HOUSTON—Two rousing speakers in two days, Shawn Fain and Kamala Harris. Two foes: The corporate class and the Republicans. One common reaction from American Federation of Teachers convention delegates: A running mix of cheers for them and boos for the opposition.
Welcome to the speeches by UAW President Fain and U.S. Vice President—and prospective Democratic presidential nominee—Harris at the union’s conclave in Houston.
Fain went first, on July 24, and didn’t mince words in attacking the corporate class. He also told the Teachers how UAW beat the bosses in its rolling Stand Up strike against all three Detroit carmakers last year.
“They divide us to keep us weak,” Fain said of both the corporate class and the right wing politicians. “And too many members of the working class are falling for that.”
The way to beat both is “organize against corporate greed.” That’s what UAW did and that’s what teachers and other unionists should do, he recommended.
“Everything is at stake: Our living wages. Living a comfortable life. Adequate health care. Retirement security—60% of our people have no retirement savings…And getting our time back. Working class people are forced to work seven days a week at two or three jobs” to make ends meet.
“We must stand up against violence from the workplace to the community.” And solidarity and unity are vital, Fain said. “Two are better than one. One may be overridden. Two can stand their ground. Three are not easily broken.
“And leave no one behind.”
Harris’s July 25 stem-winder marked her first address to a union audience since she replaced her boss, President Joe Biden, as the party’s presumed nominee this fall. Harris pulled no punches.
Focused on the future
“We’re focused on the future and they’re focused on the past,” Harris declared. Her response, which brought the house down, “Bring it on! Bring it on!”
Though they used different words, Harris and Fain often shared themes. “Donald Trump is a scab!” Fain declared.
“Understand and I say this everywhere I go: You may not be a union member, but you should thank unions,” Harris declared. “I’m looking to the cameras in the back of the room,” Harris said, to laughter.
“To the people who might be watching: You may not be a union member, but thank unions for the five-day workweek, for the eight-hour workday. Thank unions for sick leave and paid family leave and vacation time.
“Because the fact is unions helped build America’s middle class. And when unions are strong, America is strong,” Harris said, to frequent applause. Then she pivoted to blasting the GOP, including its, and Donald Trump’s platform, Project 2025 .
“Ours is a fight for the future. And ours is a fight for freedom. In this moment, across our nation, we witness a full-on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms.
“While you teach students about democracy and representative government, extremists attack the sacred freedom to vote. While you try to create safe and welcoming places where our children can learn, extremists attack our freedom to live safe from gun violence.
“They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom” and “refuse to pass common-sense gun safety laws.” The audience booed.
“And while you to teach students about our nation’s past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history.” Their solution? “Book bans in this year of our Lord 2024.” One audience member yelled “You tell them, President Harris!”
“On these last two issues, just think about it. So we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?
“All the while, these extremists also attack the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. They pass so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws,” in Florida and elsewhere. The audience booed.
Fight for fundamental freedoms
“In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms. And to this room of leaders, I say: Bring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on.” The crowd responded by repeating that chant three times.
“I’m sure, you’ve seen their agenda: Project 2025,” Harris deadpanned. The audience booed. “Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Nine hundred pages in writing.
“Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past. Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies—back to union busting—back to tax breaks for billionaires.” The boos erupted after every phrase of her indictment.
“Donald Trump and his allies want to cut Medicare and Social Security, to stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants. They even want to eliminate the Department of Education and end Head Start—which, of course, would take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children.
“He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill. And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act. Now, think about that: To take us back to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions. Remember what that was like? Children with asthma, women who survived breast cancer, grandparents with diabetes.” All couldn’t get, or couldn’t afford, medical care.
“You know, America has tried these failed economic policies before. But we are not going back. We are not going back.” The applause rang out and continued when Harris declared “One of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice: To protect the freedom to organize, to defend the freedom to collectively bargain, to end union busting.”
Now here’s Fain:
This election “will determine whether we go forward or backward as a nation for generations to come.” Not naming Trump, he added “their lap dog calls desperate and destitute people” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek a better life “rapists and murderers and invaders.”
The corporate class “divides us by race. They divide us by gender. They divide us by who somebody loves. They divide us by where we were born and by what language we speak.”
And the corporate class “creates this crisis” at the border “for a reason: They left the working class behind for decades and they want the working class and they want the working class to have somebody or something to point the finger at for their misery,” which the corporate class inflicts.
“And if that doesn’t work, they point the finger at Black people, at gay people, at somebody from another country.” But all “are human beings, and that’s gotta be the focus of this election.”
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