Autosaurs

[Michael Eisenscher]

At 01:41 PM 6/28/98 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Michael Eisenscher posted an AP story to his own mailing list about savage
>fighting within the Teamsters. Here's the lead:
>
>>Teamsters Have Internal Strife
>>
>>By Kevin Galvin
>>Associated Press Writer
>>Saturday, June 27, 1998; 12:44 p.m. EDT
>>
>>WASHINGTON (AP) -- As doubts grow about the
>>upcoming Teamsters election, acting union president Tom
>>Sever has raised tensions with political rivals by
>>dismantling the union department responsible for
>>reaching out to members.
>
>This is looking rather bad. With Hoffa quite likely to win the Teamster
>presidency, and with Sandra Feldman quite likely to bring the teachers back
>into the AFL-CIO, and with Richard Trumka constantly rumored to be on the
>verge of indictment, are the days of the "New Voice" leadership numbered?
>Or, even if Sweeney stays, is he likely to retreat from everything decent
>he's done so far and become 100% hack? The firing of Richard Bensinger as
>organizing director, and the continuing influence of the old cold warriors
>in the international department, are not happy signs. Am I being too gloomy?
>
>Doug

Doug:

 
Correction - Sandra Feldman heads the AFT, which is already in the AFL-CIO.
AFT is negotiating terms of a merger with NEA, which is not.  The combined
unions would become the nation's largest and would have substantial clout
within the inner circles of Federation decision-making.  But Feldman is not
someone who is universally accepted by folks in the NEA as the inevitable
leader of a newly combined union.  Even if she is, she will have to answer
to NEA forces that are not steeped in the Shankerist Cold War thinking that
Feldman is.

The Sever actions, however, are worthy of great concern, especially when
taken against the backdrop of everything else that is going on at the
Federation and in the IBT.  If ever there was a need for a nationally
coordinated r&f movement of union members in which the left could play some
discernable role, it certainly is now.  The absence of such a movement is
glaring evidence on how fractured, weak, and ineffective the left has been
within labor and without.

M.E.