I think you need to define productive labor for us. I assume it is a very
narrow definition which means that workers must produce a tangible product
and not a service. So a bank teller, who is employed by a bank which is
part of the ruling structure, isn't a worker? That police officer might
break up a fight by two guys in the street. If he did that, he wouldn't be
defending the bosses' property and sysstem of exploitation. He might stop a
husband from battering his wife. He might, as one young man did in Manhattan
many years ago, walk with two blind people to their destination, just as a
kindness. He might knock on someone's door in Westbury if it was after 11
p.m. and there was a lot of loud music spilling into the residential
neighborhood from the person's house, and a neighbor called, complaining.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 8:09 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police
Union's Membership |
There is no conundrum. A cop's sole purpose is defending the bosses'
property and system of exploitation. A cop performs no productive labor.
That places him outside the working class and in opposition to it. A cop is
merely a part of the violent structure that makes up the bourgeois state.
On 8/3/2015 10:41 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Now here's a real conundrum.cops'
An individual cop is a working stiff. Paid like a working stiff.
Working conditions that are not any better nor worse than most working
stiffs.
But like a military unit, a police unit is sworn to obey the commands
of its commanding officer. When the Chief orders the officers to set
up a line and drive back any who attempt to cross, or to use tear gas
to break up a picket line, the individual cop has no choice if he/she
is to continue supporting his/her family.
The Chief is not speaking for the Unit. He is following the Law as
written by the City Fathers. The Law is not established with the
picketers in mind. Nor are the Laws written with the police officers
in mind. They are written to protect the interests, mostly the
financial interests, of the City Fathers. So the individual cop is
caught in the jaws of a giant dilemma. Is he/she a working stiff? Or
is he/she an arm of the Ruling Class? Of course the answer is, both
of the above. The cop is treated like any other civil servant or any
casual laborer. Yet much of the time they are called upon to turn on
their fellow workers. So in order to maintain their sanity they
develop. distance between themselves and the rest of the Working
Class. Because they must enforce the Ruling Classes Laws, Cops come
to believe that they are superior to their neighbors. And, even as
they are receiving a Working Class wage, they are mimicking the ways
of their Ruling Class Bosses. If the Boss is above the Law, why not
the cop who protects him? If the Boss accepts bribes, why shouldn't
the cop take a little extra in order to make life better for his/her
family?
If the Boss gets away with murder, hiring high priced lawyers to
defend himself, why shouldn't the cop have the same privileges?
Frankly, I would agree that while police are actually Working Stiffs,
they should not be part of the AFL/CIO Union. I would not want the US
Marine Corps to be part of such a labor union either. Again, treated
like dirt, like working stiffs, paid crap wages, they certainly should
be organized and demanding better treatment for the job they are
ordered to perform. But they are set in place to protect the
interests of the American Empire, not the Working Man/Woman.
Individually they are simple, lowly workers. But collectively they
are a tool of the Establishment, and can turn on their fellow workers
if it suits the Empire's needs.
And just for the sake of making the waters even muddier, how can
unions like the Boeing Machinists belong to a national labor union
while they are busy cranking out weapons of mass destruction? While
we sit around pissing about cops being unfit to belong to our great
Labor Unions, how do you think the families around the world, looking
at the body parts of their loved ones splattered by Boeing built
Drones, feel. Do you think they see American Cops any differently
than they see an Aeromachinist?
Carl Jarvis
On 8/2/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So you think that all working people should unite?
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership |
PopularResistance.Org
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership |
PopularResistance.Org frame popularresistance.org
https://www.popularresistance.org/uc-unions-call-on-afl-cio-to-termin
ate-pol
ice-unions-membership/
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership
Citing a "long history of police intervention in labor politics
and its complicity in racial violence," the UAW members say they
want the cops'
union out of the country's largest labor federation. (Ben Musseig /
Flickr)
Citing a "long history of police intervention in labor politics and
its complicity in racial violence," the UAW members say they want the
cruelty in all their forms."union out of the country's largest labor federation. (Ben Musseig /
Flickr)
United Auto Workers Local 2865, the union representing 13,000
teaching assistants and other student workers throughout the
University of California, called on the AFL-CIO to end its
affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations
(IUPA) in a resolution passed by its governing body on July 25.
