AFL-CIO on SCOTUS Voting Rights Ruling: An Attack on Freedom of Working People

In a sharply worded statement, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler has blasted the May 9 decision of the US Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act as “an outright attack on the fundamental freedoms of working people.”

The Court decision, nullifying Section 2 of the law, has opened the door to widespread gerrymandering of congressional and state legislative districts, reducing the fair representation of Black and Latino voters and increasing the number of anti-labor right-wing Republicans in legislative bodies. The 1965 law, signed by President Lyndon Johnson, was passed after years of struggle by the Civil Rights Movement, with the support of organized labor, to outlaw the practice of voter suppression in states of the Jim Crow South. It has been instrumental in significantly increasing the number of Black, Latino, and working class officeholders in the southern states.

By gutting Section 2 of the law, the Court has erased the means of enforcing it, since it is virtually impossible to get a politician to admit that the gerrymandering is being done to deliberately reduce Black and Latino representation.

“When politicians – backed by the Supreme Court – are able to undermine our voices, they can dismantle everything we’ve worked for and further consolidate power for the corporations, billionaires and special interests at our expense,” Shuler declared. “The National AFL-CIO refuses to accept that future. We will keep fighting for legislative reforms, including on the State and Federal levels, to create a democracy where every worker’s voice matters just as much as the wealthy and well-connected. We will mobilize on jobsites, at doors and in the streets from now until November to elect candidates who will stand up for working people and against these attacks on our freedoms.”

Labor Press, 5/12