What Is Missing in the Jobs Campaign
Is a Strong Voice from the Unemployed

While there is general agreement that creating jobs for the 14.6 million people who are officially unemployed should be a top priority for our government, millions of them may be permanently excluded from the nation’s work force.

The AFL-CIO, which has been leading a campaign for “Decent Jobs NOW!” almost exclusively for at least a year, has shown hardly any progress for its efforts. Its campaign consists of repeated speeches by President Richard Trumka attacking the greed of Wall Street and the big banks, but then advocating no actions except calling on union members to send e-mails and faxes to their representatives in Congress, which they have done numerous times without any visibly favorable effect.

It should be noted that the AFL-CIO jobs campaign is conducted by people who already have good jobs, often high-paying ones with substantial benefits. But what is clearly absent are the voices of the 8.6 million who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, who would be the beneficiaries of a successful campaign effort.

Why, then, has the AFL-CIO failed to mobilize the army of unemployed Americans, who could make the best case for “Decent Jobs NOW!”? Why not organize the unemployed to lead mass actions in Washington and elsewhere in their fight for survival? Are there reasons for excluding the unemployed from the jobs campaign?

Who, but the Unemployed, Can Get Congress to Act on Jobs?

There is probably no one in the AFL-CIO jobs campaign, including President Trumka, who believes that Congress will create the millions of jobs that were available before the Great Recession began in December 2007. So what should the unemployed do? It should stop remaining silent, as it has been. It should speak out loud and clear why Congress must act in their behalf.

By their silence, the unemployed have created the impression that being without a paycheck for half a year or more is no big deal, so that Congress can go ahead with more important business.

It turns out that if the unemployed ever expect to get those millions of jobs, they’ll have to lead a new, invigorated campaign with militant actions, and hope that the AFL-CIO will cooperate. Americans have never been known to be timid, easy-to-push-around people. They have a long history of fighting for their rights.

During the Great Depression, militant organizations like the Workers Alliance and the Unemployed Workers’ Councils mobilized the unemployed to press state and city governments for jobs and insurance benefits, prior to the fantastic jobs-creating programs of the New Deal.

Every person who is currently unemployed and seeking full-time work should become involved in a jobs campaign, as a matter of self respect and social justice. Workers in every community who have experienced unemployment during their lifetime should come together to plan a jobs campaign that will make Washington fully aware of the hardship and despair that working families suffer when they’ve lost the means of earning a livelihood.

Delegations of people from each community should visit their congressional representatives in each district to discuss what Congress can do to provide the millions of jobs that are needed to help the unemployed to survive. If the responses are unsatisfactory, the campaign should consider initiating a series of actions, that could include picketing and sit-in demonstrations.

If there are better ways of getting Congress to act on creating those millions of jobs, let’s hear them.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (81) will be posted here on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 and on our two web sites, https://www.laboreducator.org/ and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.