STEELWORKERS WELCOME STUDENTS
Proving once again that history seldom acts the way it's meant to, one of the most dramatic demonstrations of recent Washington history took place this morning with only one cop and a handful of media in attendance -- as 700 steelworkers gave a warm standing ovation to the student activists in their midst.
From the generational schisms of the 1960s to the hard-hatted Reagan-Democrat antipathies of the 1980s, it has become widely assumed that students and union members are the Serbs and Albanians of American politics. But the sweatshops abroad and the neo-robber barons at home have taken care of that -- to the point that a burly George Becker, International President of the Steelworkers could stand before his members and declare, "These are my sons and granddaughters. This is my family." And the members applauded.
"Every generation has to reestablish itself," said Becker, head of a union that not only organizes steel and aluminum workers, but those in rubber, mining and the chemical industries. The students had been invited to a panel discussion in which young and old activists could talk with each other. Included were veterans of more than 50 campaigns dealing with sweatshop and campus labor issues -- over 30 of them already successful in an explosion of college protest still downplayed by corporate media.
One of the students, junior Negin Almassi of Purdue, which had once crushed a fledgling anti-apartheid movement, said she was there because her classmates who had engaged in a successful hunger and sleep strike hadn't yet recovered from their ordeal. Their protest had been aided by steelworkers who bombarded the university president with calls, in one case lining up at a payphone to dial him, one after another.
Support on campus wasn't universal, however. Some fraternity members brought grills to the protest area to taunt those fasting, but the protesters responded by hugging the frat boys. Said Almassi, "they weren't very good grillers."
One speaker described the college activism as the first student movement to protect workers' rights. And it's not over. Among planned actions: support for 1.5 million women in Bangladesh who work in sweatshops over 100 hours a week and whose leaders have asked for help in obtaining a single day off each week.
Becker pulled few punches. Alluding to the president and his party, he said, "I'm not afraid of my enemies. It's our friends that does us in, it's our friends who betray us." He attacked the World Trade Organization as having working standards so low it would have allowed Nazi Germany to join.
Still, he added, "I can oppose the president and not go to prison, be beaten, or be killed . . . .so far." Each generation must engage in these struggles "over and over and over. Each generation is tested again and again on its resolve." As for the generation of students represented in the hall, he remarked, "We know that when we pass the mantle, it will be in good hands."