty to the “lesser evil” party has been peddled to rank-and-file union members for decades, subordinating the interests of the working class to those of a section of the capitalist class. The only unions that didn’t throw their weight behind the Democrats were the ones who shamefully endorsed the Republicans.

Unfortunately, the union officialdom is by and large continuing this dead-end strategy.

Rank-and-file workers, with or without a union, will need to build the class struggle from below, regardless of who is elected president this year.

Martha Grevatt is a long-time UAW activist.