In a blatant attempt to turn the trade unions into an electoral apparatus of the bourgeoisie, the international “trade union” organisation UNI GLOBAL UNION has published a text sanctifying Kamala Harris, calling on US workers to support her in the upcoming US Presidential Elections. This from an organisation that otherwise speaks for the ‘independence’ of trade unions.
Specifically, UNI GLOBAL UNION General Secretary Christy Hoffman said
“The Biden-Harris administration has been the most pro-union in my lifetime, and I was proud to see the US government take concrete steps to insist that foreign policy take into account workers’ issues and the importance of collective bargaining. A Donald Trump victory would not only reverse these steps, but his leadership would pose a global threat to human rights and democracy. It would undoubtedly ramp up an already growing wave of right-wing extremism and fascism around the world. I thank our unions in the US for organizing their members and communities to elect Harris.”
With these comments, they erased all connection to reality in one fell swoop. They deleted that under President Biden the following has happened and is happening
Huge increases in the cost of living for the majority of US workers, with a substantial wage freeze, while the profits of multinational corporations increase
Legalisation of child labour in several US states
The presidentially mandated ban on the strike by railroad workers
The US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel.
We do not believe that the UNI Secretary-General is naive and does not know that Harris’ candidacy is supported and financed by huge monopoly groups. FORBES’ detailed list lists 82 billionaire donors to Harris and 52 to Trump. Trump and Harris are competing to see which one will promote the new anti-worker offensive against the people of the US and the new US wars and interventions against the peoples of the world. Both candidates, regardless of their labels and rhetoric, support and serve the even greater exploitation of the working class to ensure the profitability of the big business groups.
The role of the unions is to prepare the workers’ counter-attack against any new government elected in the US. To expose the illusions fostered by Republicans and Democrats, as whether in a progressive or conservative guise, any new US President will escalate the anti-worker offensive, but also expand imperialist interventions.
The role of real trade unions is to organise the working class and its struggle for its rights to wages, health, education, peace and prosperity.
The “sanctification” of one candidate or another, the expectation of “saviours” and the transformation of the unions into an electoral mechanism of the bourgeoisie leads the unions to inaction, disappointment and degeneration.
The workers of the US with the recent major strike struggles in a number of sectors have shown that the working class has the power when it demands militantly and wins by its own struggle. The people of the US who are massively denouncing and fighting against the genocide in Palestine cannot support those who fund Israel.
The position of UNI GLOBAL UNION is further proof of the degradation and degeneration of forces within the unions that are at the service of the monopoly groups and imperialist organizations.
These forces must be isolated and condemned by the militant trade unions of the world in order to strengthen the workers’ movement which will demand and fight for the working class and not for its enemies.