Simply stated and well said.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Monday, August 3, 2015 11:26 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: UC Unions Call On AFL-CIO To Terminate Police
Union's Membership |
Productive labor is labor that produces something of value. Bullying people is
not productive.
On 8/3/2015 10:23 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
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-termi
n
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-termi
n
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
