First Published: The Worker, for Hawaii, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
The National Steering Committee of the National United Workers Organization met in November for the first time since the formation of the organization in September. The main topic of discussion at the meeting centered around the two major campaigns the NUWO adopted for the present time at its founding convention; building support for the coal miners as their contract breaks into a major strike, and building the campaign against Carter’s unemployment offensive and for a national demonstration in Washington, B.C. at the time of Carter’s State of the Union address.
The Steering Committee discussed why this contract battle could be such a politically important battle. The discussion brought out how over the past few years miners have been in the front ranks in breaking through the handcuffs the companies, courts and the top union leadership, try to put on workers’ struggles. For the same reasons, and because a “stable” coal labor force is key to their energy crisis plans, the whole capitalist class is hell-bent on smashing the miners and their example.
The Steering Committee decided that the NUWO should mobilize its reserves behind the miners’ strike and build the struggle as powerfully and broadly as possible. As the strike develops, further direction to this campaign will go out from the National Office in Chicago. Preparations began immediately in the form of circulating a letter from the Miners Right to Strike Committee, affiliated with the NUWO, in the various industrial newsletters affiliated with the NUWO.
The NSC emphasized the importance of continuing to expose what Carter’s policies on unemployment have been–cuts in unemployment benefits and workfare plans for welfare recipients and the unemployed–building up to the national demonstration in Washington, D.C. on January 21. The NUWO joined with the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC) in demonstrating in five cities at the end of October under the demands, “We Demand Jobs–Union Jobs at Union Wages” and “Stop the Attacks on Unemployment Insurance!”
The NSC adopted a general resolution to be taken up and discussed in union meetings to make the unions an important arena of struggle. It contained three general points: l)that the local go on record against Carter’s offensive, 2)that the local go on record to support and build for the Jan. 21 demonstration, and 3)that the local take a stand against and fight the AFL-CIO hierarchy on this question. The NUWO will be coming out with a national poster and button with Washington, D.C. as the focus, as part of this campaign.