The resolution came in the wake of a letter written by the UAW's
Black Interests Coordinating Committee (BICC). The group formed in
December 2014 in response to the acquittals of police officers in the
deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner and is largely inspired by
recent actions in the Black Lives Matter movement. With the letter,
BICC aims to "start a really difficult conversation that the labor
movement has had in the past and needs to continue to have around the
intersections of race and labor, economic privation and racial
disparity," according to BICC member Brandon Buchanan, a graduate
student currently studying Sociology at UC Davis who serves as Head
Steward.
The letter charges that police associations operate in ways that are
antithetical to the mission statement of the AFL-CIO, particularly
its stated goal "to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for
liberty, justice and community; to advance individual and
associational freedom; [and] to vanquish oppression, privation and
American police acting as a "violent supressive force."
It provides historical evidence to its allegations, saying, "Police
unions in particular emerge out of a long history of police
intervention in labor politics and its complicity in racial
violence," before referencing deadly disputes with activist workers
in the 19th century, the defense of Jim Crow segregation, the
lobbying that enabled the circumstances of Freddie Gray's death and
the crackdown on the Occupy movement across the country as examples of
accountability.
The letter can be read in full below:
block quote
We, UAW Local 2865, call on the American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to end their
affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations. It
is our position that this organization is inimical to both the
interests of labor broadly, and Black workers in particular.
Historically and contemporarily, police unions serve the interests of
police forces as an arm of the state, and not the interests of police
as laborers. Instead, their "unionization" allows police to
masquerade as members of the working-class and obfuscates their role
in enforcing racism, capitalism, colonialism, and the oppression of
the working-class. We ask that the AFL-CIO recognize this history and
take steps to serve the interests of its Black workers and community
members.
Background:
The AFL-CIO's official mission is
"to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for liberty, justice and
community; to advance individual and associational freedom; [and] to
vanquish oppression, privation, and cruelty in all their forms."
This, we argue, is the calling of a union to be a force for advancing
the lives of workers. Within this framework, police unions fail to
meet the criteria of a union or a valid part of the labor movement.
While it is true that police are workers, and thus hypothetically
subject to the same kinds of exploitation as other laborers, they are
also the militarized, coercive arm of the state. It is the job of the
police to protect capital and, consequently, maintain class society.
How can there ever be solidarity between law enforcement and the
working class when elites call upon police and their organizations to
quell mass resistance to poverty and inequality? The police force
exists solely to uphold the status quo.
Their material survival depends on it, and they hold a vested
interest in the preservation and expansion of the most deplorable
practices of the state.
Present Day:
We have seen this vested interest manifest itself very visibly over
the past year. By calling themselves a union, police have utilized
union resources to defend brutality and anti-Blackness. Police unions
channel resources towards upholding racist practices in a few key
ways:
list of 3 items
Lobbying to oppose independent oversight by civilians and other
governmental entities.
Campaigning for political actors who support limited police
overwhelmingly.Defending officers' crimes of racist brutality in court.
list end
These elements have clearly shaped the context that enabled the
tragic circumstances of Freddie Gray's death and speak to the
contemporary moment in which Black lives are considered less
important than job protection for police. Advocated for by the police
union, The Maryland Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights (LEOBoR)
aims to protect the rights of officers above the needs of the
community. In cases where police misconduct is reported, such as in
instances of "rough rides," police officers do not have to answer
questions until 10 days have passed and a lawyer has been consulted.
Subsequently, the overall review process outlined by the LEOBoR
empowers a hearing board of fellow officers to have final approval
over any penalties imposed upon accused officers-this has resulted in
the preservation of employment for nearly all accused officers
despite the
3,048
complaints have been filed against 850 Baltimore PD officers (30% of
its police force) since 2012. If complaints do manage to make it
past this extra layer of due process, union legal resources are used
to defend the officers against charges of racist misconduct in court.
By unconditionally insulating officers accused of brutality from
facing consequences, police unions maintain the status quo of racial
violence that upholds the exploitation of Black communities in
particular, as well as other communities of color.
