UE Convention Resolutions
Fight Racism
Racism has no place in society. Racism has no place within the ranks of labor.Racism is the false belief that people are divided into a hierarchy of races, with certain groups inherently superior to others by virtue of genetic inheritance. Scientific evidence demonstrates conclusively that "race" is meaningless as a biological concept. Except for superficial differences, we are all human beings.
Racism is a specific form of discrimination based on the subjugation of one group by another, justified by invented ideas of superiority and inferiority. American racism became the justification for the brutal, legal system of coerced labor called slavery.
Racism is a means by which elites hold onto power through division and delusion.
Racism, with its violence against democracy and decency, continues to be a part of our daily reality, even though great victories have been won during the past half-century. A failure by the labor movement to fight racism, concedes the future to the bosses and blights our brightest hopes for our children and grandchildren.
The persistence of institutional racism today affects all people of color, and is evident in the economic and social disadvantages experienced by African Americans in particular. African American unemployment remains disproportionately high. On average, African Americans are twice as likely to die from disease, accident and homicide as whites. Skin color makes some Americans more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be searched, and more likely to be arrested. African Americans are three times more likely to become prisoners once arrested, and serve longer terms.
Meanwhile, racism is also evident in the not-too-subtle remarks of media commentators and politicians who blame the victims, and not corporate and government policies, for these unnecessary conditions. The victims include African American children, disproportionately born and raised in poverty, and particularly hurt by budget slashers. Promotion of racist thinking through the media goes hand-in-hand with budget cuts in education and social programs, "free trade" deals that accelerate deindustrialization, and attacks on the labor movement, all of which act to perpetuate the second-class status of one segment of our population while hurting the working class as a whole.
Racist ideas fuel the anti-immigrant hysteria directed primarily against Latinos of various national origins, those of Arab origins, and/or those of Muslim religion, have increasingly been targets of racist hostility, and this racism has been used by the Bush administration to promote its military interventions in the Middle East and its attacks on civil liberties in the U.S.
The ban on collective bargaining between government and public sector workers in North Carolina, Virginia and other southern states is an attempt to prevent the growth of unionism and perpetuate the subordinate status of African American workers. These laws are predicated on the outrageous belief that men and women who cook and clean, care for the disabled and ill, haul trash, maintain roads and carry out a myriad of other socially necessary tasks are not good enough to sit at the same table and bargain with those who govern. Public-sector workers organizing in North Carolina have been subjected to lynchings in effigy and other racist outrages.
Progress for working people – in building unions, at the bargaining table, in legislatures – depends upon our ability to achieve and maintain working-class unity. Unity can never be taken for granted; our success ultimately depends upon our success in the fight against racism. Our stand is rooted in our daily experience in the workplace and in the mandate of our UE Constitution for struggle regardless of race, nationality or color. UE members should carry out this policy in every sphere of their lives. But we must recognize that our organization and movement are not immune from the influences of a society permeated by racism. We must consciously work to overcome those influences. Our union and our movement are healthiest and most effective when we actively cultivate leadership from all sectors of our diverse working class.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 70th UE CONVENTION:
- Reaffirms UE’s policy of aggressive struggle against racism and in support of equal rights for all;
- Calls on UE locals to defend our members aggressively against on-the-job discrimination;
- Declares its support of southern workers and their communities’ fight against divisive racist terror and actions in southern workplaces and communities;
- Calls on the leadership of our union at all levels to seek out and encourage the development and election of more minority leaders and the hiring of minority staff;
- Opposes the assault on affirmative action programs;
- Endorses the continuation of workshops on racism and discrimination at all levels of our union;
- Calls for elimination of racial profiling;
- Condemns all attacks on the basis of ethnicity and religion, particularly those on Arab-Americans and Muslims as a consequence of fear;
- Calls on UE locals and the national union to make our members and our communities aware of the increase of hate groups in our country and to provide information to help them to recognize and combat all forms of hate, to expose racism in the media;
- Urges UE regions and locals to set up unity councils on the model pioneered by UE Local 506;
- Demands strict enforcement of existing anti-discrimination laws and just punishment for violation of those laws;
- Condemns as racist the message of media commentators and news media reporting which blames the victims of corporate and governmental policies, and urges the union movement to expose and condemn racially biased and selective reporting.