Unions at war By David Bacon, San Francisco Bay Guardian News
This is a very contradictory moment in the life of US unions. Public attention has focused on this split among unions, which is largely a bureaucratic shift whose impact is still unclear. Yet the impact of the debate on the war - taking place within a federation that has given political cover to US foreign policy with few exceptions - will reverberate for years The AFL-CIO supported the Vietnam War. Internal struggles eventually led to the withdrawal of support for Reagan's wars in Central America. But the current resolution is the first time the federation has called for ending a war waged directly by US troops, and for their return home.
The groundwork for this change was laid by a new generation of antiwar, pro-solidarity activists who were young marchers during Vietnam and rank-and-file militants during the Central American interventions, and who are today leading unions. Some of them may have forgotten, or chosen to forget, those roots. But many have not.