Well, I am definitely repulsed by what you report Richard, but I'm not sure your conclusion is necessarily the correct one. I mean we could take any one of the numerous positive phenomena in the labor movement that have likewise occurred (at both rank and file and leadership levels) and conclude that we are moving toward socialism any time now...Surely the picture is more complex and the future not 'hopeless.' Not yet anyhow.
Steve
On Mon, 1 Feb 1999, Richard Gibson wrote:
> Around 3:15 this afternoon an explosion at the 80 year old Ford Rouge
> Plant, where I worked, killed at least one worker and injured, with severe
> burns, up to 30 others. Burns are hard to quickly evaluate. It is likely
> that many of those burned will suffer horribly for years. This is the
> second major explosion at the plant which was once the largest auto complex
> in the world, with over 100,000 workers. The plant now employees about
> 9,000 people, a clear reflection of the shift in US industry.
>
> The area of the explosion, near my old job site, was decrepit in the 60's
> and, according to my friends, has not had a significant refurbishing since
> then. This is the second major explosion in the same area in five years.
> When I had to work in the tunnels under the Rouge, which among other things
> were routes for trains which carried finely ground coal to power plants,
> all of us feared the possibility of explosions, which would cleary rip
> through the entire tunnel system. I am not certain this is what happened
> this time around.
>
> William Clay Ford has been on the site decrying what happened to his "Ford
> Family." The UAW leadership from the once militant communist led Local 600
> is on TV virtually hugging Ford, thanking him for the grief couselors and
> MD's he provided in the emergency. The local ABC affiliate is leading their
> special converage with praise for the unity of "UAW-Ford, " the title the
> company uses in their ads.
>
> The answer to the question, "Is there hope for the labor movement?, " is
> Hell No, because the structure and the purpose of this labor movement is
> utterly rotten--as this incident dramatically shows.
> Rich Gibson
> Program Coordinator of Social Studies
> Wayne State University
> College of Education
> Detroit MI 48202
>
> http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/index.html
> http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/meap.html
>
> Life travels upward in spirals.
> Those who take pains to search the shadows
> of the past below us, then, can better judge the
> tiny arc up which they climb,
> more surely guess the dim
> curves of the future above them.
>
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