"Throughout the labor movement, there are plenty of smart people who not only agree with much of what they read in articles like this one or in places like Labor Notes, but may have given, dare I say, a little more thought than Alexander Cockburn or Jeff St. Clair (or even JoAnn Wypijewski, whose hand I detect in this article) to what labor needs to do to get back on its feet."
Shove it, Josh. Unless you're a mindreader you have no idea how much time I spend thinking about labor issues. We've been reporting on Watsonville for years and I (as has Alex) have spent a helluva lot of time (ie., weeks) in the strawberry fields talking with workers and organizers. Likewise, we've been to the Avondale shipyards and written numerous stories about what went on down there. Have you? (From your post it seems as if you've only "talked to people who've been there.") Your self-serving analysis is simply off the mark. Everytime the AFL lumbers into one of these campaigns it's seen on the ground like the approach of a Death Star, capable only of destroying the aspirations of its own members. Then, after everything blows up, what does the union brass do? Blame the victims.
>I could tell plenty more of these stories, but the point would be the
>same: localism and decentralization are the biggest enemy of organizing,
>of coherent strategy and of democracy.
This kind of condescending paternalism is precisely why the national office is viewed with such derision around the country and it's a pretty fair indicator of why the AFL-CIO "brain" trust will inevitably put its money (legal and otherwise) behind Al Gore (and his senatorial and rep. ideological clones), as they've done Clinton, regardless of what foul measures these neo-liberal thugs stuff down the throats of working people.
Jeffrey St. Clair
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