WASHINGTON—With the AFL-CIO enunciating principles for the future direction of the Democratic Party, but staying out of the race for the organization’s chair, labor leaders who are members of the Democratic National Committee are taking sides between two state party chairs vying for the top job. The 450-member panel’s vote is scheduled for February 1.
On the outside looking in: Activists from Our Revolution, the old Bernie Sanders backers, who claim the party has shut the public out and that it still caters to the corporate donor class. As long as it kowtows to them, Our Revolution said in a call for demonstrators, it will lack the credibility to successfully confront Republican President Donald Trump, his fellow oligarchs, and the corporate class.
Before the session at a conference hotel/resort just outside D.C., Ken Martin, the Minnesota state DFL chair, who claims to be the current front-runner, and his top challenger, Wisconsin Democratic chair Ben Wikler, lined up endorsements. A third prominent contender, former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley emphasizes his experience in turning around disrupted organizations, such as the Social Security Administration’s staff.
A new and late contender, Faiz Shakir, the campaign manager for Sen. Sanders’s two presidential runs and now Executive Director of the pro-labor social media platform More Perfect Union, is running on an openly pro-worker drive.
Martin has three public union supporters—United Food and Commercial Workers President Marc Perrone, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Appelbaum, and Atlanta-North Georgia Central Labor Council President Sandra Williams.
Martin’s advantage is he’s built up the state DFL over the last 15 years. Then, it was disintegrating. Now Minnesota is a blue state, while Wisconsin is purple.
Wisconsin’s Wikler has four heavyweights: Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten, AFSCME President Lee Saunders, National Education Association President Becky Pringle, and Service Employees President April Verrett.
“If the Democratic Party wants to be seen as the party of working families, it is vital for the DNC chair to see unions representing working families as a strategic partner,” the four said.
“Ben (Wikler) articulated a clear vision for how the Democratic Party can work together with labor to build worker power and expand the party’s base to win on the issues that most affect working people, from tackling rising prices for everyday necessities to writing new rules to make it possible for every worker to join a union.
“Ben is a skilled organizer, fundraiser and communicator who understands the need to lift up working-class issues, organize year-round, and reach all corners and people of the country, including a diverse electorate and those who have been ignored for too long.”
The party post is important as a spokesperson for Democrats as a whole, especially when confronting a united Republican regime in D.C. and when congressional Democrats are floundering in their responses to Trump, split between constant opposition to felonious GOP president and his corporate Cabinet cabal, and occasional cooperation.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler flatly rejects any Democratic chair candidate who does not back organized labor’s key goals or is a member of the corporate class.
“We need leaders who listen intently to working people instead of acquiescing to the consultant class and corporate donors whose selfish interests may conflict with the Democratic Party’s ability to engage and mobilize working people across the country,” Shuler said.
“It’s essential the Democratic Party prioritizes the needs and aspirations of working people. Over the past several months, the labor movement engaged directly with those who seek to lead the party going forward to ensure that workers’ issues are at the forefront of the debate about the direction of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Labor stood together
‘Throughout this process, the labor movement stood together to ensure the voices of working people are driving the debate. As a result, working people’s issues have remained front and center as the DNC considers candidates for leadership, an unequivocal victory regardless of whom the party ultimately chooses.”
Martin emphasizes party-building, too. He told MSNBC how he rebuilt the Minnesota DFL, from the ground up, in both infrastructure and candidates, from a low 15 years ago, when it was totally out of power. Minnesota is now considered a “blue” state. Martin’s Wisconsin is “purple” and Trump carried it last year.
“The key is to get the DNC out of D.C. and active in all 57 states and territories,” Martin said. “My old boss”—staunchly progressive and pro-worker Sen. Paul Wellstone, known for organizing—“used to say ‘You run like you’re 20 points behind even if you’re 20 points ahead.’”
That’s not the DNC right now: “On its best day it’s a dysfunctional hot mess.” He added, stating the obvious after Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris: “Finger pointing is high.”
“The goal of any party is to win, not only to win the election but to build long-term infrastructure. This is something the conservative movement has understood for the last 30-40 years: To build power, you have to contest races up and down the ballot.’
Shakir, who entered late, told MSNBC “Our mission is to rebuild trust in people who don’t believe the Democratic Party has been there for them.
“I’ve been waiting for a decade for a working-class party push, and thankfully, we’re now in a moment where a lot of people are talking about it. And that’s good.” “I don’t see anything novel, new, or different to working-class people, and I was let down. …My case to working-class people is you’re going to need somebody to fight for you…You build a grass-roots oriented DNC that says ‘We’re in service of others.’”
“If the Democratic Party wants to be seen as the party of working families, it is vital for the DNC chair to see unions representing working families as a strategic partner,” Saunders, Weingarten, Verrett, and Pringle said.
“Ben (Wikler) has a clear vision for how the Democratic Party can work together with labor to build worker power and expand the base to win on the issues that most affect working people, from tackling rising prices for everyday necessities to writing new rules to make it possible for every worker to join a union.”
The four union leaders called him “a skilled organizer, fundraiser and communicator” who understands working-class issues “and organizes year-round.” He also, they said, can reach “those who have been ignored for too long.”
He also can “fight federal policies that coddle billionaires and do nothing to help the working class,” while uniting Democrats and bringing more working people to its ranks.
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