Harris-Walz ticket makes historic campaign launch at UAW union hall

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, with Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, left, and Shawn Fain, right, speaks at a campaign rally at UAW Local 900, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Wayne, Michigan. | Julia Nikhinson/AP

The members of UAW Local 900 made history again last week, crowded into their union hall to welcome union brother Tim Walz and lifelong union supporter Kamala Harris as they launched their presidential campaign.  The turnout of members was big following their Stand Up strike almost a year ago that resulted in winning a breakthrough contract with the big three auto companies.

UAW president Shawn Fain welcomed the first-ever presidential campaign launch in a union hall as an epic battle between two who walked the picket lines, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz, and union buster Donald Trump.

Crediting unions for the weekend, five-day work week, and vacations, Harris made the connection between a national sense of community and collective bargaining. “We’re not falling for those folks who are trying to divide us, trying to separate us, trying to pull us apart,” she vowed.

“There’s a suggestion that somehow strength is about making people feel small, feel alone,” Harris said. “But isn’t that the opposite of what we know?  Unions know how to be strong. It’s about the collective,” she emphasized.  “It’s about understanding that one should never be made to fight alone. That we are all in this together.”

Upholding the right to collective bargaining she said, “In a negotiation, don’t we all believe the outcome should be fair? But if one person faces off against a big company, how’s that outcome gonna be fair? We want fairness and dignity for all. Our campaign is about ‘We trust the people. We see the people. We know the people.’”

Indeed that trust results from the fact that the Harris-Walz campaign is a critically important part of a historic anti-MAGA coalition that represents the hopes, the aspirations, and the demands of the broadest sectors of the U.S. population, mobilizing in defense of all democratic rights.

Listed priorities

Harris listed the priorities she plans to achieve should she win including expansion of child care, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, and preserving the Affordable Care Act.  Strongly she declared support for a national right to abortion – a right, she reminded the crowd, that Trump’s three Supreme Court justices helped overturn two years ago.

Although not mentioned in the rally, while supporting Harris the UAW is also in the forefront of demanding an immediate ceasefire and end to aid to Israel in the war on Gaza and Palestine.

Along with almost every union in the country, every major civil rights organization is on board with the anti-MAGA campaign to elect Harris as the first woman and first Black and  South Asian woman in the White House.

Women’s organizations are also deeply involved with every major reproductive rights group battling Trump and pushing for the election of Harris.

Major groups battling for the environment and for climate justice, including the Sierra Club and many more, have endorsed and are active in convincing their members to participate. Advocates of the Green New Deal, which includes the youth-oriented Sunrise Movement, have endorsed Harris.

Major Latino organizations, including LULAC, are active in the campaign. Never before in its 95-year history has LULAC endorsed a presidential candidate.  Also new among electoral coalitions in the country is South Asians for Harris.

Also on board with the anti-MAGA coalition is every major anti-gun violence organization and most of the well-known groups advocating for LGBTQ rights.

Reflective of only what a massive anti-MAGA coalition can do are the millions who have gotten on historic Zoom calls including African-American women and men and white women and white men.  Too many to mention are the countless youth organizations, motivated more than ever now, who are joining the effort and with them sports celebrities, musicians, and Hollywood actors and performers.

Among the most influential and important of the anti-MAGA forces on board are more than 15,000 Black religious leaders, ministers and priests, and the Evangelicals for Harris too. Also, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and other religious organizations are involved.

All of this has led to the signing up of tens of thousands of volunteers to fan out across the country. It is the existence of this massive labor-led anti-MAGA coalition that explains in large part how, in only a matter of weeks, the Harris-Walz campaign has Donald Trump and the fascists on their heels.

The task now is to hold this coalition together to get the maximum voter turnout and then, for the sake of the country, keep it together after the election.

The members of Local 900 vowed that as they organized in 90 days last year for their contract, they would go all out to speak with their members, families, and friends in the 90 days to the election.

“When We Fight Together We Win Together” was the chant.

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Wojcik

John Wojcik is Editor-in-Chief of People's World. He joined the staff as Labor Editor in May 2007 after working as a union meat cutter in northern New Jersey. There, he served as a shop steward and a member of a UFCW contract negotiating committee. In the 1970s and '80s, he was a political action reporter for the Daily World, this newspaper's predecessor, and was active in electoral politics in Brooklyn, New York.

Joelle Fishman

Joelle Fishman chairs the Connecticut Communist Party USA. She is an active member of many local economic rights and social justice organizations. As chair of the national CPUSA Political Action Commission, she plays an active role in the broad labor and people's alliance and continues to mobilize for health care, worker rights, and peace. Joelle Fishman preside el Partido Comunista de Connecticut USA. Es miembro activo de muchas organizaciones locales de derechos económicos y justicia social. Como presidenta de la Comisión Nacional de Acción Política del CPUSA, desempeña un papel activo en la amplia alianza laboral y popular y continúa movilizándose por la atención médica, los derechos de los trabajadores y la paz.