Robert Naiman
As
a participant in the planning for the April 16-17 mobilizations against the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, I have this to say about all the
hype around the April demonstrations and the "new movement for global
economic and social justice": the hype is entirely justified. Occasionally
in this life one is blessed to observe and participate in truly historic events.
The decision by the AFL-CIO, the Steelworkers, other major unions and Jobs with
Justice to participate in mass demonstrations attacking the destructive colonial
power of the IMF and the Bank marks a decisive turning point. The participation
of Rich Trumka of the AFL and George Becker of the Steelworkers gives the events
a completely different, more powerful political character. The AFL-CIO is being
swept forward by the social forces that organized labor itself did so much to
set in motion. Nothing will ever be the same.
Recall
that a mere two years ago, the AFL-CIO backed the Administration’s request for
$18 billion in new funding for the International Monetary Fund – a 50% increase
in the IMF’s resources, at a time when the IMF was under unprecedented political
attack, and when opposition to the Administration’s request for more money was a
predominant vehicle for that attack. By supporting the Administration’s request,
the AFL provided key liberal political cover for the IMF and the Clinton
Administration. They saved the IMF and the agenda of the US Treasury Department.
But
now we can see that as a mere stumble on the long march of organized labor to a
leadership position in a new movement for global economic justice. As a Jobs
with Justice activist put it: "After Seattle, everyone knows that the World
Trade Organization is bad. After the demonstrations in Washington, everyone will
know that the IMF and the Bank are bad. It will be very hard for the AFL to
justify supporting giving these bad institutions more money." And this next
stage in the evolution of the AFL-CIO was made possible by the involvement of
rank and file unionists and students with good relationships with organized
labor in the Mobilization.
But
more is true. It is increasingly apparent that some of the top people at the
AFL, including most especially John Sweeney himself, fervently believe in what
they are doing. At the Jubilee 2000 USA demonstration last Sunday, Sweeney gave
the best speech of the American speakers. Unlike the leaders of Jubilee 2000
USA, who refuse to discuss the role of the IMF, the World Bank, and U.S.
Treasury in imposing anti-worker "structural adjustment" economic
policies as part of the "debt relief" program currently before the
U.S. Congress, Sweeney vigorously attacked the policies of the IMF and the World
Bank, and their role in driving the global "race to the bottom" in
living standards. He explicitly linked the destructive impacts of the IMF and
the Bank in developing countries to declining living standards in the United
States.
The
significance of such statements from the head of the AFL-CIO cannot be
overestimated. The IMF and the World Bank are the most destructive institutions
in the world today. But unlike the WTO, they have no direct impact on working
people in the United States. The strong opposition of the AFL-CIO to anti-worker
"free trade" agreements, under strong pressure from the industrial
unions that are being decimated by globalization, was already a big step
forward. But organized labor opposition to the IMF and the Bank is a huge leap
forward.
Recall
that in the 1980’s, many of us organizing against U.S. military interventions in
Latin America and elsewhere tried to make the case that U.S. foreign policy was
not in the economic interest of the majority of people in the U.S. Now we have
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney saying what we were saying in the 1980s: that
U.S. foreign economic and military policy is hurting workers abroad and workers
at home.
The
Mobilization for Global Justice has also been a learning experience for
non-labor groups. Many who were skeptical at first of the AFL’s focus on the
U.S.-China trade deal have come to see its importance. The AFL-CIO position is
the progressive one: approval of the U.S.-China trade deal would be bad for
workers in the U.S. and bad for workers in China. But it is also the
strategically correct one – given the ironclad commitment of big business and
their Republican and Democratic allies to the agenda of removing any
restrictions on the flow of capital, nothing less than vigorous opposition to
bad trade deals will have any impact.
The
Mobilization has also been a learning experience of respectfulness about
diversity of tactics. During and after Seattle, there was a fair bit of
recrimination about window-smashing and other property destruction and whether
it was morally reprehensible or politically counterproductive. Within the
current Mobilization, however, there has been a respectful dialogue about
different tactics among different camps. This led to the creation of a legally
permitted demonstration, designed to facilitate the participation of organized
labor, community people, and other groups not willing or able to risk
confrontation with the police or association with militant tactics in the
context of this particular action. It also led to a real dialogue with anarchist
groups supportive of property destruction, not based on dogma, moral
condemnation, or marginalization but a real dialogue based on shared values of
political effectiveness and not undermining the political work of others; and
even though property destruction is outside of the action guidelines for the
Mobilization, we expect that if property destruction does take place in
Washington, it will have a different political character than it did in Seattle.
We
have already won major victories in building and sustaining our movement and
delegitimizing the policies and funding of the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank. The boycott of World Bank bonds has been launched (www.worldbankboycott.org),
and many other political initiatives have begun (see www.a16.org).
But
of course, the more people come, the more history we will make. If you are
reading this on April 13, there is still time for you to come. Join us. Make
history. Come to Washington and help shut down the meetings of the IMF and the
World Bank; or join us for the most massive legal demonstration against the IMF
and the World Bank that has ever taken place in the U.S.; or both. Be able to
tell the story of how you were there when students, environmentalists, trade
unionists, and anarchists made history and took on the most powerful
institutions in the world.