By James Spinosa
ILWU International President

The California special election proved not only to be Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s undoing, it proved the union movement can still stop the fanatic attacks of right-wing Republicans. And it proved the formula to do it.

The Republicans tried to turn this election into a national referendum against unions, understanding that as goes California, so goes the nation. Schwarzenegger traveled throughout the country gathering millions of dollars at Republican fundraisers to pass the ballot initiatives aimed at politically disarming the unions. Many of these donors had no particular interests in the state other than limiting the influence of organized workers.

But these nasty attacks awakened and reenergized the labor movement, and the unions used their enemies’ energy against them. And in doing so we not only slapped Schwarzenegger down and reconfigured the political forces in the state, we have put the Republicans on notice that they are in trouble as we prepare for the 2006 national mid-term elections.

We did a number of things right in this election and we need to review them and understand them so we can repeat them and the success they brought us.

First and foremost, the labor movement remained united in California through to the November election despite the splits and rancor between the AFL-CIO and Change to Win leaders that made headlines last summer. The California Labor Federation, the central labor councils and the locals working on the ground refused to recognize the divisions among their national leaders. They treated Schwarzenegger’s initiatives as an assault on all workers and responded as one.

The unions also used a campaign strategy that tied our cause directly to the larger social good. For instance, the teachers made it clear that they were opposing Schwarzenegger’s cuts in public school funding. That hit home for every parent in the state who understood how that affected their children and their future. The nurses made it clear that their fight with Schwarzenegger over smaller nurse-to-patient ratios wasn’t just about making their work load lighter, but about better care. Every one who has been in a hospital or has tended a family member in a hospital knows what a difference that makes.

Unions are the most progressive organized political voice in society today speaking for all working people and they showed it in the election campaign. So when the teachers, nurses and firefighters appealed to voters to turn back Schwarzenegger’s initiatives, it worked.

Only the arrogance of the super-wealthy would think they could take on teachers, nurses and firefighters. These people are the real day-to-day action heroes in working people’s communities. To target them, as Schwarzenegger did, as if they are the enemies of our society is an affront to the daily experience of regular folks. This is the kind of public relations campaign that could only be developed by highly paid consultants who live in exclusive, gated communities.

The unions approached this campaign with a bolder attitude than they usually do and that made a big difference. Partly it was out of desperation because Schwarzenegger’s attacks were so bold. With Prop 75 he was trying to all but eliminate unions as a political force in the state, making it much easier for him and California Republicans to move their pro-corporate, anti-worker agenda. Prop 75 was 20 points ahead just four months before the election.

In response the unions moved with unapologetic aggression in defense of working people and labor rights. They slammed Schwarzenegger for months with TV ads. And the nurses dogged him at every campaign event and fundraiser he held in the state and across the nation. They got all kinds of free media coverage with more than 100 such demonstrations, contrasting the hard-working angels of mercy with the fat cat corporate crowd spending $10,000 each to have dinner with Arnold.

Finally, we just basically out-campaigned them. We raised millions of dollars to keep the TV ads pounding. But more importantly we wore out the shoe leather. Union volunteers went door-to-door talking to working people about the issues. And we organized an effective GOTV (get out the vote) effort.

In our strongholds of Los Angeles and the Bay Area, ILWU rank and filers joined other unionists on Election Day to mobilize voters. It’s one thing to have the polls in your favor and another to make sure the ballots are cast. And that turn out is often the difference between victory and defeat, especially in an off-year election like this one.

This is what we need to carry into the 2006 election. We need our members to continue to step up. Now is the time to sign up for political action alerts on the ILWU web site (www.ilwu.org/and click on "sign up for updates"). Now is the time to contribute again to our Political Action Fund (see ad page 10). And now is the time to contact your District Council and volunteer for the upcoming campaign.

Schwarzenegger is up for election next November and we have to finish the job and send him back to making movies. We will also have the opportunity to take back from the Republicans one or both houses of Congress next year. This will not only allow us to block some of the worse of Bush’s ongoing attacks on working people, it will also affect our 2008 longshore contract bargaining. It could determine the political atmosphere we negotiate in and could restrict the threats we operate under.

It would be hard to overestimate what’s at stake here in the 2006 election. We can have only one response: All hands on deck!