Reply to: Re: Labor Party

[Jon Flanders <72763.2240@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 >> I know that the ranks of these unions (I know the ILWU from personal
experience) clearly see the LPA as a cynical device by the bureaucrats to
support the Democrats and try to pressure them to the left a little. Don't
assume the treacherous, anti-communist US labor hacks to  be the "workers"
<<Pete

 Jon Flanders:

  Damn, I wish this were true of the people I work with! Actually, in my
experience, most workers haven't a clue about what is going on in politics,
except understanding that they are getting screwed. This understanding takes
form either in abstention or trying to jump back and forth between the parties
like passengers in a lurching airplane who are trying to right it with their
own weight.

  In  rail, my industry, we are getting a fresh lesson on the role of the
Democratic party and the trade union officialdom. Their agenda, the
re-election of the Democrats, is going to mean another rotten contract that
will tie us up for five years.

  It is also true that if the overwhelming majority of the trade union
officials are not split, this labor party effort will not succeed. I do think,
though, that the economic conditions today are favorable for the effort.

  The question for me then is this, do we stand aside and condemn this effort
as a sham, or do we take the call for a labor party seriously, and put to the
test the union officials involved?

  I don't think we can assume that they can orchestrate something like this
the way they do their typical collective bargaining session. A lot will depend
on the tempo of events in the class struggle ahead.

 Best, Jon Flanders

  E-mail from: Jonathan E. Flanders, 12-May-1996




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