CounterPunch hits home...

Josh Mason Jmason at aflcio.org
Mon Aug 9 13:06:54 PDT 1999


This thread seems to have died out over the weekend, but I guess I owe one or two belated responses.

Michael Yates suggests that I:


>confuse a little the remarkably
>undemocratic local unions so common in this country with
rank-and-file
>movements and to oppose them to a more enlightened central
leadership.

You're right that one shouldn't treat the parameters of American unionism as fixed; undemocratic locals and conservative memberships aren't facts of nature. Still, I think your criticism might apply better to the author of the CounterPunch piece and the many others on the left who think that local inherently means rank-and-file and democratic.


>Of course, Sweeny et. al. are better than a corrupt Teamsters local,
but
>are they better than the folks in Atlanta's Central Labor Council or
the
>brave dissidents in that corrupt Teamsters Local?

I'm not sure the question is "who's better."


>The AFL-CIO might
>consider, if it is really serious about rebuilding the labor
movement,
>condemning local autocracies(and national autocracies as well) and
>encouraging local and national democracy in unions large and small.

Sure, but: (1) how can the AFL-CIO condemn local autocracy when its influence over the locals is practically nil? Some affiliates don't even want the Federation *talking* to their locals, let alone intervening in the way you suggest. And (2) should arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries, redundant layers of officials, an inability to organize strategically on a national level and everything else that gets shoehorned into "unions large and small" really be a matter of indifference to reformers?

Josh



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