cultural politics/"real" politics

[Michael Eisenscher]

Pardon me, but this sounds too much like "blame the victim."  A significant
factor in the dockers' ultimate defeat was the unwillingness of their
national union's leadership to back them up.  Despite that fact from the
reports I have seen, they garnered considerable sympathy and support among
rank and file union members.  The issue is not whether British workers'
class consciousness is not up to some level of revolutionary fervor or
whatever standard you are using, but whether when confronted with immediate
threats to their interests, they will fight back.  Can it be that an entire
nation's working class is mesmerized by the spirit of a dead princess?  I'm
headed right out to the video rental store to get a copy of Camelot.

Michael

At 10:18 AM 5/7/98 +0100, Jim heartfield wrote:
>In message <2.2.16.19980506181909.129f959a at pop.igc.org>, Michael
>Eisenscher <meisenscher at igc.apc.org> writes
>>I am not British and have not been to England, but I have been in touch with
>>and part of the solidarity struggle on behalf of the Liverpool Dockers.
>>Those whom I have met touring here in the States have certainly demonstrated
>>more than a little class consciousness.  It seems improbable to me that they
>>would have been able to maintain their struggle for over two years without
>>many of them having a pretty keen sense of class, as well as being able to
>>distinguish working class interests from the way some of their union's
>>national leaders sought to relate to the employers.
>Tragically, it is the Liverpool dockers' relative isolation from the
>actually existing labour movement in England that helped them talk
>themselves into a corner. After more than a year on strike, they never
>succeeded in getting practical solidarity at home, such as would further
>their cause. Their intransigence arose from their isolation. Dockworkers
>demonstrations were overshadowed by such proletarian causes as Lady
>Diana's Funeral, a 350 000 strong demonstration in favour of fox-
>hunting, and militant attacks on police stations by anti-paedophile
>protestors. These facts might not be pleasant reading for socialists,
>but socialism was never advanced by refusing to face up to the facts.
>
>In message <v03102804b176ba519276@[128.146.227.163]>, Yoshie Furuhashi
><furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> writes
>>I am not sure if our resident 'pro-growth' marxist Jim Heartfield is aware
>>of this, but in the US, auto-centered transportation policy may be causing
>>a problem for industries as well. Has Jim read about the freight problems
>>causing lots of 'lost,' mixed-up, or delayed cargo deliveries? Isn't there
>>a need for investment in efficient non-auto transportation even in Jim's
>>own framework of thinking?
>Yes, of course. I'm all for development of alternate transport. And I
>support Barkley Rosser's call for a more efficient car, too. But you
>should listen to yourself. It's not the lorries that lose the freight.
>As a frequent user of Britain's over-priced railway system, I have spent
>too many hours waiting for the track to be cleared to think that
>railways = efficiency. No kidding: a two and a half hour journey to
>Manchester is regularly extended to four hours.
>-- 
>Jim heartfield
>
>