CHICAGO — The three tractor trailer trucks were parked on the
massive concrete terrace of Chicago’s McCormick Place convention
center in such a way as to form a mini-amphitheatre. Lake Michigan
opened up as a backdrop. Slogans such as The Rights Which Labor
Has Won, Labor Must Fight to Protect! adorn truck sides, but
so too does the disclaimer, “Private Carrier Not for Hire.” These,
it seems, are the equivalent of a birthday party pony in our host’s
arsenal.
Around the outskirts of the amphitheatre, long lines of people
slowly snake their way past four grilling stations. Free
hamburgers, hotdogs and drinks abound. Light reggae mingles with
the smoky scent of summer food. Let’s start a union/Calling
every human. Revelers spread far and wide until their host
begins to badger. “We can’t start the program until everyone moves
over here,” he says, but even when they come closer he isn’t
satisfied. “Come on, everybody, scoot in.” He shoots a look back at
the photographers and videographers lined up on a riser. He gets a
thumb’s up. He motions for a lackey to straighten the blue and
yellow fabric draping hung along the podium platform. Finished, she
jumps on stage to smooth out a doublewide column of union workers,
rearranging some by height, turning others just so,
putting American flags in the hands of still others.
“Wave it,” she instructs, not unkindly.
The engine of a truck cordoned off to the side begins to rumble,
and the host asks, with a mischievous grin, “Anybody seen Markos?
Anybody seen Jimmy Hoffa?” Loudspeakers blare the opening strains
of AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” The truck lurches forward.
Photographers scramble for better angles. The truck rolls perhaps
50 feet and then off jumps DailyKos founder Markos
Moulitsas, with Teamsters president James P. Hoffa not far
behind.
“Here I am, a skinny nerd on a computer, and I get to drive in
on one of those,” Moulitsas enthuses. “I’m 12 again.”
Welcome to the Teamsters Cookout at YearlyKos 2007. The
photographers and videographers in their embroidered Teamsters
shirts follow Moulitsas’ every move. The Teamsters arrayed behind
him smile winningly. The crowd, as is its frequent wont,
adores.
“It is critical to our people-powered movement that we reach
people wherever they may be,” Moulitsas, in dark jeans and a
blazer, shouts. “Whether it’s online or whether it’s people who are
working getting their hands dirty everyday. My hands are pretty
clean but a lot of people get their hands dirty. They’re not at a
computer. We need those people!”
LABOR’S ATTEMPTED COURTSHIP of the netroots at YearlyKos 2006 was
not nearly as successful as it was this past weekend. They’ve gone
from behaving like awkward kissing cousins to impassioned
newlyweds. Last year not more than 35 people showed to the “Labor
and Power” panel. When one of the speakers asked the crowd who
among them was involved with a union, virtually every hand shot up.
“We can’t win unless you win and you can’t without us,” Chris Chafe
of Unite Here said, but everyone recognized the room was all “we”s
and no “you”s. “I don’t think most of the folks at this conference
appreciate just how big [unionized labor] is,” activist/professor
Joel Rogers groused.
Not long after the conference In These Times quoted the panel’s
moderator Nathan Newman thusly, “The labor movement actually took
YearlyKos very seriously, contributing money to help subsidize
costs and sending top leaders to attend the sessions….I know that
the labor leaders were a bit frustrated that their interest in the
blogosphere was not reciprocated.”
So where was the disconnect?
Labor’s primary problem last year was that it attempted to
arrive on its own terms. Look at all we’ve done and how
indispensable we are, labor tried to say. This is not a
message Kossacks have the slightest interest in. Show up, kiss the
ring, look deep into their eyes longingly and tell them you’ve
never met anyone like them. Snuggle up to their collective
electronic ear and whisper how ecstatic you are they’re running the
show now. This is what they want. And Hoffa? He turned out to be a
real crowd pleaser.
“A lot of you don’t know anybody in the labor movement,” Jimmy
Hoffa told Kossacks. “But that is why we’re meeting today, so we
can start getting to know each other….You are the voice that has
come up and risen out of nowhere. The new voice of America.”
