women?feminism?

[Max Sawicky]

> Max Sawicky wrote:
> >  The populist
> > debate is something else again.  When elite wisdom seeps
> > into the left and is deployed against labor, that sort of
> > thing provokes me, as should be obvious.
> 
> Max is provoked when anyone suggests that any workers have
> ever been scabs -- and racism and sexism are both scabbing.
> A defense of scabs is an attack on workers.
> Carrol

The word 'scab' had not occurred in the thread until now.
It is relevant, but in precisely the opposite way that you
imply.

Where do employers get scabs, literally?  From the ranks
of immigrants, minorities, and less well-off workers.  It's
a poor anti-racism that defines the holders of better jobs--
against which literal scabs are directed--as the problem,
because of their admittedly imperfect attitudes.  Defense
of labor standards means going against the immediate
material interest of less well-off workers, often of
oppressed minority groups.  That's what the labor
movement has always been about.  You create,
defend, and try to continuously enlarge the sphere
of higher labor standards.  This is really elementary.

mbs