Historical Evidence:
We recognize that these are not isolated incidents, but arise from a
long history of policing as a profession. Police unions in particular
emerge out of a long history of police intervention in labor politics
andits complicity in racial violence. The modern U.S. institution of
the police has roots in the repressive demands of powerful white
capitalists. Overseers and slave patrols in the South evolved
alongside the growing need to maintain "order"
in early urban areas in the North. In fact, armed "night watches"
mirrored policing practices by being a front line of defense against
Native American raids on colonies. Policing in the U.S. has always
served the needs of colonialism, racism, and capitalism by protecting
the property of those who would steal land and exploit the labor of
others. Neither the property of indigenous people nor the products of
the labor of both workers and slaves has ever come under protection
of the institution of the police. It has only ever been the property
of the powerful that the police protect. Maintaining this system of
relations is the so called "order" that police have sworn to defend.
In fact, early attempts by labor to organize and fight for rights and
better pay and working conditions have historically been met with
violence. These instances are many: from picket line fights to police
enforced lock-outs; from crackdowns on rallies, like the Thompson
Square "riot" of 1874 at a rally for the unemployed in New York City,
when police indiscriminately brutalized men, women, and children; to
massacres committed by private police, like the two dozen men, women,
and children killed in the Ludlow Massacre; and by public police,
notably during the Haymarket Massacre we commemorate every year on
May Day.
Modern examples exist as well: police played a significant role in
defending Jim Crow segregation. We have all seen the images and video
of police siccing dogs on Black protesters, shooting them with water
cannons, or billy clubbing them. Racist violence was not confined to
the pre-Civil Rights South; Philadelphia police bombed the
headquarters of Black radical organization MOVE in 1985, killing 11
people, including children. Recall also the assassination of Fred
Hampton, leader of the Black Panther Party, by the Chicago PD in
collaboration with the FBI. Very recently, the nationally-coordinated
effort to crack down on and ultimately destroy the Occupy movement
involved police departments across the country working in unison to
stop the most effective modern social movement in opposition to
economic inequality. American police as an institution have
historically been and continue to be the violent supressive force
used to maintain a white supremacist capitalist system on settler
colonial land. If labor is to ever truly exert its power and
challenge the corporate rule of the U.S., we will need to break the
illusion that the police are part of the family of unions that make
up organized labor.
Conclusion:
The AFL-CIO is an organization truly concerned with issues facing the
laborers of America today. The history of policing and its use of
union resources to silence those who are harmed by police brutality
runs contrary to this mission statement. As Shawn Gude recently put
it, to become agents of progressive change and labor solidarity,
police unions would need to work actively to negate their own power
and abolish the police. We endorse this position, and call on the
AFL-CIO to do so as well. As a union, we argue that the International
Union of Police Associations fails to adhere to the goals of the
Federation, and therefore should not be included in the list of
unions which are fighting for worker's rights.
block quote end
The letter was presented by Buchanan on behalf of BICC to the joint
council of UAW Local 2865, the local's governing board. According to
Buchanan, the letter and its call to the AFL-CIO were endorsed
says.
"The AFL-CIO is an enormous part of the labor movement. It has a lot
of say, it influences elections, it is an organization which serves
to build a lot of solidarity between a number of different unions,"
Buchanan told In These Times. "But at the same time, one of the
things that we noticed is that it also has these police associations
which are a part of it-police associations who have consistently
worked not necessarily in the interest of workers, in particular
black workers, but instead have upheld a capitalist status quo as
well as white supremacy."
The endorsed letter echoes the sentiment made by Shawn Gude last year
at
Jacobin:
block quote
When there's mass resistance to poverty and inequality, it's the cops
who are summoned to calm the panic-stricken hearts of the elite. They
bash some heads, or infiltrate and disrupt some activist groups, and
all is right in the world again.
Such is the inherent defect of law-enforcement unionism: It's peopled
by those with a material interest in maintaining and enlarging the
state's most indefensible practices.
block quote end
Earlier this year, in an article entitled "Blood On Their Hands: The
Racist History of Modern Police Unions," human rights attorney Flint
Taylor gave an overview of such sordid practices for In These Times.
