Viewing page 8 of 84

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

FREEDOMWAYS                 SECOND QUARTER 1973

contempt for "the democratic process," are a contribution to the period in which we live because they expose the corruption and unprincipled "dealing" that are an organic part of class rule in America and the two-party system through which it is exercised.

What is the task of the trade union movement, those organized sections of the working population, in this critical hour? Is it just to fight for the usual small hourly wage increase which could then be eaten up by inflation, almost before the ink is dry on the contract; or for a better pension plan which, as experience has shown, may not be available, when the time comes to retire?

Given the spiritual and moral lethargy of sections of organized labor, Black trade unionists can set a new tone and provide some new answers as to what labor's responsibilities are in this period of history.

All of us are aware, to one degree or another, of the depth of the crisis-that things are not right in the land. This reality has many symptoms: proven corruption in the highest seats of government; permanent inflation robbing the working population of purchasing power; cold indifference to the needs and rights of the unemployed and other sections of the poor; the cries of agony and protest from prisoners, while the taxes of those who labor support a huge military establishment. We see an increasing dehumanization of our own community, as witnessed in the growing number of crimes of violence and other acts of inhumanity committed against one another-these are but a few symptoms of crisis.

Yet it is in the tradition of working people everywhere to seek a way out of a bad situation through organization and struggle. That's how we have survived the history of this capitalist jungle called the United States-having to overcome slavery and segregation. And so in today's situation, all across this country a big part of the mood among our people is the mood for struggle. This takes many forms of organized protest in an attempt to reverse the process of worsening conditions. Teacher strikes, boycotts by consumers against high prices, movements for prison reform and prisoners' rehabilitation. "wildcat strikes" in the factories against speed-up-all of these are movements fueled by hope and an attempt to bring together the forces of progress in sufficient strength to effect much needed changes. They are asserting the principle that power is in the people and, this is something that none of us should ever allow ourselves to forget.

Any "labor leader" who sits down to the bargaining table for the

102