Union Activists and the War in Ukraine
Dear RC union activists,
What can we union activists do to help move the war in Ukraine toward a diplomatic solution?
This is an extremely difficult question for many, perhaps all, of us. We are horrified by the terrible loss of lives. We know that war is among the most anti-human activities. At the same time, nearly all of us feel powerless to influence the crisis, and as union activists most of us lead busy lives filled with our commitments to build our unions and work for social justice.
Nevertheless, and without minimizing these difficulties, I believe that we each do have the ability to adjust to a new set of circumstances and say to ourselves, “What can I do within my union to advance the cause of peace in Ukraine?”
Perhaps the first step is to take this question to our Co-Counseling sessions. We may need to ask it repeatedly as we discharge the distresses and take a stand against the false messages of discouragement and hopelessness. For me, some of those messages are “I’m too small,“ “What could I do?” “I’m not the leader of my union,“ “I already have too much union work to do; I can’t add anything else,” “I’m too old to take this on [undertake this].”
For others, the messages might be “War is bad, and peace is good, but this is not a labor issue,” “I will lose credibility within my union if I speak out about this,” “I don’t know that much about the war in Ukraine,” “I’m too young.”
I understand these messages—and I think they all come from distresses.
Each one of us can make a difference if we decide to act and if we use our connections to others in our unions to act collectively.
We know that working people always bear the brunt of every war and that major sections of the owning class find a way to get rich from the profits of war. This means that war and peace are among the most important of union issues. And particularly because this current war is waged by Russia—one of the two giant nuclear powers—and because it threatens NATO, which includes the United States as well as other nuclear powers, England and France, it threatens all human life. We need to shake about this! And we need to act! There are no unions on a dead planet!
We also know that the labor movement’s opposition to the war in Iraq was a huge boost to the peace movement. It brought the anti-war movement to millions of people who had never thought about being part of a peace movement until their union opposed the war. It also had a big impact on our national labor movement and on our elected officials.
I recall Tim Jackins saying, “In order for us to play the role of eliminating distresses, we have to have a world.” Let’s make sure that we have a world in which we can do all the other good work for justice that we are already doing!
As for me, I am working with former leaders of U.S. Labor Against the War. We have drafted a sample resolution for people to take to their local, regional, and national unions asking that we make a clear call for a negotiated rather than a military solution. We’ve also conducted a webinar on Labor and the Russian War in Ukraine that featured a panel of labor leaders and an expert on peace and foreign policy issues.
We need a labor movement that not only works for justice on the job but also has a broad view: that labor’s interests are completely lined up with climate justice and peace.
With love and solidarity,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of union activists
(Present Time 208, July 2022)