Buchanan says that while the endorsement came with an overwhelming
majority of the governing board voting in favor, there was concern
from certain members who questioned whether the endorsement would
alienate those who had relationships with people in the police force.
"This is not about individuals. We're not talking about or calling
out individual people. We're calling out structures of power,"
Buchanan stresses in response. "We're not saying that [police
officers] are individually bad.
But what we're talking about is things like vilifying black bodies to
protect police officers who brutalize and kill black people and then
get away with it with the support of these police associations."
UAW 2865's governing body made similar waves with its activist streak
last year when it became the first American local to endorse the
global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against
Israel.
While numerous American unions have held actions against police
brutality in the past year (such as the May Day port shutdowns by
ILWU Local 10 in Oakland and ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, South
Carolina), UAW 2865 is the first local to explicitly call for
disassociation between police unions and the rest of organized labor
currently operating under the umbrella of the national federation.
In a story detailing the history of police unions and organized labor
for Al Jazeera America in December, Ned Resnikoff reported that an
AFL-CIO spokesperson downplayed any tension between the two sides,
saying, "The AFL-CIO is like any family. . With 57 affiliated unions
and a diversity of membership there is bound to be some disagreement."
Buchanan believes that disaffiliation between the AFL-CIO and IUPA
would mean that the IUPA would lose legitimacy as an organization and
thus transfer AFL-CIO support from police associations and instead
towards people of color and their communities, who he says have been
traditionally locked out of organizing spaces.
"It's a question of legitimacy. Having [the AFL-CIO] disaffiliate
demonstrates that if our union organizing is meant to address the
interests of workers-and black workers are included in that-then
these police associations are inimical to those interests," Buchanan
cops'UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police UniUC Unions Call On
AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership |
PopularResistance.Org pf-core frame list of 3 items Print PDF Email
list end list of 3 items 100% Text Size Remove Images Remove Images
Undo list end Close
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership |
PopularResistance.Org frame popularresistance.org
https://www.popularresistance.org/uc-unions-call-on-afl-cio-to-termin
ate-pol
ice-unions-membership/
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union's Membership
Citing a "long history of police intervention in labor politics
and its complicity in racial violence," the UAW members say they
want the cops'
union out of the country's largest labor federation. (Ben Musseig /
Flickr)
Citing a "long history of police intervention in labor politics and
its complicity in racial violence," the UAW members say they want the
cruelty in all their forms."union out of the country's largest labor federation. (Ben Musseig /
Flickr)
United Auto Workers Local 2865, the union representing 13,000
teaching assistants and other student workers throughout the
University of California, called on the AFL-CIO to end its
affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations
(IUPA) in a resolution passed by its governing body on July 25.
The resolution came in the wake of a letter written by the UAW's
Black Interests Coordinating Committee (BICC). The group formed in
December 2014 in response to the acquittals of police officers in the
deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner and is largely inspired by
recent actions in the Black Lives Matter movement. With the letter,
BICC aims to "start a really difficult conversation that the labor
movement has had in the past and needs to continue to have around the
intersections of race and labor, economic privation and racial
disparity," according to BICC member Brandon Buchanan, a graduate
student currently studying Sociology at UC Davis who serves as Head
Steward.
The letter charges that police associations operate in ways that are
antithetical to the mission statement of the AFL-CIO, particularly
its stated goal "to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for
liberty, justice and community; to advance individual and
associational freedom; [and] to vanquish oppression, privation and
American police acting as a "violent supressive force."
It provides historical evidence to its allegations, saying, "Police
unions in particular emerge out of a long history of police
intervention in labor politics and its complicity in racial
violence," before referencing deadly disputes with activist workers
in the 19th century, the defense of Jim Crow segregation, the
lobbying that enabled the circumstances of Freddie Gray's death and
the crackdown on the Occupy movement across the country as examples of
accountability.
The letter can be read in full below:
block quote
We, UAW Local 2865, call on the American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to end their
affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations. It
is our position that this organization is inimical to both the
interests of labor broadly, and Black workers in particular.
