{"id":8571,"date":"2022-12-08T23:33:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T04:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=8571"},"modified":"2022-12-15T00:22:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T05:22:32","slug":"after-the-rail-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/12\/after-the-rail-fiasco\/","title":{"rendered":"After the rail fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>e are still in the early days of assessing<\/a> the potential long-term political implications of the Biden administration\u2019s decision to impose<\/a> a highly unpopular contract<\/a> on rail workers with the active support of \u201cThe Squad\u201d (with the exception of Rashida Tlaib) in Congress. A line has certainly been crossed, however, and it\u2019s hard to see a way back for those on the Left and in the labor movement who\u2019ve engaged in mind-boggling intellectual summersaults to justify it as a good thing. It should be noted that even Tlaib\u2019s dissent<\/a> was well within the boundaries of Democratic Party politics.<\/p>\n

\"\"
AOC tweets<\/a> her support for the rail workers before voting to take away their right to strike.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve witnessed one of the great political blunders of our generation. Biden\u2019s blatant strike-breaking will have dire consequences for the rest of us. He handed the mainstream and paramilitary far right a huge gift, four weeks after many people breathed a sigh of relief that the Republican victories in the midterm election were limited. The fact that no one in Biden’s cabinet threatened to resign over the decision goes to show how far removed from the lives of working-class people they are and the dynamics of U.S. politics today. The two most likely to dissent, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who is close to the unions, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has presidential ambitions, did Biden\u2019s dirty work<\/a> without any hesitation on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

The hysterical media coverage of a potential impact of a national rail strike was entirely directed at the unions and their memberships not at the big railroad corporations. The last few years have witnessed a small but important resurgence of trade union activity across the United States. A national rail strike would have provided a potent example of the power of logistics workers to bring the economy to a halt, costing an estimated $2 billion a day. Such a powerful display of workers\u2019 power and its potential uplifting impact on the class struggle in the U.S. had to be squelched. Biden\u2019s strike breaking casts a shadow on upcoming national contracts, such as next year\u2019s Teamsters contract with United Parcel Service (UPS), where strike talk<\/a> has been in the air for two years.<\/p>\n

\"An
Rep. Ilhan Omar promises support<\/a> for rail workers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, this doesn\u2019t mean that the labor movement is going to break with the Democrats. The trade union bureaucracy in the U.S. is just too craven and corrupt. Just look at the obsequious behavior of the Teamsters\u2019 \u201cnew, militant, and progressive<\/a>\u201d leadership of Sean O\u2019Brien and Fred Zuckerman. Two rail unions are affiliated with the Teamsters: the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET). O\u2019Brien and Zuckerman welcomed<\/a> the presidential intervention and then told<\/a> their two affiliated rail unions to accept the shitty deal. O\u2019Brien personally attended the Teamsters BLET convention and told<\/a> the delegates to stop whining and talking to outsiders. On the eve of the Senate vote, O\u2019Brien posted an odd video of himself walking in the rain<\/a> in Washington, D.C. talking about how he was fighting for the members.<\/p>\n