The tide began to turn against the measure in the days leading up to the California vote. While the large advertising campaign mounted by the U.S. union officialdom against the measure undoubtedly had a big impact on the outcome, something more important was involved. Working people, including those beyond the ranks of the unions, began to smell in this measure deeper employer and government intrusion into the rights of the unions and their members. And they sensed that this attack on the unions was linked to the broader assaults on working people.

Capitalist elections provide a distorted snapshot of class politics. The California vote is no exception. In the United States today elections take place in the framework of contests between two capitalist parties over how to best manage the offensive against working people as part of positioning the employers' class to gain advantages over their counterparts in the other imperialist countries with whom they compete for raw materials and markets.

The trade union officialdom overwhelmingly focuses its electoral activities on trying to maintain influence inside the Democratic Party while occasionally backing a Republican. Millions of working people sit on the sideline during elections and don't vote. The same was true on June 2. But the California vote came at a time when working people on a world scale are accelerating their resistance to the broad-sided offensive by the bosses. This broadening of the working-class response to the capitalist crisis is being expressed on picket lines and through job actions from the McDonald's restaurants in Ohio, to the Appalachian coal fields, to the Titan Tire plant in Des Moines, Iowa. Workers are fighting against the manifestations of the offensive by the wealthy rulers that includes worsening working conditions, break-neck line speed, imposition of longer hours, less days off, and cutbacks in medical coverage.

The California vote on Proposition 226 was for many working people an opportunity to take a stand against the profit drive by the billionaires. It will be understood this way by millions and should be saluted accordingly.

The union officialdom's stance on Prop 226 contrasts sharply with their effort on another California measure-Proposition 227. In this measure, which was adopted by a 61 to 39 percent margin, state-funded bilingual education programs are to be eliminated. The union officialdom paid lip service at best to being opposed to 227.

Backers of 227 pegged their efforts as aiding immigrants by teaching them English and improving schools. Publicity in support of the measure prominently featured Latino spokespeople. The backers of 227 got a hearing among working people, including tens of thousands of Latinos, because many immigrants see learning English as a road to getting a better job. In addition, they see few results emanating from schools where bilingual programs are in effect. But the problem is not bilingual education per se. Education under capitalism is designed to prepare working people for a life of toil in the mines, mills, and factories. Bilingual programs under capitalism are no exception. Measures like Proposition 227, rather than making anything better, will worsen discrimination if they are not resisted. They are designed to deal blows to the rights and confidence of the oppressed. The measure that was passed in California will now make teachers and school officials personally liable if they don't teach classes in English.

Two earlier California ballot measures, Proposition 187 in 1994 and 209 in 1996, also dealt blows to rights of immigrants and to affirmative action . Though both passed, the battle is far from over. Students at the University of California at Los Angeles, for example, have been holding protests in recent days in defense of affirmative action. A protracted battle over bilingual education - which was won in mass struggles in the 1960s and '70s - can now be expected. The actions of students like those at UCLA are showing the way forward to defend the rights of working people. The full weight of the labor movement needs to be mobilized to defend both affirmative action programs and advocate equal rights for immigrants.

The victory for workers registered in the defeat of Proposition 226 is a good omen.  
 
 
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