https://iclfi.org/pubs/wv/2024-boeing5/leadership
Some opposition groupings in the IAM place a heavy emphasis on democratic participation to the exclusion of all else. Union democracy is necessary to facilitate the fullest discussion and debate over the way forward. But the union’s bureaucratic straitjacket is a product of its leadership’s commitment to being teammates of the bosses and containing the discontent of the ranks. It is impossible to tear off that straitjacket without challenging the existing leadership and its dead-end strategy.
Initiated as a strike committee, IAM 751 Mobilize! stands out for attempting to provide a real alternative. At the only strike rally initiated by Holden—an indoor showcase for Democratic Party politicians—Mobilize intervened and turned it into a march to a nearby picket line and a display of force there. During the contract votes at Everett and Renton, its members rallied opposition to the bullshit offers while calling for an escalation of the strike in opposition to the Holden bureaucracy.
The next step is to build on these efforts to push for new leadership elections—to elect candidates who reject the perks and privileges of union posts and want to strengthen the union. The aim must be not only to sweep aside Holden and his fellow bureaucrats, but also to turn the IAM into a fighting battalion of the working class. Here are some lines of struggle to that end:
- Rebuild the strike fund—no money for Democrats or Republicans!
- No layoffs!
- Organize the unorganized! For black liberation!
- For union control of safety and quality!
- For a union leadership that fights for the interests of the entire working class!
- For a workers party that fights for a workers government!
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