Militant Printer’s Class-Struggle Program

Reprinted below is the program of Militant Printer which was published in the first issue of the newsletter, 15 July 1983:

The program of ‘‘Militant Printer’’ is first and foremost for a break with the strikebreaking Democratic and Republican Parties. The Labor Movement must have its own political party, a workers party based on and under the control of the unions, that will form a workers government to expropriate major industry without compensation.

For a four-day 30-hour workweek with no loss in pay!

Such a workweek would virtually end unemployment in this industry. The right to a job should be the birthright of every worker.

For a 100% cost-of-living clause in every contract!

With a 29 billion dollar federal government budgetary deficit last month (more than the entire year of 1975) the return to double digit inflation is only a matter of time.

Picket lines mean don’t cross!

No crossing of picket lines for any reason. If there is a strike at the S.F. Printing Company, let’s see to it that the Chron/Ex is shut down tight! If the company tries to break the strike let’s return to the sit-downs of the ’30s and occupy the building. Strikes that don’t stop production are little more than impotent protests a la the disaster in Vallejo.

For an end to racist/sexist discrimination in any form!

For union action to smash the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis!

Organize the Unorganized!

With real wages declining in the non-union shops even faster than they are in the organized shops, a union with a fighting leadership that can demonstrate to non-union printers that it’s possible to win against the employers, can convince the thousands of non-union printers in the Bay Area to join us.

For a real fight for merger of all the printing unions!

The tragi-comedy being played out in Colorado Springs and in the pages of the ITU Journal demonstrates once again that until an enraged membership demands merger, the chair-warmers and hand-raisers will continue to fight over who will get/keep what little post or petty job.

No lawsuits against the Union!

Every time a member drags the union into court the judges and politicians rub their hands with glee at another opportunity to gain control over our affairs. Suing the union is the equivalent of calling the cops into a union meeting to settle a dispute.

Take back and use the strike weapon!

Carefully prepared, militantly prosecuted strikes, with mass picket lines and a leadership committed to winning are the key to putting this union back on its feet.

For international labor solidarity!

Military victory to the left insurgents in El Salvador! No U.S. intervention in Central America! Stop the Reagan anti-Soviet war drive! No to the poison of protectionism! The workers of the world are our allies. The real enemy is at home.