unions with about six million workers. The rally is the first such action planned on a national scale by the AFL-CIO.
30 workers movement Jourth international
PUSH JOBS TS IOE A.! BE A J9ES 10R ЗІ ТИРУК-В стве зрАзя The fact that the reactionary leadership of the national trade-union Federation has called for workers to demonstrate in large numbers testifies to the depth of anger developing in the American working class as a result of mounting unemployment. Official government statistics, which understate the case considerably, place unemployment at more than 8%,
U.S.A. with more workers listed as unemployed than at any time since the 1930s - 7.5 million. If one also includes those who are not counted in the government's statistics - workers who can only find part-time work and workers the government classifies as having stopped "actively" looking for work — the total number of unemployed is in the range of 12-13 million. And the prospect ahead is not very hopeful: Ford's own budget foresees an official unemployment rate averaging 8.1% in 1975 and 7.9% in 1976. Only by 1980 is it projected to fall to 5.5% - a level politically acceptable to the ruling class. And this is an optimistic projection! The most exploited sectors of the working class — women and oppressed nationalities - have been hardest hit by unemployment. The unemployment rate for Black workers is twice as high as for whites. Among Black teenagers, the official unemployment rate stands at more than 35% - and it is even higher in some areas! Workers in some industries such as construction and automobile manufacturing have also been affected Far more than the average. In construction, the unemployment rate is more than 15%. In Detroit, where 300,000 workers are employed in automobile manufacturing in peak periods, the official unemployment rate has reached 23%. The situation in Detroit has also affected Black workers especially severely, since they comprise a relatively high proportion of automobile workers in the city. In some areas of the Black community in Detroit unemployment has reached levels of 36-62%. In this situation demonstrations demanding jobs have been held in several cities under the auspices of the trade unions. In New York City some 12, 000 angry construction workers marched on City Hall on February 27. (Out of 95, 000 members of the buildingtrades unions in New York, there are 21, 000 unemployed.) It was a very militant demonstration, despite the attempt by the union bureaucrats to dampen the possibilities for the workers to express their rage. In California, where a million workers are unemployed, the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO)
sponsored a march of 2,000 people on the state capitol in Sacramento on March 8. And on February 5, about 10,000 unemployed auto workers marched on Washington demanding jobs. These demonstrations, although small in comparison with the potential, neverthe less represent a positive step in beginning to rally the tremendous strength of the organized trade-union movement in a fight for jobs. So far, the trade-union bureaucrats have hesitated to call for mass actions, or have organized such actions in a very fimid fashion. But if any serious effort at all were put into the April 26 rally, there would be little trouble in gathering a crowd of 50,000 to fill the seats of Kennedy Stadium in Washington. Whether this effort will be made remains to be seen. Some large unions, such as the International Union of Electrical Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, are organizing buses in several cities to build the rally. In New York City, several unions that had already been planning for a march on Washington have thrown their efforts behind the April 26 call and are expected to contribute significantly to the turnout. The Washington rally has also received the enthusiastic endorsement of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid, Socialist Workers party candidates for president and vice-president in 1976, issued a statement giving full support to the April 26 rally for jobs. They called for "independent action by the labor movement, mobilizing in a vast show of strength, to force the government to act. April 26 can be the beginning. " The SWP has made the fight for jobs a major theme of its propaganda campaign. Popularly written campaign literature — particularly "A Bill of Rights for Working People" and "Why Can't Everybody Have a Job?" - is being distributed on a wide scale. Among the key demands being raised in this campaign are calls for a shorter workweek with no reduction in pay, a massive public works program by the federal government, and union-scale wages for all unemployed workers.
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