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FREEDOMWAYS                 SECOND QUARTER 1973

which comes from service and responsibility to the rank-and-file, a black trade union officials is in a shaky position and can be brought down with the stroke of a pen by some racist bureaucrat, no matter how important-sounding his official title is. So we must be on guard and fortify our movement to prevent such possibliities.

The common ground of struggle which unites also requires that a viable Coalition of Black Trade Unionists extend a hand of unity and cooperation to those rank-and-file trade unionists who are now associated with the A. Philip Randolph Institute in its various chapters across the country. They, too, are from the steel plants and docks and other occupations similar to our own. The unity of which we speak is one based upon principles and integrity not upon expediency or making unprincipled compromises. To avoid the seeds of mistrust the unity and coalition among trade unionists has a vital self-interest in seeking out cooperative relations with Chicano and Puerto Rican workers among the ore miners in the Southwest, the garment workers in New York, and the farm workers on both coasts. Their tradition of consistent struggle for democratic rights is similar to our own. Experiences have shown that either we make a special effort at cementing a common unity in struggle or we will be divided against each other by the emloyers and the present Administration. The "anti-poverty" program is full of examples of the latter. The clear support which the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists has expressed by way of convention resolution for the organizing efforts of the United Farm Workers Union, the election of Tom Bradley as the new Mayor of Los Angeles, having been elected with support from the Mexican-American community, and the recent endorsement by the Amsterdam News, a Harlem-based newspaper, of Herman Badillo the progressive Puerto Rican Congressman and candidate for Mayor of New York are all healthy, progressive signs that unity is growing.

With this kind of new outlook and thrust, organized labor in general and black and Spanish-speaking trade unionists in particular will be able to play an increasingly powerful role in the planning and action being jointly undertaken by the organizations of the emerging "Civil Economics Movement." Recently the leadership of SCLC, National Welfare Rights Organization, and Operation PUSH joined forces for common action against the Nixon budget cuts and other features of the present crisis. It is most urgent and necessary that organized labor become a full part of this mobilization. To do so will help organized labor become a movement once again, and

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