[Marxism] Unions

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR:

Tino Rozzo writes in part on Redbadbear [his whole message follows at the
conclusion of this]:

"Unfortunately, Unions are the embodiment of Capitalism.
I have never had any experiences where I have had any good come from any
Union.
At most, they are either slave traders or managers. . .For now  are suck
[stuck?] with two swords of capitalism, Big Business and Unions."


Since this expresses an all-too-common attitude among some Americans and
Canadians and Others, it's worth dealing with generally. --  Hunter Bear

Tino - [from Hunter Bear]

This from you is unfortunate.  You sound like, to use the very old Wobbly
terms, a Scissorbill or a Mr Block.  You -- or anyone -- is certainly
entitled to take some critical shots at unions.  But don't even try to toss
them out into the snow.  Unions are well worth saving and supporting,
building on and building up -- and it's certainly worth building new ones as
well.  My basic position on all of this was indicated last February 23 when
I posted this widely:

I have three comments to make on unions:

1] After I got out of the Army, at the beginning of 1955 and still
extremely young, I have never worked anywhere without carrying at least one
union card. If a collective bargaining contract [or a bona fide comparable
understanding] did not exist, I sowed my seeds and did my best to achieve
it. Sometimes I was successful.

2] Every union to me, including craft organizations, has some revolutionary
potential. Of course, industrial unionism -- militant and democratic and
sensibly radical -- is My Thing. But I have said countless times, that any
real union is better than none. My youngest daughter's [Josie] very special
friend is an up and coming IBEW activist. I'm quite impressed.

3] I am not very ideological. But I am not writing off appropriate political
parties and political action and litigation, although my basic faith lies in
the
working class -- organized, unionized.

[Yours, Hunter [Hunter Bear], UAW -- and United Association for Labor
Education.  I came into UALE, the result of a merger, via Workers Education
Local 189. 189 had broken away from AFT and gone independent].

I have worked closely with unions -- many kinds of unions -- for half
a century.  I've taught labor organizing, collective bargaining, labor
history,
industrial sociology at the Labor [and general social justice] grassroots
and in a number of college and university settings.  I am always
surprised --
but not too surprised -- at  the levels of ignorance held with respect to
unions by
those who have never belonged to any union -- or become involved in a
union's inner life. This includes many students
[who, to some extent, can plead youth]  but it also includes many
self-professed radicals and radical intellectuals.

In the Save the World Business, we all build step-by-step.  At some points,
things
move ahead with Great Movement, in Great Sweeps.  But mostly, it's just
hard,
tedious organizing work. In the union context:  wages, hours, conditions,
job security, health benefits, retirement [and more, including involvement
in
the broader areas of social concern].

I remember a Union business agent at Douglas, Arizona [on the border]
who, with his wife, tutored God knows how many kids of Phelps Dodge
copper workers over many years in math [many of the kids were Chicano] --
thus playing a major role in getting them into and through the Arizona
higher ed settings.

We have come a long way -- and we have a long way to go.  Union Labor needs
the
earnest support of every worker and person of good will.

I've frequently said that social justice organizing -- including labor
organizing --
is the hardest work there is.  The old labor organizer -- or union business
agent --
or union officer -- is someone for whom I've always had the highest respect.
You can always spot him or her in the Labor Temples, the union halls, and
on the picket lines: often with worn faces -- but faces in any case that
glow
and with eyes that are always keen and sharp.

And, as I have said, too, the satisfactions in bona fide grassroots
organizing
work are enormous.

Yours for the Red Dawn [which takes awhile -- even some dark hours -- to
arrive]

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]

From: "TINO ROZZO" <shinjin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Redbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Redbadbear] Unions


>
> Unfortunately, Unions are the embodiment of
> Capitalism.
> I have never had any experiences where I have had any
> good come from any Union.
> At most, they are either slave traders or managers.
> Even when I wanted a Career with several Unions, they
> turned me down flat and accepted less qualified
> persons then myself.They do a good job sometimes but
> not enough. If they only freed the people by giving
> people empowerment to begin with they could have neded
> many problems.
> A Union must be created for just such a purpose. I am
> hoping my creation of a FICU will either do that or be
> an example.
> For now  are suck with two swords of capitalism, Big
> Business and Unions.
>
> In Unity
> Tino
>
>
>



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