Thanks for your replies to two of the posts I sent today.
You wrote:
>But, and this I think is more to the point, there is a profound "disconnect"
>between unions as institutions and their members is such that, with the
>exception of a small cadre of union activists and officials. Most union
>members did not intuitively understand the dangers of either proposition,
>thus necessitating an emergency "fire brigade" approach that focused most
>heavily on 226 and succeeded in getting its message across. It is no
>accident that the focus was on the proposition that most directly impacted
>all unions as institutions and union leaders in their capacity as political
>brokers, while the proposition that directly affected only a minority of
>union members (those in education and those with significant numbers of
>Latino, Asian, and immigrant members) got only spotty attention. A
>proposition that impacts broad, immediate, institutional and personal
>self-interest motivates a lot more strongly than a proposition that compels
>a discussion of xenophobia, racism, ethnic stereotyping, educational
>principals and philosophy, bigotry and prejudices. This would the the case
>regardless, but add to that the fact of the overwhelmingly white male
>composition of the vast majority of union leaders at all levels of the labor
>movement and there is little mystery. This just demonstrates the work we
>have yet to do if we are to restore organized labor to a position of
>significant influence and power as a leading element of a larger working
>class movement for progressive social change.
On the whole, I agree with you. A push for union democracy has to go hand in hand with long-term organizing and educational efforts, without which anything like 'social movement unionism' is impossible. Did you also take a look at Tom Condit's post today? The Latino vote was strongly against Prop 226 as well. It again clearly shows, as you must be aware, that Latinos (along with blacks) are far more in favor of unions than whites. This, to me, says something about the importance of educating white workers as to why they must make alliances with Latinos and other people of color and of pushing for Latino and black leadership for unions at all levels, from local, regional, to international.
Also, it's about time for organized labor to recognize that what may look like a 'culture war' or a 'race issue' at first sight, more often than not, is an attack on unionized or unorganized public sector workers and educational institutions. Joining a fight on behalf of students + teachers is a great way to introduce labor movement perspectives into public education. It's my impression that hardly any labor history and working-class perspective on social studies + economics is taught in public schools, despite the fact that teachers are highly unionized. This can and must change as well.
Yoshie