[PEN-L:7747] Re: Getting George Going...

[Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher@xxxxxxx>]

Your question suggests a wider issue: how unions ought to do politics.

The traditional approach of business unionism is top-down lobbying, policy
work by technocrats, voter registration and mobilization to vote, candidate
endorsements, and PAC contributions.  These techniques are wholly
inadequate for any union that is committed to member participation, leader
accountability, social movement coalition-building, and politics as an
exercise of people-power.

The starting point for turning a politician around is the union's own
members and their connections in the community.  If they were deeply
involved in the life of the union and personally participated in
confronting Voinovich on the issues, they'd be motivated to reach out to
their respective personal community connections to build on those
relationships a powerful coalition on the issues of common concern.  Rather
than send a few "professional" union staff/leaders accompanied at best by a
handful of local officers and a few members to see him, they'd build their
community connections through their own members and demand that he come to
events at which large numbers of them were assembled to confront him on the
issues.  That's the only way to speak truth to power and to counter the
influence of corporate money on him.

In solidarity,
Michael

At 05:30 PM 6/5/99 -0400, you wrote:
>One of the problems the Steelworkers and other labor unions in Ohio are
>having, is getting our United States Senator George Voinovich moving on
>a response to globalization.  Now it is true that George is a Republican
>and he tends to be a corporate social climber, with the emphasis on
>social climber.  He claims his roots are with the working people of
>Ohio. Voinovich also claims the Democrat party wouldn't play him, so he
>became a Republican.
>
>The power elite in Cleveland did use Voinovich to knock out Dennis
>Kucinich when Kucinich was mayor of Cleveland.  This was definitely was
>an up-scale move on Voinovich's part.
>
>Now let's say your job is to get George to stand up for steelworkers and
>other Ohio manufacturing workers---what would you do?
>
>This is not a test.
>
>Your email pal,
>
>Tom L.