THE competing power groups that make up the American system have never
operated in complete harmony. They have moved ahead according to the
clout—electoral, financial and sometimes moral—that they could
muster. During the 1960s, the blacks, the poor and the young spoke up
and pushed forward. The blue collar workers, who sweated in the mines
and factories, built the roads and drove the halftracks, seemed to
accept stoically the role of providers and members of the Silent
Majority. No longer. Today they are making themselves heard as they
have not done since the turbulent 1930s. Their voices are loud, angry
and aggressive. Blue collar power has become a mighty and unpredictable political force
that was bound to swing many House and Senate races this week and will
heavily influence the decisions of the 92nd Congress. Throughout the
campaign, both parties assiduously courted the blue collar vote, and
many candidates even donned that new symbol of rock-ribbed Americanism,
the hard hat. Vice President Spiro Agnew appealed to the workers’ fears
of crime, drugs and bombings, and to their suspicion of intellectuals.
After President Nixon had A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany in for a cozy chat
“to discuss foreign policy,” Republicans made good use of pictures of the meeting
around workingmen’s neighborhoods. On the other side, the Democrats and
their old friends in the union leadership played up the pocketbook issues of unemployment
and inflation. The blue collar workers have been wooed not only by the political
parties but also by the New Left. For Election Day this week, the Students for a Democratic Society planned a march on
General Motors’ Detroit headquarters in clenched-fist support of the
auto workers, who are now in the eighth week of a bitter strike against
G.M. Reviving the faded dream of a Socialist alliance with labor, the
S.D.S. hoped to draw 10,000 students and strikers to the demonstration.
Considering the way that workers generally feel about the longhairs
and left-wingers, however, the students seemed to be more in danger of
violence than the company. While they are being hotly courted on all sides, blue collar workers are
also being severely criticized by traditional friends and opponents
alike. Political liberals, who once considered workingmen their most
reliable allies, now often see them—rather simplistically—as
supporters of racism and repression. Black leaders condemn many unions
for systematically excluding Negroes. Many other Americans think of
labor as fat, lazy and arrogant, a condition exemplified in their minds
by the $10-an-hour auto mechanic, the $15-an-hour plumber and the
$18,000-a-year carpenter.
