[Marxism] labor-led left in DP?

["andypollack@xxxxxxxx" <andypollack@xxxxxxxx>]

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jul2004/nf20040728_0254.htm is a 
link to a Business Week interview with Stern, done at the convention, which is 
much tamer than the Post quotes. But I also want to agree with Marvin on the 
possible outcome of a Kerry victory.  And the dynamics inside the DP he 
predicts would most likely occur in parallel with a revitalization of the Labor 
Party -- which has become comatose because of the efforts within it of pro-DP 
officials.
On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 09:39:10 -0400 "Marvin Gandall" <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxx> 
writes:
> (A pretty remarkable public indictment of the program and leadership
> of the
> Democratic party by the SEIU's Andy Stern on the eve of its
> convention. The
> SEIU is one of the major contributors to the DP, and this suggests
> there
> could be blood on the party floor if Kerry loses -- and perhaps even
> if he
> wins, Stern's remarks notwithstanding. It could be a repeat, for
> example, of
> what happened in Ontario after the NDP formed a one-term government
> in
> 1990-95. The public sector unions and the Canadian Auto Workers
> under Buzz
> Hargrove led a bitter internal fight against the Bob Rae government
> which
> introduced an austerity program, including a wage freeze and
> collective
> bargaining rollbacks in response to pressure from the bond market.
> These
> post-election battles between the beleaguered unions and
> austerity-minded
> social democratic governments are now commonplace, of course. Which
> raises
> the question: what keeps the unions wedded to these parties despite
> their
> repeated disappointments with them? The traditional left answer is
> that the
> workers lack sufficient consciousness of the nature of their party
> leadership and program, which I don't think is altogether true. I
> think they
> know quite well what they are voting for when they vote for these
> parties.
> In any case, if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over
> deep cuts
> to Social Security and other social programs, it's difficult not to
> see the
> same struggle emerging within the DP, with the left opposition
> coming from
> the SEIU-ACSFME-Dean-Kucinich axis which formed during the
> primaries. I
> don't think the US labour movement is THAT exceptional, is it?)
>

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