Union Rallies  and Marches Are Important,
But They Won’t Compel Wall Street to Pay

By Harry Kelber

In 200 cities across the country, the AFL-CIO and its allies have mobilized their infuriated members by the hundreds of thousands to demonstrate against the big banks and investment houses on Wall Street.  With picket lines, rallies, marches  and angry speeches in front of targeted banks and financial institutions,  the demonstrators have been repeating their twin demands: “Good Jobs Now!” and “Make Wall Street Pay!”

Under severe pressure from union members who had lost their jobs and their homes, the AFL-CIO Executive Council, meeting in Orlando, Fl. on March 3,  decided to call a week of action against Wall Street. It is the first and only national mobilization by organized labor since the recession began in December 2007.  The demonstrations will continue until the end of March.

“We’ve already got the plans in place for 90 of those demonstrations and the response is pouring in from local unions and from local labor councils including ones we have hardly ever heard from”  said AFL-CIO Communications Director Denise Mitchell.

The AFL-CIO’s three top officers—President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt—have left Federation headquarters in Washington to tour the cities where demonstrations are being held. It will be interesting to hear  what substantive actions they propose, instead of the usual rhetorical blasts at Wall Street.

Even though many of the events will be scripted, a massive turnout by strongly-focused union members  is bound to attract attention in Congress and the White House. It will be seen as the AFL-CIO’s opening gun in the  November midterm elections, with union members showing a new level of militancy, not present in past elections. It won’t be quite like unions in Egypt, France, South Korea and other countries where workers occupy the companies they strike to get employers to negotiate on their demands.

Why Isn’t the AFL-CIO Asking Wall Street for Reparations?

AFL-CIO President Trumka and the Executive Council have no intention of asking Wall Street to pay for the misery and anguish they’ve caused working people.  Do they want us to believe that shouting slogans in front of banks is  going to “Make Wall Street Pay!”? Or provide us with “Good Jobs Now!”? Is our fight against Wall Street reduced to symbolism? Are we letting the banks off the hook, only trying to shame them for their greed?

If we’re really serious about making Wall Street pay, let’s draw up a list of claims as reparations on behalf of  the victims of the financial crisis they caused. We can then demand negotiations between labor representatives l and the chief executives of the big banks and investment companies like Goldman Sachs.

*   *   *  *   *

If we want decent jobs now, we have to convince Congress  to  approve  a plan for creating them, along with the necessary funding.  Obviously, huge labor demonstrations around the country are very important to persuade Congress to approve  an expanded jobs program with the necessary funding. But we should not pass up an opportunity to reach out to lawmakers with our message, including our demand for approval of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Right now, our legislators are on a two-week break and they are back in their  home districts. Why don’t we mobilize delegations to visit them, face-to face , to  have them hear our legislative message directly?—Harry Kelber