The Freedom Socialist Party sends this message of deepest appreciation and solidarity with the 49,000 members of United Auto Workers who stayed on strike at GM for 40 days, and drew a line in the sand to demand a better future.
Your struggle against two-tier, perma-temps, plant closures, and continual concessions are the burning issues confronting our class. Your tenacity and readiness to sacrifice was inspiring to organized and unorganized workers everywhere; you showed what solidarity and fighting spirit can achieve.
You sent a clear message to General Motors and Corporate America that organized labor must be reckoned with. You reminded the public that strikes are still a critical weapon in the tool chest of U.S. workers. We know this strike did not achieve all its aims. The plant closure at Lordstown is an outrage given GM’s huge profits. Yet the fact that UAW ranks outlasted deep-pocketed GM to shrink the gap for the lowest-paid, is a tremendous win and will help build unity for future struggles. The solidarity that senior workers showed to the next generation is heartening. And it is thrilling to see Chicago teachers taking the torch now.
Every strike puts forward or backward the working class struggle. The militant UAW sit down strikes in Flint during the 1930s gave birth to the modern day labor movement. The struggles of Black UAW members in the 1960s advanced civil and labor rights. This strike of UAW members at GM, the longest in decades, showed that U.S. workers know what it means to fight!
The Freedom Socialist Party, as an internationalist, multiracial socialist feminist party is committed to supporting your ongoing struggle for a better future and to building solidarity for the next fight in our unions, communities, and organizations where we are actively involved. An injury to one is an injury to all!
