[Marxism] Two perspectives on Robert Fitch

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Bob Fitch was the editor of Ramparts in the 1960s, a new left magazine
that David Horowitz wrote for as well. He is an interesting and heterodox
figure who sometimes goes overboard. For example, he wrote a book on NYC
that blamed the city's decline on the disappearance of small manufacturing.
He also wrote a priceless profile on Wallerstein at:
http://www.logosjournal.com/winter_2002.pdf.)


Interview with Fitch on Doug Henwood's radio show:

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#060209

===

Counterpunch Weekend Edition
March 11 / 12, 2006
Bob Fitch's Hatchet Job
Smearing Ron Carey and the TDU

By JOE ALLEN

Ron Carey was the most important trade union leader to emerge in the last
decade of the 20th century in the United States.

His 1991 election as the first reform leader of the Teamsters was bombshell
that hit the labor movement and Corporate America.

What made his victory even more stunning was the role played by the
Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the longstanding reform group made
up of rank and file Teamsters.

Corrupt and complacent trade union officers were put on notice their
members wanted a different direction for their unions. While the bosses use
to big concessions, when not out-rightly engaging in union-busting, had to
face a newly revived Teamsters union.

The highpoint of the Carey administration and the reform struggle in the
Teamsters was 1997 strike against package delivery behemoth United Parcel
Service.

It was the biggest labor victory in a generation. At that time, labor
historian Nelson Lichtenstein wrote that the strike ended "the PATCO
syndrome. A 16-year period in which a strike was synonymous with defeat and
demoralization."

But, for writer Bob Fitch all this was all a "glittering mirage."

Fitch in his new book Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the
Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise-a book ostensibly about
union corruption-rehashes the worst smears and lies about Ron Carey
traditionally coming from the mobbed-up, old guard of the Teamsters.

full: http://www.counterpunch.com/allen03112006.html


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism