https://vimeo.com/428838549

Marches in Michigan's mostly white suburbs and small towns in support of the protests against police brutality could have a large impact on the struggle of autoworkers, says veteran union leader and activist Frank Hammer on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, I’m Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast.

If the movement in the streets is going to be a mass movement with sustainability and power to bring about transformative change, the working class—particularly the unionized working class, which includes workers of all colors—needs to wake up and fight for progressive politics, including within their own unions.

Most of the major unions, but not all, have allied themselves with corporate Democrats and have been a force for the status quo rather than real change. On theAnalysis.news, we’re going to pay a lot of attention to the struggles inside the unions to elect a leadership that actually represents the workers and not just feathers the nests of an elite stratum of union officials. Perhaps the most critical struggle that workers and unions must take up is for a Green New Deal that addresses the urgency of the climate crisis.

My guest today has been involved in this struggle for decades. He’s been a leader in raising the issues of the climate crisis within the context of the economic and immediate labor struggles. Frank Hammer was based in Detroit for over 50 years as a labor activist and leader, fighting for social and environmental justice.

He’s a former president and bargaining chair of UAW Local 909 and General Motors at Warren, Michigan. And he’s a retired UAW–GM international representative. He’s cofounder of the Autoworker Caravan and cochair of the International Auto Workers Council, GM section, and is a leading member of several worker solidarity networks within the UAW and in the U.S. and global labor movements. In other words, Frank Hammer is a born organizer. Thanks for joining us, Frank.

Frank Hammer

Thank you, Paul. Glad to be here.

Paul Jay

So start with what’s going on now in Detroit, in the streets, and how this might affect the workers’ movement in Detroit.

Frank Hammer

Like so many other cities across the U.S., there has been such an upsurge of response to the immediate incident with the murder of George Floyd, but it’s, of course, much broader than that. So we have had numerous demonstrations here in the city. And to tell you, we have had demonstrations in small towns outside of Detroit. We’ve had demonstrations in the suburbs of Detroit. And if you know anything about my city, it’s one of the most segregated regions in in the U.S., you know, as Detroit is an 85 percent African-American town.

And to see the demonstrations not only in the city where you would maybe anticipate them, but also to see them in places like Troy, which is 6–8 miles north of Detroit, which is mostly a white suburb; to see them in Sterling Heights, which is mostly a white suburb—these are areas where there are auto workers and retired auto workers. I think it’s going to have a very powerful impact on the labor movement because it’s showing visibly the solidarity that exists that maybe otherwise might not have been anticipated.

Paul Jay

The thing with the history of the autoworkers in Detroit, it’s certainly changed to some extent after 2007 and 2008. But autoworkers used to do really well. I mean, it was not abnormal for autoworkers to assume they’d have a couple of cars in t...