Sean O’Brien, the president of one of the largest unions in the country, just gave a sixteen-minute speech at the Republican National Convention. While the Teamster leader spoke of the need to strengthen labor law and called out corporations like Amazon, he also praised Trump for “opening the doors to the RNC for labor.” He didn’t bother calling out the union-busting, Wall Street billionaires that are pouring millions into Trump’s campaign.
O’Brien was invited by Trump to speak at the RNC. This is not something the old establishment of the Republican Party would have ever done, but it fits right into Trump’s right-populist playbook: attempting to win over blue-collar workers by abandoning free market economics in favor of protectionism. Both free market economics and protectionism – which right now means restricting trade with China in the context of inter-imperialist competition – are policies designed in the interest of the bosses and imperialist ruling classes, not workers.
Corporate Republicans, always eager to stoke their vendetta against corporate Democrats, gave O’Brien plenty of applause. O’Brien’s reverence for Trump’s bravery was almost exactly the same as multi-billionaire Elon Musk, as if physical bravery is in any way going to cure America’s problems. The Teamster leader’s references to the “American Worker” were greeted with chants of USA-USA-USA: which in Trump’s sphere is anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. Unsurprisingly, there was an awkward silence that followed O’Brien’s reference to Republicans walking picket lines, and O’Brien’s lines attacking anti-union bosses were received in silence.
O’Brien stood in front of a party convention led by utter reactionaries and while defending unions said nothing about their vicious agenda which attacks oppressed people and threatens democratic rights including workers’ rights. But perhaps O’Brien’s most glaring disservice to the working class was his promotion of the idea that neither party is a party of the elites. As literally tens of millions of tech and hedge fund dollars poured into Trump’s campaign since the shooting, O’Brien argued “elites have no party!” The elites have two parties, both tightly tied up by big corporations. This feeds into Trump’s narrative that he speaks for working class people and is opposed to the elites, despite their massive financial embrace of his campaign, and despite Trump being a billionaire himself.
Beholden To Both Parties
O’Brien’s approach stands in stark contrast to other labor leaders, who endorsed Joe Biden before he had even decided to run, despite outrage from the membership who had no say in the decision. But his approach is no better, and in fact extremely dangerous. Whether the Teamsters endorse Trump or not, millions of Teamster members may now think that Trump is not the danger to the working class that he has been his whole life.
The pro-Democrat labor misleaders, on the other hand, are refusing to criticize Biden’s dumpster fire of a campaign: giving union members the choice between a billionaire who claims to be our friend and a worn out politician who can barely string together a sentence.
Shawn Fain, the insurgent candidate who ousted the former leaders of the UAW, led the union through a historic strike victory, and is now carrying out a massive organizing drive of non-union auto workers, took a better approach than most labor leaders. Fain correctly refused to endorse Biden for almost a year longer than other labor leaders, and criticized Biden’s support for the Israeli state’s genocidal war in Gaza. Unfortunately, he has now endorsed Biden, which severely undermines his rhetoric against the billionaire class and undermines the millions of working-class people whose lives will not get better under another Biden presidency.
Teamster president O’Brien also hopes to speak at the Democratic National Convention in August. He emphasizes that the Teamsters are not “beholden to either political party”, but in practice he’s making the union beholden to both. He would likely adopt a similar economic protectionist tone at the DNC. At the RNC, O’Brien said, “What could be more important to the security of our nation than the long-term investment in the American worker?” and “We need trade policies that put America first.”
This populist nationalism essentially ties the fate of American workers and their jobs to the profits of American corporations, which is an alliance the billionaires always break first. It’s also an implicit endorsement of US imperialism ramping up its conflict with Chinese imperialism in Ukraine, in the Middle East and in the Western Pacific, which means more war in which young and working people will be forced to sacrifice their lives. American workers have far more in common with Chinese workers and all workers around the world than we do with the billionaires in our own countries. The political approach put forward by O’Brien is a dead end for working people, and we need an alternative.
Dangers of Trump 2.0
O’Brien and other labor leaders – including those who have endorsed Biden – are deeply underestimating the dangers of a Trump 2.0 administration. You can see this from the way none of them are mobilizing the power of the labor movement to protest against the threat of Trump 2.0, or talking about the need to wage an organized fight to defeat his policies if he is elected.
Trump’s re-election campaign is being backed by more and more billionaires every day. These include Elon Musk, who hates unions and is trying to destroy the union drive at Tesla. It also includes Wall Street hedge fund managers who scammed workers in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis, and then gutted their pensions. As universally popular as ‘draining the swamp’ is, Trump has no intention of draining the swamp – in fact, like his first administration – he will make the swamp lavishly rich.
