For A Democratic Labor Movement &
One Person, One Vote
Brothers And Sisters,
The labor movement is under attack from outside
and from within. The union busters are seeking destroy all labor
and democratic rights. At the same time, the leadership of the
AFL-CIO has pushed "Corporate Unionism" that denies
members the right to vote on th eir officials, their contracts
and the use of their political funds. The top down mergers that
they are pushing are further disenfranchising the membership from
their unions. It is also helping the unionbusters who use these
bureacratic methods by the leadership to attack the trade union
movement as a whole.
We believe that we need a new trade union
movement that bases itself on the rank and file not with words
but in practice and organization. Working people in this country
need a democratic trade union movement controlled and run by them,
not by $300,000 a year fat cats and fake management labor collaboration
deals.
All officials of the AFL-CIO, from the top
to the bottom should be elected by the rank and file of the trade
unions. We need a democratic communication network that allows
the membership to both get the information uncensored and for
democratic communica tion with our brothers and sisters. We want
an end to the undemocratic and illegal trusteeships that have
been used to thwart the rank and file.
Today, tens of thousands of unionists have
their locals and or district councils under a dictatorship imposed
by their internationals. Most of these, are for the purpose of
keeping the rank and file out of control. Millions of our dollars
are now used by the lawyers of the AFL-CIO to fight rank and file
control of our own unions.
The centralization of power in the Carpenters,
Laborers, AFSMCE, SEIU, UAW, Boilermakers, Iron Workers and many
other unions is leading directly to more corruption and thievery.
Without democratic checks and balances of the rank and file, the
tendency is for the leadership of locals, regional bodies and
the AFL-CIO to fill their pockets with their members moneys for
themselves and their pals in the Democratic Party.
We are calling a rank and file labor conference
on October 10 in Los Angeles to begin to outline the present crisis
in the worker's movement and how to overcome it. We also call
for a demonstration in front of the AFL-CIO which will be meeting
in Los Ang eles on October 11, 1999. We call on all workers who
can, to join us in organizing and letting the AFL-CIO know that
they cannot crush our democratic rights.
One Person, One Vote On All Officials, Contracts&
Political Funds Stop Illegal Trusteeships and Corruption End Fake
Labor-Management Partnerships.
This call has been initiated by the Workers
Democracy Network (www.workersdemocracy.org) which was founded
this year to fight for a democratic trade union movement and for
independent working class politics.
The conference and rally has been endorsed
by:
Send Endorsement to united@labornet.org
Initial Endorsers Include:
Los Angeles Multi-Racial Alliance
Bay Area Workers Democracy Network
LA Organizing Committee can be contacted at:
Multi-Racial Alliance/Planill-Alianza
213-483-9353/Fax213-483-9477
Planning Meeting
Saturday August 21, 1999 2:00 PM
1324 W. Wilshire Blvd/Valencia-Witmer
Los Angeles