Posted on August 11, 202

[Note: Labor and Community for an Independent Party, LCIP, is reprinting below a statement by Alan Benjamin delivered at a San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Awards Dinner on July 21. Benjamin is a member of the Continuations Committee of LCIP.]

Introduction

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Please find below the statement that I presented Friday night (July 21) to the 13th Annual Awards Dinner of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition. I received the coalition’s “S.F. Labor Man of the Year Award,” while Sarah Souza, a leader of the San Francisco chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), received the “S.F. Labor Woman of the Year Award.”

Sarah and I were given 5 to 7 minutes to make presentations to the gathering. I took the opportunity to present a sort of “farewell address.” Having just moved back to New York City, I felt the need to call on Labor Council delegates and S.F. community activists to continue, and, if possible, expand some of the important campaigns that we organized jointly over the 32 years that I was a Council delegate representing OPEIU Local 29, 17 of those years on the Council’s Executive Committee.

The proposals that I put forward in my presentation are not only addressed to San Francisco labor and community activists.

The issue of war, for example, is a national labor issue. With President Biden refusing to rule out the option of using nuclear weapons and with the increased posturing towards war with China, the current conflict in Ukraine has the distinct possibility of leading the global population into a third world war, complete with the potential for nuclear annihilation.

The U.S. labor movement has an obligation to champion the effort to stop this madness and ensure a lasting peace. A good place to start would be for unions and labor councils across the country to adopt resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, the withdrawal of ALL troops from Ukraine, and the redirection of war funds to healthcare, education, jobs, and social services.

Again, thanks to Karl Kramer, David Frias and all members of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition for this award. Also, a special thanks to Eddie Rosario and Connie Ford for their kind words in the videotaped messages that they sent to the Friday night awards dinner. And, finally, a very special thanks to Lita Blanc, my lifelong partner, for all her support. Years ago, when Lita was president of United Educators of San Francisco, she herself was a recipient of the Living Wage coalition’s “S.F. Woman of the Year” award.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

In solidarity,

Alan Benjamin

* * * * * * * * * *

Alan Benjamin addresses delegates at farewell point of SF Labor Council meeting on June 12.

Statement to the Awards Dinner

Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

My sincere thanks to the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition for this recognition.

I would like to highlight four points, four messages, in my brief statement: 

• One: Our Council was a founding member and longtime supporter of US Labor Against the War. We spearheaded the effort to win adoption by the AFL-CIO convention in 2005 of the resolution against the U.S. war in Iraq. 

The fight to redirect the trillions of dollars in war spending to jobs, healthcare, education and social services is even more urgent today. Our San Francisco labor movement should once again take the lead against the warmongers and the Military-Industrial Complex, urging an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and the withdrawal of ALL troops from the war-ravaged region.

• Two: Our Council was a founding member of Labor Party Advocates in 1992 and the Labor Party in June 1996. This effort hit a snag but remains a task to be accomplished. Veteran labor leader Tony Mazzocchi was right when he said that the “bosses have two parties, working people need one of our own.” 

American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein put this issue back on the agenda when he submitted — and the 2017 AFL-CIO national convention adopted — a resolution calling on labor to take up the fight once again for the Labor Party, an effort which, I believe, needs to begin at the local level if it is to get off ground.

The San Francisco labor movement and the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition could set an example in this regard, by forming a citywide labor-community coalition tasked with developing a Political Platform that independent local candidates for political office would be pledged to uphold. This could be the first step, the first building block, in an effort to build an independent Labor Party from the bottom up.

• Three: The San Francisco Labor Council organized two large international labor conferences that stressed the need for an independent strategy to beat back the corporate neo-liberal agenda. On every continent, the corporate elite are striving to co-opt the labor movement into supporting and implementing their privatizing, deregulating objectives.

The Western Hemisphere Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations in 1997 and the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights in 2001 launched a major international trade union campaign for “global unionism to combat global capitalism” – to quote the slogan coined by deceased California Federation of Labor Secretary Treasurer Jack Henning. This struggle must continue.

• Four: As we meet here today, the Palestinian people in the West Bank are being subjected to a major assault by the Israeli army. The San Francisco Labor Council a few years ago adopted two resolutions that called for lifting the blockade against Gaza. More recently, the Council adopted a resolution calling for an end to the banning of six Palestinian human rights organizations in the West Bank. We took a lot of heat for taking this stance, but it was the right thing to do.

The U.S. finances the Israeli Army and State to the tune of $3.2 billion each year. The San Francisco Labor Council could once again be the champion of ALL people — without exception — who are fighting for peace and justice the world over by demanding a halt to the attacks on Jenin and other besieged Palestinian cities and towns.

Before concluding my presentation, I would like to add two more quick points. I would be remiss if I did not mention them at least briefly.

Earlier today I came across an article on the Bloomberg website in which the authors reveal Finance Capital’s deep concern about the rising labor upsurge across the United States today. Here’s how Bloomberg describes what they call “the largest strike wave since the 1970s”:

“More than 650,000 American workers are threatening to go on strike this summer — or have already done so — in an avalanche of union activity not seen in the U.S. in decades.

“The combined actors and writers’ strikes in Hollywood are already a once-in-a-generation event. Unions for United Parcel Service and Detroit’s Big Three automakers are poised to join them in coming weeks if contract negotiations fall through. One Bank of America analyst put the odds of a United Auto Workers strike at more than 90%. And while logistics experts and financial analysts expected the Teamsters to reach a deal with UPS, their confidence has dwindled as the July 31 deadline approaches.”

The leadership of the AFL-CIO and change to Win have the responsibility to build the most active and effective strike-support campaign with these strikers.

My second point is in response to the powerful presentation to this evening’s gathering by Mexican union brother Israel Cervantes of Casa Obrera del Bajío. Israel recounted the struggle for independent unionism at the GM plant in Silao, Guanajuato, where Israel and his rank-and-file caucus, Generando Movimiento, won the union election and signed a collective-bargaining agreement with GM.

As a result of this victory, the defeated pro-management slate – linked to the corrupt CTM union federation – has launched a vicious slander campaign against Israel and his team. It is vital that the U.S. labor movement support Israel and his leadership team.

Now to conclude:

I very much hope that the Council will continue to take the lead in the international arena. We were pivotal in moving the dial and helping to broaden the vision and scope of the AFL-CIO’s international solidarity work. Let’s not drop the ball. So much more remains to be done.

Again, my profound thanks to the San Francisco Living Wage Campaign for all its important work and for this recognition. And thanks to all of you, sisters and brothers, who have struggled so hard to make San Francisco a union town.