Trump 2.0 would be a dangerously reactionary regime. He has called for the mass deportation of immigrant workers, which is a threat to the unity of the labor movement and the working class as a whole. To be fair, Biden is also implementing hardline policies at the border, but O’Brien’s approach doesn’t recognize the harm to working class unity of making immigrants America’s scapegoat. Divisions and terror among workers only helps the bosses, and corporations have no hesitation about moving production across borders if they can get away with it and laying off workers if it boosts their bottom line. No politician worries about “border security” when it comes to billionaires hoarding cash in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes.
While Trump has generally avoided talking about abortion, recognizing the right-wing attacks on reproductive rights are deeply unpopular, he also knows his victory depends on support from right-wing, religious conservatives. Trump tried to hide behind the issue making it about “states rights”, but in practice this means the “right” to limit access to abortion. These attacks disproportionately affect working-class women who lack access to healthcare or who can’t afford to travel to get a procedure. A wave of criticism of the women security agents who protected Trump during the shooting in Republican social media is an ominous sign of the anti-women wave they’d love to unleash. None of this benefits the Teamsters.
The Democratic Party Is Also A Dead End
Rejecting Trump does not mean embracing Biden. Biden’s regime has also been deeply reactionary, presiding over historic attacks on immigrant workers, women, trans people, wars and imperialist aggression, and attacks on union members. Biden’s betrayals are the key reason a billionaire landlord/developer like Trump can pose as an outsider alternative. To be clear, when Biden broke the potential for a railroad strike, Teamster president Sean O’Brien “thanked” Biden for his leadership.
The Democratic Party is a party that is funded and controlled by billionaire donors. Like the Republicans, their candidates take cash from big business while making promises to working people, only to consistently betray those promises later. The Democratic Party has taken the lead for imperialism in the Ukraine, Gaza, and Asia. Until recently, unions were in decline for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The union leadership are feeling a bump in optimism based on the huge rise in support for unions. They are beginning to recognize their no-strike policy and refusal to organize the unorganized have been a colossal failure. But they are torn on the way forward; with the right wing pleading, cap in hand, to the bosses to see the benefits of unions, somewhat as O’Brien did at the RNC, and another wing of leaders beginning to conclude that new methods of organization and politics need to be explored. The splits at the top represent the bumpy period the world has entered and the rising anger from below, specifically at price inflation.
The Bosses Have Two Parties – We Need One of Our Own
Backing pro-corporate candidates and hoping for favors later hasn’t worked for workers in the past and it won’t work now. Instead of supporting both corporate parties equally and schmoozing for favors from politicians like Trump and Biden, labor leaders like Sean O’Brien should be fighting to build an independent party, funded exclusively by unions and working people, that fights unapologetically against the billionaire-backers of both corporate parties and the billionaires’ control of society in general.
Union density is at historic lows, but unions still represent tens of millions of workers and donate hundreds of millions of dollars during elections. This offers a viable foundation to build a real workers’ party that can bring in wider layers of society. A genuine workers’ party would fight at the ballot box and the streets, linking the struggle against imperialism, and the heroic struggles of young people against the genocidal war in Gaza, to the fight against the billionaire class as a whole. Bernie Sanders raised tens of millions from ordinary working people while taking no money from corporations during his presidential campaigns thanks to a strong left program, and a real workers’ party could do the same.
Rank-and-file Teamsters who are fed up with politics-as-usual should demand their powerful union of 1.3 million members blaze the way forward for working people, rather than trail the two corporate parties. Indeed, Sean O’Brien won his election with support from reform caucuses like the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. TDU called an emergency meeting to discuss their approach to the elections, which is a good first step. Without an independent approach to elections, which includes preparing to run independent labor candidates, TDU will be effectively on the sidelines.
Billionaires don’t avoid the question of politics, and unions can’t either. However, schmoozing and thanking politicians and the populist right who fundamentally represent billionaires and corporations doesn’t work – Sean O’Brien’s position of supporting both corporate parties doesn’t offer anything new. A majority of Americans are deeply alienated by the two party system, and there is a massive vacuum for real working class politics that can cut across the divide-and-rule tactics that benefit the elites.
No matter what happens in November, billionaires will win the election if working people don’t have a viable alternative. This doesn’t mean workers should waste their vote on Trump or Biden. Every vote wasted on Trump or Biden helps the elites, and therefore every vote for genuine pro-worker independents like the Green Party’s Jill Stein or Cornel West is a vote for something new. However, a protest vote against the two corporate parties isn’t enough. Unions, and union leaders, need to organize a conference to launch a new party that is free from corporate cash, that fights all forms of exploitation and oppression, and unites working people in solidarity against the billionaires. And Sean O’Brien would be welcome to speak there!