Hey, if Democratic presidential candidates are groveling, why
shouldn’t the ever-weakening heads of Big Labor? Forget puffing out
your union chests and trying to regale computer kids with tales of
union glory you yourself can barely recall. Hoffa’s crew and the
other unions, like the Democrats, have learned their lesson. Sorry,
Teamsters, Kossacks don’t want a flash drive with downloadable
union stats on it. But T-shirts reading Working Class
Blogger? That’s more like it. Gimmicky dog and pony show type
stuff like Take Your Picture With A Teamsters Truck? Even
better. Very popular. There is people power in a blogger’s
union? Get up and say “Amen!” Just don’t mention support for drilling in ANWR or you’ll get growled at
like Hillary Clinton incarnate.
“You guys are tough on everybody and you know what?” Hoffa
continued. “Good for you. Keep being tough. They don’t like you out
there because you make their life uncomfortable. Well, you’re doing
something right when you make their life uncomfortable….Does
anyone here think the system is working right?”
“No!” the crowd shouts.
“Hell no!” Hoffa roars back.
Yet, if the unions have time and cash to fete the leisure class,
the idea of a working class in jeopardy becomes more difficult to
buy into. Did the late James Hoffa Sr. ever have a gig so easy?
CONSIDERING THE COMPANY he was keeping at YearlyKos, it probably
comes as no surprise that Hoffa was not the worst panderer on hand.
“Let’s hear it for the working men and women of the Teamsters!”
Bill Richardson shouted. “Let’s hear it for the new major force in
the Democratic Party — the bloggers!” Must we even note the
audience applauded more loudly for themselves? Yawn. “This is a
natural alliance: The new Democratic Party — the internet and the
bloggers — combining with the great old Democratic Party of labor
unions. This will be a grand coalition.”
The “natural alliance” line was a familiar one. A woman from the
NEA had used the same words while introducing columnist Harold
Meyerson (“one of the most poignant critics of the Bush regime,”
she assured us) and Andy Stern for a lunchtime conversation. The
Service Employees International Union clearly learned the lesson of
YearlyKos 2006. Last year its reps were focused on describing the
tough physical conditions of service employees. This time
Stern, its president, spent much of his time cramming union jargon
into the mold of netroots’ philosophical proclivities and
prejudices. He praised the Chinese government for its progressive
unionization policies (to his credit, Meyerson called him on it),
took the requisite dig at Rupert Murdoch, (jokingly) suggested a
voting moratorium for white males (“the worst progressive voters
around”), and, ultimately, claimed to cheers that unions are “just
a way to redistribute wealth.”
Back at the BBQ, Hoffa’s repeated praise of John Edwards — who
wasn’t on hand — during his introduction of Bill Richardson seemed
to stick in the New Mexico governor’s craw. “Mr. Hoffa and
Teamsters,” Richardson said. “Ask John Edwards if he’d do this: I
will have a union member as Secretary of Labor.” Big cheers. “If
you behave yourself it might be one of you here.” Even bigger
cheers. “I will be a president who will push for the unionization
of the American workforce and the federal government.”
Mike Gravel, on the other hand, didn’t care; he was just going
to talk
about abolishing the federal income tax and creating a national
initiative system, whatever anyone said. Hoffa, seeming to
understand where the real power was, mostly smirked at Gravel
during his speech, even though when Gravel was a senator from
Alaska Teamsters had few better friends than he. (Two very
profitable words for the Teamsters you probably couldn’t say
without Mike Gravel: Alaska Pipeline.) Sorry, old friend,
it’s a new day.
“Revolution baby!” a Kossack on the press riser next to me
snickered as Gravel spoke about the national initiative. Through
sputtering laughter he added, “Power to the people!”
It might be better treatment than Hillary got, yet it is
nevertheless a bit disheartening to watch a crowd of
self-proclaimed revolutionaries, so fervent in the belief that they
are bucking the system, dismiss the one person who shows up and
actually does say buck the system in a
fundamental/foundational way. Not vote for him, mind you.
Just hear him out. I could have said something to the “Revolution,
baby!” guy about the eye of the beholder and all that jazz, but,
really, why bother?
