Farm Labor Organizing Committee President Baldemar Velasquez was elected to the national AFL-CIO Executive Council at the recent AFL-CIO convention. This is a history-making step and marks a step forward and a victory for farmworkers, progressive trade unions and the immigrant-rights movement. This step forward comes as farmworkers are winning struggles nationwide and as the debate over immigration and immigrant rights is being reopened. As these steps are made, we can compare the old AFL-CIO, and the old labor movement, to what we have now and see that big changes are taking place and that more is possible. The resolutions which passed the convention were generally of the kind that we can support. In this new situation we can contrast several parallel struggles and see how they move forward: the farmworkers' struggle and the immigrant rights movement now have some labor recognition and support that they did not have previously; farmworkers are advancing, but immigrant California garment workers have just had a terrible setback; the United Electrical Workers continues its aggressive union organizing, but workers in the Bronx are now fighting the proposed relocation of the Stella D'Oro factory after being on strike for more than one year. These battles will do much to determine the course of the labor movement in the coming months and years overall. These are the kinds of struggles which test and educate workers and force labor's enemies and friends to declare themselves.
Read more about Baldemar Velasquez here.
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