AFL-CIO's Trumka Backs Occupy Wall Street

By Laura Clawson, Daily Kos

01 October 11

�

FL-CIO President Richard Trumka was asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests this morning at an event at the Brookings Institution, John Nichols reports, and said:

"I think it's a tactic and a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. Wall Street is out of control. We have three imbalances in this country - the imbalance between imports and exports, the imbalance between employer power and working power, and the imbalance between the real economy and the financial economy. We need to bring back balance to the financial economy, and calling attention to it and peacefully protesting is a very legitimate way of doing it."

Hailing the power of street protests to shift the dialogue, Trumka said, "I think being in the streets and calling attention to issues is sometimes the only recourse you have because, God only knows, you can go to the Hill, and you can talk to a lot of people and see nothing ever happen ..."

Trumka responded to a questioner who asked, "I was wondering if you have an opinion on some of the AFL-CIO national member organizations, kind of beginning to take a role in that because I sort of think that that street demonstration activity is sort of forcing dialogue on the issues that you're talking about," by saying "I happen to agree with you [...] God only knows, I've done it thousands of times myself, and may do it again."

Trumka is not by himself able to offer the formal endorsement of the AFL-CIO, which is a federation of unions, each of which has a voice in decisions like that; accordingly, he doesn't offer that in these comments. However, he is the most prominent labor leader in the country, and with a number of unions planning to join in with some Occupy Wall Street activities, Trumka's public affirmation of both the target of Wall Street and the tactic of street protest is another step in the connections growing between the protesters and the union movement.