I'm not here to carry any torch for the current AFL administration. Here and on PEN-L, the only fora where I have freedom to say whatever I like whenever I like, I've criticized them any number of times, including their recent posture on WTO. I've been off the reservation in any number of ways, many of them central to my own work on budget and tax policy. Lots of people don't like me. Not just here, either.
Your catalogue of follies, stupidity, corruption, dubious strategy, and betrayal is well-taken. You left out a lot of good stuff too, but no need to expound on that. Others can do it better. It's not my job to defend the New Voice, nor my particular inclination. I like Rich Trumka, but he's not really a central player now. VP of the AFL is like VP of the USA.
The more important point is that when I say "labor movement," I am thinking not only of those currently in roles of leadership or activism, but of the movement I would like to see. You could call this wishful thinking, and in a sense it is. But it is also my long-standing judgement that the working class is the only likely agency for serious transformation of society. Not, as some would have it (not incl. yourself), liberals plus minorities, nor J. Jackson's "patchwork quilt" of every conceivable group subject to discrimination.
Sentimentally yrs, mbs
----- Original Message ----- From: Katha Pollitt <kpollitt at thenation.com> Subject: Re: Populism as Masquerade (was Re: Henwood vs. Cockburn)
> Max, maybe I'm missing something in your analysis of govt and labor, but
> as I read the papers, I don't see labor even beginning to put on the
> govt the kind of pressure you would like to see. . . .