Trumka Warns Harvard Audience of Plots
To  Poison  Workers’  Anger  with  Hatred

By Harry Kelber

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told an audience at Harvard’s  Kennedy School  of Government that “there are forces in our country that are working hard to convert justifiable  anger about an economy that seems to work for only a few of us into racist and homophobic hate and violence.”

He did not identify “the forces of hate;”  or the extent of their influence or objectives, except to refer to hateful words against President Obama and  the highly-respected Congressman John Lewis.

Trumka mentioned the many ways that working people have been short-changed in an economy that favors the rich and powerful, emphasizing the loss of 11 million jobs. “Mass unemployment and  growing inequality threaten our democracy,” he said. “We need to act—and act boldly—to strike at the roots of working people’s anger and shut down the forces of  hatred and racism.”

Trumka  set forth an extraordinary challenge to his audience of intellectuals: “If you care about defending our country against the apostles of hate, you need to be part of the fight to rebuild a sustainable, high-wage economy built on good jobs—the kind of economy  that can only exist when working men and women have a real voice on the job,” he said.  And in blunt language, he added: “Political intellectuals face a great choice—whether to be servants or critics of economic privilege.”

Trumka’s record on fighting the forces of hate is spotty, at best. When Dr. George Tiller, a  prominent Kansas abortion doctor, was murdered--shot in the back while in church--by an openly racist, anti-abortion zealot, Scott Roeder, it was one of the most heinous hate crimes in decades. Yet there \was no comment from Trumka, not a word. Nor was it discussed,  or even mentioned, on the AFL-CIO web site.                   

Why Is There Growing Anger Against AFL-CIO’s Leaders?

The core of Trumka’s speech is similar to what he has been saying around the country.  “Working people want an American economy  that creates good jobs, where wealth is fairly shared, and where the economic life of our nation is about solving big problems like the threat of climate change rather than creating big problems, like the foreclosure crisis,” he said.

But the unemployed, especially the millions who have been out of work for more than six months, are getting tired of his speeches and the lack of effective action to improve their lives. Many resent that Trumka’s annual salary, at the last count, was $238,975, plus substantial perks.

It is therefore not surprising that many union members will target their anger to their leaders—because of their perceived failures, and not because of succumbing to the forces of hate and violence.

Considering the injustices inflicted on working people, there has been far less violence in the United States than in most countries around the world. Of course, we have always in our history  had our share of political and racist demagogues, but  today, they are under close government scrutiny. Under our democracy, they are entitled to free speech, but there is no evidence that the “forces of hate” have made much headway within the labor movement.

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What is truly surprising is that throughout his speech, Trumka had nothing to say about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not a mention. Not a word, even though he must know that the two wars are on the minds of millions of working families, whose loved ones are fighting on foreign soil.

 Trumka talks about creating 11 million jobs, but he has never put forward a plan on how to achieve it or pay for it. Nor has he considered that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the two wars is something  for the labor movement to worry about.

Let’s be clear: If Congress and the White House agree to create millions of public works jobs, the government will be subject to an enormous boost in the federal deficit in the short term. That’s how it was in the 1930s, when the New Deal put people first.

Giving unemployed workers  a  job and a  regular pay check they can  spend on household necessities and authorized taxes is a sounder and humane  investment in the future of America than abandoning our jobless workers to a life of misery and poverty.--Harry Kelber