Historically and contemporarily, police unions serve the interests of
police forces as an arm of the state, and not the interests of police
as laborers. Instead, their "unionization" allows police to
masquerade as members of the working-class and obfuscates their role
in enforcing racism, capitalism, colonialism, and the oppression of
the working-class. We ask that the AFL-CIO recognize this history and
take steps to serve the interests of its Black workers and community
members.
Background:
The AFL-CIO's official mission is
"to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for liberty, justice and
community; to advance individual and associational freedom; [and] to
vanquish oppression, privation, and cruelty in all their forms."
This, we argue, is the calling of a union to be a force for advancing
the lives of workers. Within this framework, police unions fail to
meet the criteria of a union or a valid part of the labor movement.
While it is true that police are workers, and thus hypothetically
subject to the same kinds of exploitation as other laborers, they are
also the militarized, coercive arm of the state. It is the job of the
police to protect capital and, consequently, maintain class society.
How can there ever be solidarity between law enforcement and the
working class when elites call upon police and their organizations to
quell mass resistance to poverty and inequality? The police force
exists solely to uphold the status quo.
Their material survival depends on it, and they hold a vested
interest in the preservation and expansion of the most deplorable
practices of the state.
Present Day:
We have seen this vested interest manifest itself very visibly over
the past year. By calling themselves a union, police have utilized
union resources to defend brutality and anti-Blackness. Police unions
channel resources towards upholding racist practices in a few key
ways:
list of 3 items
Lobbying to oppose independent oversight by civilians and other
governmental entities.
Campaigning for political actors who support limited police
overwhelmingly.Defending officers' crimes of racist brutality in court.
list end
These elements have clearly shaped the context that enabled the
tragic circumstances of Freddie Gray's death and speak to the
contemporary moment in which Black lives are considered less
important than job protection for police. Advocated for by the police
union, The Maryland Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights (LEOBoR)
aims to protect the rights of officers above the needs of the
community. In cases where police misconduct is reported, such as in
instances of "rough rides," police officers do not have to answer
questions until 10 days have passed and a lawyer has been consulted.
Subsequently, the overall review process outlined by the LEOBoR
empowers a hearing board of fellow officers to have final approval
over any penalties imposed upon accused officers-this has resulted in
the preservation of employment for nearly all accused officers
despite the
3,048
complaints have been filed against 850 Baltimore PD officers (30% of
its police force) since 2012. If complaints do manage to make it
past this extra layer of due process, union legal resources are used
to defend the officers against charges of racist misconduct in court.
By unconditionally insulating officers accused of brutality from
facing consequences, police unions maintain the status quo of racial
violence that upholds the exploitation of Black communities in
particular, as well as other communities of color.
Historical Evidence:
We recognize that these are not isolated incidents, but arise from a
long history of policing as a profession. Police unions in particular
emerge out of a long history of police intervention in labor politics
andits complicity in racial violence. The modern U.S. institution of
the police has roots in the repressive demands of powerful white
capitalists. Overseers and slave patrols in the South evolved
alongside the growing need to maintain "order"
in early urban areas in the North. In fact, armed "night watches"
mirrored policing practices by being a front line of defense against
Native American raids on colonies. Policing in the U.S. has always
served the needs of colonialism, racism, and capitalism by protecting
the property of those who would steal land and exploit the labor of
others. Neither the property of indigenous people nor the products of
the labor of both workers and slaves has ever come under protection
of the institution of the police. It has only ever been the property
of the powerful that the police protect. Maintaining this system of
relations is the so called "order" that police have sworn to defend.
In fact, early attempts by labor to organize and fight for rights and
better pay and working conditions have historically been met with
violence. These instances are many: from picket line fights to police
enforced lock-outs; from crackdowns on rallies, like the Thompson
Square "riot" of 1874 at a rally for the unemployed in New York City,
when police indiscriminately brutalized men, women, and children; to
massacres committed by private police, like the two dozen men, women,
and children killed in the Ludlow Massacre; and by public police,
notably during the Haymarket Massacre we commemorate every year on
May Day.
Modern examples exist as well: police played a significant role in
defending Jim Crow segregation. We have all seen the images and video
of police siccing dogs on Black protesters, shooting them with water
cannons, or billy clubbing them. Racist violence was not confined to
the pre-Civil Rights South; Philadelphia police bombed the
headquarters of Black radical organization MOVE in 1985, killing 11
people, including children. Recall also the assassination of Fred
Hampton, leader of the Black Panther Party, by the Chicago PD in
collaboration with the FBI. Very recently, the nationally-coordinated
effort to crack down on and ultimately destroy the Occupy movement
involved police departments across the country working in unison to
stop the most effective modern social movement in opposition to
economic inequality. American police as an institution have
historically been and continue to be the violent supressive force
used to maintain a white supremacist capitalist system on settler
colonial land. If labor is to ever truly exert its power and
challenge the corporate rule of the U.S., we will need to break the
illusion that the police are part of the family of unions that make
up organized labor.
Conclusion:
The AFL-CIO is an organization truly concerned with issues facing the
laborers of America today. The history of policing and its use of
union resources to silence those who are harmed by police brutality
runs contrary to this mission statement. As Shawn Gude recently put
it, to become agents of progressive change and labor solidarity,
police unions would need to work actively to negate their own power
and abolish the police. We endorse this position, and call on the
AFL-CIO to do so as well. As a union, we argue that the International
Union of Police Associations fails to adhere to the goals of the
Federation, and therefore should not be included in the list of
unions which are fighting for worker's rights.
block quote end
The letter was presented by Buchanan on behalf of BICC to the joint
council of UAW Local 2865, the local's governing board. According to
Buchanan, the letter and its call to the AFL-CIO were endorsed
says.
"The AFL-CIO is an enormous part of the labor movement. It has a lot
of say, it influences elections, it is an organization which serves
to build a lot of solidarity between a number of different unions,"
Buchanan told In These Times. "But at the same time, one of the
things that we noticed is that it also has these police associations
which are a part of it-police associations who have consistently
worked not necessarily in the interest of workers, in particular
black workers, but instead have upheld a capitalist status quo as
well as white supremacy."
The endorsed letter echoes the sentiment made by Shawn Gude last year
at
Jacobin:
block quote
When there's mass resistance to poverty and inequality, it's the cops
who are summoned to calm the panic-stricken hearts of the elite. They
bash some heads, or infiltrate and disrupt some activist groups, and
all is right in the world again.
Such is the inherent defect of law-enforcement unionism: It's peopled
by those with a material interest in maintaining and enlarging the
state's most indefensible practices.
block quote end
Earlier this year, in an article entitled "Blood On Their Hands: The
Racist History of Modern Police Unions," human rights attorney Flint
Taylor gave an overview of such sordid practices for In These Times.
Buchanan says that while the endorsement came with an overwhelming
majority of the governing board voting in favor, there was concern
from certain members who questioned whether the endorsement would
alienate those who had relationships with people in the police force.
"This is not about individuals. We're not talking about or calling
out individual people. We're calling out structures of power,"
Buchanan stresses in response. "We're not saying that [police
officers] are individually bad.
But what we're talking about is things like vilifying black bodies to
protect police officers who brutalize and kill black people and then
get away with it with the support of these police associations."
UAW 2865's governing body made similar waves with its activist streak
last year when it became the first American local to endorse the
global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against
Israel.
While numerous American unions have held actions against police
brutality in the past year (such as the May Day port shutdowns by
ILWU Local 10 in Oakland and ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, South
Carolina), UAW 2865 is the first local to explicitly call for
disassociation between police unions and the rest of organized labor
currently operating under the umbrella of the national federation.
In a story detailing the history of police unions and organized labor
for Al Jazeera America in December, Ned Resnikoff reported that an
AFL-CIO spokesperson downplayed any tension between the two sides,
saying, "The AFL-CIO is like any family. . With 57 affiliated unions
and a diversity of membership there is bound to be some disagreement."
Buchanan believes that disaffiliation between the AFL-CIO and IUPA
would mean that the IUPA would lose legitimacy as an organization and
thus transfer AFL-CIO support from police associations and instead
towards people of color and their communities, who he says have been
traditionally locked out of organizing spaces.
"It's a question of legitimacy. Having [the AFL-CIO] disaffiliate
demonstrates that if our union organizing is meant to address the
interests of workers-and black workers are included in that-then
these police associations are inimical to those interests," Buchanan
UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Uni
