Union coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama; steelworkers at ATI; and nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, are on strike today, fighting against attacks by their bosses. They set an example to millions of workers and need and deserve solidarity. In the midst of these struggles the so-called World Socialist Web Site says that the workers’ unions are worthless and tells workers to leave them — doing the work of the bosses.
The website is run by a notoriously anti-labor outfit calling itself the Socialist Equality Party. It has nothing to do with the working class. Despite its name, the party has nothing to do with the fight of workers and our allies to defend ourselves on the road to replace capitalist rule with our own power.
The Socialist Equality Party has a long record of trying to demoralize workers involved in labor struggles. It takes advantage of real difficulties facing striking workers and defaults by union leaders in order to promote the bosses’ slander of the labor movement.
In an April 10 article, the World Socialist Web Site celebrates the defeat of efforts by workers at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse to organize a union. They say the union lost because “workers rightly see that these corrupt organizations will do nothing to defend them.”
The same post urges miners on strike at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood to quit their union, the United Mine Workers. An April 7 WSWS article demands steelworkers at ATI break away from their union, the United Steelworkers, claiming it’s “not a workers organization” and “cannot be transformed into one.”
This is the opposite of what is needed to advance workers’ struggles. We need unions. We need them to be stronger and to fight harder. Workers need to discuss how to do that effectively as we build much-needed labor solidarity.
Don’t fall for the WSWS attacks! Workers can solve our own problems, and use our unions to defend ourselves and join in broader struggles.