(left) Bill Fletcher (right) Jeff Schuhrke on Democracy Now

Former AFL-CIO official and now leftist Bill Fletcher was interviewed on Democracy Now recently. Part one of that interview is here. Part two is here. Both include transcripts.

It’s hard to know where to begin in analyzing these interviews. The most important points are what is left unsaid, not what’s said.  Included in those points are: (1) The 75 year war by the union leadership against all the best traditions of the US labor movement – militant struggles and socialism in particular. And what a disastrous effect that has had on the consciousness of workers, both union members and non members alike; (2) The union leadership’s insistence on the team concept – that the unions must help “their’ employers compete, which means that union workers must compete with non-union workers for who can make greater profits for their employers, which in turn means cut-rate contracts and very little real union presence on the job; (3) the absolute insistence that the unions must be linked at the hip to the capitalist Democratic Party. 

“Ceasefire” in Ukraine?
I also think Fletcher missed his chance when Goodman’s co-presenter Juan Gonzales in effect advocated for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Fletcher simply said it was up to the Ukrainians. Yes it is, but there is a reason why the Ukrainians overwhelmingly oppose it, despite the enormous hardships they are enduring. A “ceasefire” really means allowing the fascist-linked Putin to retain nearly 20% of Ukraine that his army presently occupies. The calls for a ceasefire really mean victory to Putin. Fletcher should have directly challenged Gonzales on that.

If we are going to organize against the QAnon Republicans, we must not avoid the fact that they have serious support within our own class.

Consciousness of workers in U.S.
But centrally, what tends to bring all of this together is the consciousness of the US working class. As with many others on the left, Fletcher underestimates the support that Trump has in the working class – in reality the white working class. All serious polls – such as how voters from union households voted – show that. Then there is another related issue: Support for or opposition to Israel. As do quite a few others on the left, Fletcher only gives part of the picture. Yes, many young voters are turned off to Biden due to his support for Israel’s genocidal war. But it’s not just that simple. Look at this poll. If Biden were to oppose Israel, he’d lose voters at the other end of the spectrum. I am NOT proposing that Biden should continue on his present path; I’m just saying that we have to look at reality. (The Republicans, by the way, don’t have this problem since all of their voters support Israeli genocide.)

What the Democrats would gain at one end, they stand to lose at the other if they oppose Israel. The only answer is to build a movement for real international working class solidarity – from Ukraine to Palestine. And for that, the beginnings of a mass working class party is needed.

Because of Biden’s unpopularity, Fletcher’s main proposal is that a movement be started to replace Biden as the Democratic candidate. Again, it’s not quite that simple. The conflicts that would ensue within that Party would weaken whatever candidate replaced Biden. I, personally, agree that Trump is a huge threat to democratic rights in the U.S. and workers and socialists within the working class must seriously consider the results if a left candidate were to oppose the Democratic presidential candidate. That was why in 2016 I voted for the Democrat for the first time in 50 years. But even for those who take that position, there is no real argument for the labor movement not running a real labor/working class candidate for president in the “red” states – those states that the Democrat will lose in 2024 anyway. 

We all know that the AFL-CIO is not going to do that, but we can start without them. A starting point would be for independent, working class socialist candidates to run at the local level – for city councils, school boards, etc. Such candidates could point out how the local issues are directly connected to all the national and international issues. They could stress that their campaigns are the start of a campaign to build a radical mass working class party in the United States. That is not beyond the reach of the genuine, working class oriented left in the United States. Such campaigns would be an important starting point in beginning to gather the militant and socialist oriented sectors of the US working class and working class youth as a start to forming a working class party.

(left) Bill Fletcher (right) Jeff Schuhrke on Democracy Now