Unions and the civil rights movement, Dixie; "American Left"

(From an RBB discussion on the "state of the American Left):

I've posted the following before on RBB and I am again, at least this one more time.  To be candid, I'm not sure how well my posts are read on RBB these days.  And I have to confess that I'm not especially excited about the British monarchy one way or the other, despite its obviously positive symbolism.

A major connection -- one with a tremendous potential for a homegrown American Left -- was missed when the American labor movement, already showing signs of bogging down, failed to significantly "connect" with the civil rights movement, which increasingly needed tangibly effective economic goals -- in the mid and latter 1960s.  Efforts were certainly made by many -- including myself -- in both dimensions to effect this connection.  Each would have benefited enormously had this "marriage" occurred.  But Labor backed off -- and, in quick due course, the old civil rights movement began to deteriorate as a transcendent Movement.  [H]

(Over the long run, I continue to remain optimistic about the future of an indigeneous American Left and American unionism.)  H.


From Hunter Bear on May 8, 2002 -- responding to Michael Eisenscher's post:

Your points are thoughtful and solid, Michael.  Hearty congratulations on
your article!  The journal sounds great. We'll see if we can drum up some
business.

We are  certainly not far apart.

I'm taking the liberty of posting this also on the DSA lists where this
colloquy began. Your post -- with your excellent thoughts and the name of
your article  and that of the journal --  is attached to this one.

While there are certainly a number of complex reasons why mainline American
labor has not invested substantially in the South in the context of the very
long-term commitment required, I do think it boils down to the very
substantial financial costs involved. Brutally, in a nation that's changed
in many ways -- for better and worse at different points -- the AFL-CIO has
consistently done little in the South for fifty years.

Here are a few examples involving individual Internationals:

The Left unions -- very visionary and very militant and very egalitarian --
were, of course, forced out of CIO in 1950.  I'm  quite familiar with the
Mine-Mill situation where, although it lost much of its Alabama iron-mining
membership in a vicious race-baiting and red-baiting raid by the Steel union
in 1949,  did still retain significant membership in Alabama. But the
excellent Mine-Mill had its hands full  protecting for years [and generally
successfully] its traditional non-ferrous metals jurisdiction elsewhere in
the United States and Canada [much of this in the West] in the face of the
most vicious attacks from the mining bosses, the Federal governments of both
countries [especially that of the US], and right-wing unions such as Steel.
It was never again able to do significant Southern organizing.

Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers -- well integrated in the
South and Southwest -- was quickly destroyed in the Red Scare atmosphere
from the Carolinas to the West Coast.  [I was still a kid in Northern
Arizona when the Food and Tobacco union halls were burned, down in the Salt
River Valley. A friend of mine who had been an FTA organizer and who was
still a faithful radical near Phoenix survived by inventing an interesting
cotton picking machine. ]  The other ousted Left unions, most of which did
not  long survive with their old identities following the purge, had little
or no Southern involvement.

But certainly not all unions that remained in CIO and then in AFL-CIO by any
means could be termed "business unions" in that classic sense.  An example
would be International Woodworkers of America [lumber jurisdiction] which,
with much Southern involvement, had a variety of left currents in its
Pacific Northwest origin traditions which certainly continued to some
extent. But IWA sharply pulled back from meaningful Southern organizing.
The reason given to me by a friend, one of its very top staffers, in 1960
and early in 1961 when I myself was going into the Deep South , was simply
money and racial controversy.  In 1961, I was in Mississippi and, early in
'62, acting for NAACP, took many affidavits from Black workers at Masonite
at Laurel, in Jones County -- a big IWA local -- and later filed appropriate
formal complaints against both the company and union with the Federal
government and with national NAACP and with A. Philip Randolph. The total
segregation complex extended into the local itself with the result that the
Black workers, who had played significant roles in organizing the local,
were at the very bottom of everything -- and the lowest paid sawmill sweeper
in Oregon was making more than the highest paid White worker at Masonite.
[This is discussed on page 37 of my book, Jackson Mississippi --- under my
old name of John R Salter, Jr.]   IWA had bogged down in the South and was
simply pulling back.  It never regained its old momentum.

Another union, with an AFL background, which was certainly not a business
union -- and which had a good deal of Southern involvement, was
International Chemical Workers Union.  Its President, Walter Mitchell, a
White Alabamian was extremely good on the racial issue [Walter had an old
Mine-Mill background from TVA] and a number of its key staff,several of them
young who I knew well, had essentially left and visionary perspectives.  But
it, too, had pulled back -- because of money and racial controversy.   As
the Civil Rights Movement moved rapidly along, Walter did order the
generally segregated Southern ICWU locals to integrate or jump ship -- and
they integrated.  But its Southern organizing momentum had slowed
considerably.

In April, 1966, with the Civil Rights Movement having now substantially
opened up much of the South, I met at Chicago with Ralph Helstein, President
of United Packinghouse Workers and Vice-President Charles Hayes and Director
of Organization Jesse Prosten.  Packinghouse, of course, although AFL-CIO,
was certainly anything except a business union. Its leaders were essentially
radicals.  I carried a complex but clear and direct proposal from the Deep
South that Jesse -- a friend -- strongly supported:  that Packinghouse would
fund a number of proven civil rights organizers in Mississippi and the
Carolinas who would focus on broad community grassroots organization.  And
those new, broad organizations would both stimulate new, interracial
unionism in those Southern settings and would provide significantly tangible
community support for union organizing and eventual strike actions.  In the
end, although Jesse -- Director of Organization -- continued to support the
proposal with the greatest vigour, Packinghouse backed away.  Again --
money, more than anything else.

I could cite a good many more examples across the many years into recent
times but these convey, I think, where the problem basic always lies:
Mainline labor simply doesn't want to invest substantially over the long
pull in the always very costly and complex Southern [and environs]
situation.  It's often hard enough to get them to act significantly and
effectively anywhere in the country.  But the South -- and all of its
variants -- make up a consistently very tough challenge.

But, of course, the South can and must be organized.  And ultimately it will
be. AFL-CIO itself, with its very substantial resources, is going to have to
get heavily into this -- come hell or high water.  In the meantime, any
solid organizing efforts at all are always significant sparks anywhere --
and certainly in Dixie.

I'm sure we agree, Michael, that bona fide organizing is Genesis.  The old
argument that one has to fight first in the legislative arena -- getting rid
of Southern right-to-work scab laws etc -- before one can begin to organize
simply means waiting for the Ice Age to melt. Things have to start with
intensive, direct organizing at the point-of-production and continue,
feathering out and with full commitment, over the super long haul: possibly
forever!

Solidarity -

Hunter Gray  [ Hunter Bear ]

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)
 
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded much in May/June 2012 -- and also some photos.)
 
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at 
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of
1962-63.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
 
Ghosts  (Near death experience in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness --
with an Arizona labor note): http://hunterbear.org/ghosts.htm