Washington's intervention in the Teamsters has nothing to do with concern over corruption. The last thing the U.S. government wants is a democratic union controlled by the ranks.

This government and the two ruling parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, serve the billionaire owners of industry and agriculture, and they will do everything they can get away with to hamstring the labor movement. The employers always prefer a union officialdom that they can cut deals with behind the backs and at the expense of the union ranks. Thievery, bribes, threats - that's how the capitalists themselves operate anyway.

The latest government moves against the Teamsters began just days after the strike victory by 185,000 workers at United Parcel Service in August 1997. Bosses everywhere viewed the Teamsters' victory as a dangerous example for other working people. They put their courts and overseers to work, annulling the 1996 Teamsters election and expelling union president Carey. The purpose: divert workers from their own power, tie their hands in red tape, and send a not-so- subtle warning that if workers act to defend their interests, Washington may intervene against the union and its leadership.

Teamsters members may feel a certain kinship with the Iraqi people these days when they hear about Washington - the same enemy of workers in the United States -demanding that United Nations "inspectors" have free rein to snoop around in Iraq, violating its sovereignty. In the name of "monitoring" weapons, Washington and Wall Street are trying to tell the Iraqi people - and anyone else who conflicts with them - who's boss. It's a reminder that the employers' attacks on workers and farmers abroad will be used against working people at home.

Both groupings in the Teamsters officialdom, those loyal to James Hoffa and Carey alike, play into the hands of the bosses by appealing for U.S. government intervention in order to further their own interests.

The union belongs to the union members alone. Only they should have the right to choose their leadership and to run their union affairs as they see fit. The only road to a democratic, accountable leadership is by workers mobilizing their own power to fight the employer class, and through that, transforming the unions into effective instruments of working-class struggle.  
 
 
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