Re: trade unions and the left

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

                Mr. Godena,



        For my own part, I don't feel comfortable blithely painting anyone as
an "example of that element on the left."


        That being said, I agree more with your point than with Mr. Perrone's
- for the moment.  I would, however suggest that you both are scrapping
important resources in the struggle with your rhetoric.  Mr. Perrone has
apparently overlooked the fact that the present emphasis on minority and
female recruiting is part of an effort *intended* to bring "outside
influences" into the cloistered ranks of Labor.  Sweeney, pilloried as he is
here, has put forward his intent to bring in people from outside the rank and
file for the organizing side of Labor, in order to revitalize it.


        Mr. Godena is clearly right when he implies that organized labor has
forgotten that it is in the business of politics - socialist politics -
whatever other values its members may hold dear.  In fact labor has
not only forgotten this, but purged its ranks of agitators and socialists.
This is a mistake of the most serious kind.  Politics (as the Republicans
will now tell you) requires ideologues, polemicists, spin-doctors, and
grass-roots activists.  Look at Big Business.  Have they suffered from having
their "think tanks" and foundations?


        The labor movement simply must be the center of any socialist agenda.
The labor movement is the praxis of our theory.  But that means that the
labor movement must be the agent of that theory.  If its thinking is to be
radicalized, then its thinkers must be radicals.


        Negotiating contracts and representing grievances is really less than
half of the union movements job.  Naturally, the deals must be made, and the
real-politique, must be attended to, but organizing is not just getting cards
signed.  It is creating a political atmosphere for the next campaign and the
next. It is creating a clear labor agenda that is coherent and consistent.
It is standing on every soapbox, and leaving no ally unembraced.



        peace


                boddhisatva





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