Union independence

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

Maybe ironically stretching a point, but not drivel.

At 12:33 PM 3/19/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 11:05:02 -0500
> From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Independent Unions: solidifying revisionism
>
> Alex Locascio:
> >
> >Should the likes of Henry C.K. Liu ever come close to having the potential
> of seizing state power, the working class should pray for centuries of
> bourgeois rule...
>
>
> Drivel.
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org

Chris Brady is right, but within the revolution, workers will still need
independent unions to defend their particular 'economic' interests, give
voice to their concerns and express their perspectives within the workers'
state, perhaps up until that need withers away, along with the state. The
'workers' state is an expression of the general interests of the working
class and its allies. Unions defend the particular interests of workers in
the workplace. These are not necessarily the same. And if we are not
putting forward the vanguardist notion of the revolutionary party as some
infallible, monolithic expression of "working class interests," then all
the more need [or the same need, but not concealed behind party rhetoric]
for workers to have this independent expression. The problem is not the
independent union, but how diverse interests are mediated within the
workers' state. The commune did it one way, the Stalinists another, the
Cubans another. And by the way, I hope Chris wasn't implying that Fidel
Velasquez and his Central are in any way independent of the PRI!

Mike
> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 09:16:19 -0800
> From: Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Independent Unions: solidifying revisionism
>
>
> There are unions and there are unions.
> Check into the history of Fidel Velasquez in Mexico,
> the CIA role in Solidarnosc in Poland,
> the reactionary part played by the establishment unions in Venezuela,
> or the despicable history of the American Institute for Free Labor
> Development (AIFLD--often called "ai-field) and its work with the CIA.
> Or Harry Bridges' ILWU--or the UE--versus the Meany mob.
>
>
> Ideally a socialist workers' state would operate like one big union.
> But would still require workers' committees in defense of the
> revolution.
> Everything in, nothing out --of the revolution.


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