Report-back from Workers Conference

“What should we do now?”: This was the question on the minds of dozens of workers who gathered at this summer’s Workers Conference sponsored by the Spartacist League/U.S. Participants hailed from across the country and had varying relations to the party, although most were members of SL-supported union committees. Others came from Mexico, Canada, Britain and Germany, bringing with them their experiences as union reps and activists during this increasingly reactionary period a half year into Trump’s second presidency.

The purpose of the conference was to provide analysis and direction at a time when many workers feel “slammed against a wall” and efforts by militants to push struggles forward have largely stalled. The gathering sought to help participants keep their heads above water, prepare coworkers for attacks ahead and be in a position to organize defensive struggles when opportunities arise. Even modest defensive actions—like the campaign to reinstate Train Operator Andy Valentine in New York City Transit (see back page)—can provide a sense of collectivity and give impetus to the forging of a new union leadership that will fight for workers’ interests. When a proposal to do something gets no takers, it is not a betrayal but necessary self-preservation to take a step back and regroup.

Among the many conversations, one New York City hospital worker swapped stories with a construction worker from the mainly white rural Midwest. She observed that they come from “opposite ends of the American nightmare” in which workers of all races face “poverty everywhere” but are extremely polarized along reactionary lines like Democrat vs. Republican. The construction worker recalled he would “go on agitation binges” to organize some job action and “get nothing in return.” “I need to be patient and keep reaching out with the party,” he later said. “I need to be careful and pick opportunities” to draw workers together in action by building on anger shared across the partisan divide against the abuses of foremen and contractors.

Combating the divisions—by race, ethnicity, tier, craft, gender and more—whipped up by the bosses and reinforced by the bureaucrats is crucial to transforming the unions into active defense organizations, especially in the current climate. In this light, the escalating ICE anti-immigrant crackdown—which finds support among many U.S.-born workers—was discussed at the conference. Compounding the problem, the union tops have told the rank and file to fully comply with masked gunmen looking to board buses or storm workplaces. As another construction worker pointed out, they “think that complacency is survival, but really it is a death sentence” for labor. “It is tying us to our class enemies.”

If workers are not ready to resist ICE, militants can encourage their confidence in the power of collective action by initiating struggles against immediately felt attacks by the bosses, while finding ways to get across that immigrant defense is a defense of all workers. As a union militant from the South put it, take “a small opportunity to flex a muscle, try to take a small win if you can. You can’t lift a heavy thing if you haven’t learned how to flex a muscle.” Enforcement of safety standards is one possible lever to counter the bureaucrats’ orders to aid ICE. For example, in NYC, train operators are allowed to bypass a station if there is a clear danger or police activity on the platform. Similarly, as one transit worker explained, “A bus driver is like the captain of a ship” with a duty to keep their passengers safe.

Participants also discussed liberal vs. class-struggle responses to racism. The liberals blame white workers for black oppression and appeal to the bosses’ government for redress—the very enforcers of racial segregation. This only weakens the union and turns white workers into Trumpers. Class-struggle militants attempt to mobilize white workers to fight against the mechanisms that keep black workers on the bottom in a way that benefits everyone. They explain how attacks on black people today, if left unchallenged, will embolden the class enemy to attack all workers tomorrow. They respond immediately to any racist provocation on the job.

One of several workshops addressed running for union posts. Union elections provide an arena for militants to gauge the receptivity of their coworkers to a serious effort to strengthen the union—and the potential to gain a position to better pursue this perspective in practice. But that requires the candidate to present a platform combining immediate measures with broader ones—that is, a platform that intersects felt needs in order to orient workers in a direction that can actually satisfy them. Any such game plan to improve the fighting capacity of the union—by bridging divisions, forging links with other layers of the class and putting the union on its own two feet against the bosses—will not sit well with the bureaucracy.

In the current period, the pressure will be to go narrow and confine oneself entirely to shop floor issues. This pressure must be consciously resisted (as well as the knee-jerk response of simply waving the red flag to no good effect). A member of the Committee to End Tier Segregation in the ILWU stressed that militants should put forward a platform based on working-class independence or perhaps not run if they cannot openly draw a line against the pro-capitalist leadership.

Other lessons discussed at the conference include:

Fight for union solidarity against individualism. Due to the union tops’ betrayals, militant workers must re-establish basic principles that workers once took for granted and win them to a broader perspective. Never snitch to the bosses. Defend workers from victimization. Never meet with management unless a union rep is present. Picket lines mean don’t cross. Bring new hires and apprentices into the union on Day One. Organize the unorganized, regardless of immigration status. End segregation by race, tier and craft. Equal pay for equal work. Never bring the government into a dispute within the union.

Build your authority. Never be a burden to your coworkers, work safely and be punctual. Share your knowledge with and listen closely to other workers. This will earn their respect, making it more difficult for the bosses to frame you up and more likely that coworkers will defend you when you are targeted.

Learn survival skills. Be wary of launching major battles against the bosses and union bureaucrats unless workers are behind you. Seek out another front that workers are willing to fight on, and provide guidance for that struggle as a first step toward preparing workers for larger battles. Study your contract, the union constitution and Roberts Rules of Order. Get them translated into Spanish and/or other languages so that your coworkers can determine the most effective angle of defense in any given situation.

Demonstrate how support to U.S. imperialism weakens American labor. Few workers will be inclined to take action against the ravages of the U.S. rulers abroad unless they see how doing so benefits themselves. WV made a very concrete case when it proved how the ILA leaders’ support to U.S. imperialism sabotaged union struggle—namely their pledge to keep loading military cargo during the union’s October 2024 strike.

A few months ago, Columbia University fired the grad student union president, who is also a pro-Palestinian activist. The attacks on opponents of the genocide in Gaza have gone hand in hand with assaults on the campus unions and education cuts. This suppression of dissent and union-busting will spread like wildfire to other sectors of the labor movement if not fought.

Educate yourself. You can’t lead workers to victory if you don’t learn from the revolutionaries who came before you. With this in mind, the conference was preceded by an open house at the Prometheus Research Library, where the assembled militants were encouraged to utilize the PRL as a vital resource. (For a catalog of its holdings, see prl.org.) One factory worker was inspired to read ABC of Communism after the conference. He described his surprise at how this century-old book describes so precisely the jodidez that the workers face today, “It’s like time froze.”

The event was a learning experience for the party as much as for the workers. As one education worker pointed out, the event addressed the “need for union militants to keep the party grounded in reality”—so that it can effectively present a revolutionary program in words and deeds—and how “the party comrades keep the workers rooted in the goals so they don’t get sucked up by day-to-day minutiae.” American Trotskyist leader James P. Cannon’s advice to a Workers Party coal miners conference in 1924 remains true today: