Re: [Marxism] Why are American workers so passive?

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

S Artesian writes: How about it is one thing-- and that one thing is not
"imperialist
privilege"--  RACISM that has so inhibited, and immobilized development of
class struggle, class consciousness in the US?

*  *  *

This is a fine example of the ideological evasion of the reality of
privilege. "Racism" is not the real issue. The real issue is *white
supremacy.* It is the REALITY of white supremacy, of PRIVILEGE, that breeds
white supremacist attitudes and ideology, i.e., racism. 

As for the rest of S Artesian's laments, the decline of the U.S. labor
movement began NOT in 1970 but more than two decades earlier. 

As for the argument that the change in the organic composition of capital
has "devastated" the industrial organizations, this is a real crock. Whether
the GM workforce is 700,000, 70,000 or 7,000 their power when they act
collectively is just the same as long as the company has no realistic way to
replace them and must come to terms with them.

What the auto workers and other unions are paying for is their historic
betrayal after WWII. They made a deal with the ruling class -- privileges
for the union members rather than social advances for the class as a whole.
And in THIS country, such deals ALWAYS have the issue of race at their core.
So they got private health insurance instead of a national health service.
Private pension funds instead of an expanded social security system. And
most of all acquiescence to Taft Hartley, right to work, and the exclusion
of farm workers and domestics from labor law protection.

Joaquin


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu