I respond to my friend, George Schmidt (editor of SUBSTANCE MAGAZINE out of Chicago) who expresses concern over the under-reporting of labor's role in the recent mobilization in Chicago. My response to him is provided below. -Angela
6/19/06
Angela,
I was glad that you shared the materials I sent to you after Chicago's
massive March 10 march and hope you'll share some of the observations below as well.
This information needs to be in the general discussion of what's going on,
especially among progressive college and university people.
I read with interest the article (from Nation) that you forwarded about the
use of new media to organize the May Day marches. I wanted to add something to
the analysis of the May Day marches that you forwarded two weeks ago from The
Nation.
Since the beginning of the marches, one of the things that's puzzled me is
how consistently the media -- including the "progressive" media, like The Nation
and In These Times -- have either ignored or downplayed the role of the
unions in the organizing of the huge March 10 and May 1 marches in Chicago (and
elsewhere).
One of the reasons I spent so much time organizing the photo essay on
Chicago's May Day march in the May Substance (which will be available on line at
www.substancenews.com in PDF format this week) is that I had begun to notice a
bias in the media from both the bourgeois media (The New York Times, for example,
ignored the March 10 Chicago march entirely, despite the fact that they had
reporters at it) and from "progressives." I haven't figured out why and haven't
asked. We also put into print a great deal more about the March 10 Chicago
march than got out elsewhere.
More important, I think, is the role of the unions, both in focusing the
class aspects of the events and in providing the infrastructure for the actual
unfolding of the days' work both those days. In the Spanish materials going out
before March 10, it was very clear that the day was viewed as a "general
strike" and that unions were involved. That continued through May 1.
Without the organizing infrastructure of hundreds of union staff, members,
and volunteers from SEIU, Unite HERE, UFCW, Teamsters, UE (electrical workers),
Carpenters, and Laborers -- to name the seven I witnessed giving major support
in the run-up to May Day -- Chicago's May Day would not have happened, let
alone happened as it did as a rebirth of May Day as a workers' holiday in the
USA (explicit here in the march, as you can see by reading Substance). At the
street level, the unions were more important than the Catholic churches, and
easily equal to the immigrant rights groups in importance in making the events
happen.
As I've already reported, SEIU Local 73 executive board member Jose Artemio
Arreola (from Michoacan) was one of the key organizers for both marches.
Cynthia Rodriguez (vice president of Local 73, SEIU) was in the middle of all the
pre- May Day planning. Hundreds of other SEIU members were involved in various
parts of all that, from making badges for people to providing marshals to
supplement the police.
As the SEIU Local 73 Website reflects (with more than 400 photographs I took
on May 1, see seiu73.org), the union presence was massive, and crucial.
Another important reality, largely ignored in media reports, is that most of
the African Americans who marched both days in Chicago were union members,
marching with their unions. I could introduce anyone who came to Chicago to
dozens of them, from a half dozen unions. For the life of me, I'm having trouble
figuring out why the media reports on the marches now focus on African American
opposition to the marches (often, from rump fringe groups) while ignoring the
African American workers who actually helped organize the marches and marched.
Thus, while I like hearing about the importance of MySpace and other high
tech methods of mobilizing students (although we shouldn't downplay AM and FM
radio), whatever distinctions might have been between Chicago and other places, I
suspect that we need to take a second look at the importance of unions in the
struggles.
I'll leave it at that.
I expect The New York Times to downplay the revival of labor unions,
especially when that includes a revival of May Day as a workers' holiday in the USA,
rebirthed right here in Chicago, where May Day was born 120 years ago. What I'm
having more trouble understanding is why The Nation and In These Times are
truncating their reporting on these massive and important marches. Have they
become so soaked in identity politics that they can't see class politics any
more? I don't really know.
But anyone who wants to buy extra copies of my two reports on the Chicago
marches can send $2 per copy to Substance (5132 W. Berteau, Chicago 60641). And
if not, they can go to our website (www.substancenews.com) and see the marches
in the dozens of photographs I published.
George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance
www.substancenews.com
_______________________________________

Thanks, George, for your analysis. Yes, your work and analysis on the influence of labor provides an important and necessary corrective to present reporting on the mobilizations. I especially appreciate your commentary on solidarity by African-American unionists. Technology only explains so much. The photos in SUBSTANCE are breathtaking, by the way. Great job with the photographs (some of which are on my blog). You truly capture just how monumental all of this is.
James K. Galbraith's recent piece in MOTHER JONES titled, "The Kids are all Right"
supports your class/labor view in a way that identifies shared underlying causes in both the French and U.S.-immigrant mobilizations. In both instances, the "kids" are the stakeholders in so-called reform and are consequently solidly represented in the protest movement. Galbraith in effect maintains that through their actions, young people have just launched the next labor movement. Despite this, the press (on top of identity politics, as you suggest) is responsible for the lack of either coverage of workers or for not providing a labor-based perspective to this mobilization. The press' bias against labor is historic. Other blinders, however, also seem to be present.
Another necessary corrective involves the organizing of undocumented workers as part of a rather long history that dates back to the 1960s Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Civil rights' leadership and membership's connections to workers and involvement in labor union struggles are also part of this story.
Lovato, in THE NATION, provides a good analysis of this in his leading piece in the June 2006 issue titled, "Voices of a New Movimento." This article does the best job I’ve seen yet of outlining these organizational linkages over time. Indeed, LULAC was very instrumental in the Dallas half-million-person march--and I would imagine, most or all of the other mobilizations. More recently, on July 1, LULAC held an immigration rally at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee at the site of their national conference. They stressed the importance of registering 2 million new voters. NCLR is highlighting immigration at their national conference in L.A. beginning tomorrow (July 8).
Also, the story continues through the emergence of significant immigrant, grassroots, labor, local, statewide and national organizations that have formed a new coalition called the "We Are America Alliance" that is supporting immigrant rights:
Since SEIU is a member of the coalition, you must know about this already.
Finally, check out this piece, too, titled Leading "La Marcha" published in Thomas Paine. This piece asks us to probe a little deeper than most accounts into the role of race, and the changing complexion of our nation which many fear. It also provides good political analysis.
What also needs to be factored in at some point is the influence of Mexico through the existence of binational efforts and programs, as well as the increasing role that global human rights organizations and commissions play in present mobilizations.
Probably no single factor was sufficient in terms of the outcome, yet all were perhaps necessary--though some factors will certainly bear greater explanatory power.... Plus, variations in these factors across sites would exist. If you don't mind, I'll post this stuff on my blog so others can weigh in, too, if they wish. Thanks for sharing.
-Angela
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