The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.40           November 17, 1997 
 
 
Fight For Affirmative Action  
Defend and extend affirmative action! That should be a rallying cry for the labor movement and all supporters of the rights of women and oppressed nationalities in the United States.

Affirmative action - an important gain of the massive battles for Black rights and women's rights - is under increasing attack. The Supreme Court decided November 3 to let stand the grossly misnamed "California Civil Rights Initiative," or Proposition 209, which bans affirmative action programs for hiring and education in all government institutions in California. Similar measures are under consideration in 26 other states. They are part of the employers drive to impose harsher antilabor measures to defend their profits and of the social polarization that marks this period of capitalist disorder.

A battle over this question is unfolding, however.

In Houston, Texas, Proposition A, copied from California's measure, was just defeated in the polls. The labor movement needs to make its business working to defeat any other such measures around the country.

The fight to defend affirmative action must be taken directly into the only mass organizations of the working class - the unions. The end of the retreat of the working class and the uptick in the defensive struggles by the unions, from the UPS strike to the transit workers walkout in San Francisco and the recent tug-of-war between rail workers and Amtrak, make this more possible.

A growing number of workers are waking up to their class interests, which do not lie in seeking privileges for some. More workers today can understand the political economy of discrimination - that discrimination does not mean an extra buck for some workers at the expense of women or oppressed nationalities; instead it drags the whole class down in terms of real wages and job conditions, and saps the collective ability to fight back against the bosses. More workers can understand that affirmative action is not charity to make up for the past, nor a morally correct position but materially disadvantageous to males and whites.

Affirmative action was instituted to address the historic discrimination of women, Blacks, Chicanos, or Puerto Ricans. Despite past gains, these divisions are very much a reality today. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in September that weekly earnings of full-time working women were just 75 percent of the men's median, down from 77 percent four years ago. Unemployment is much higher among Blacks than white workers, and living conditions are qualitatively worse in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

The labor movement must champion demands to fight this inequality and build working-class unity. Affirmative action must be at the top of the list.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home