This is not argument, but ad hominen attack. I am no fan of the AFT in many ways but corruption as in DC 37 is not considered a major sin of that union.
This seemless gliding from one group to another with different sins is all of the character of red-baiting and cop-baiting and all the other ad hominen attacks that undermine serious discussions of strategic and political differences between groups.
-- Nathan Newman
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 3:58 PM Subject: Re: Hot to Trot
Nathan Newman wrote:
>Leo is right- Doug, you seize on single political acts by people you don't
>like and hold it up as a talisman for justifying full excommunication. It
>is your worst rhetorical habit and infects your view of political practice.
>Such incidents may matter and aren't to be completely discounted, but when
>they become a fetish and ignore broader patterns of action, they really are
>just irresponsible.
These incidents are entirely typical of the docile idiocy of the NYC municipal unions - they're hardly "single political acts" occuring in isolation. In fact they're symbolic of their "broader patterns of action." The municipal unions have rolled over for 25 years of budget cuts - well, selective budget cuts, since the city is offering the impoverished New York Stock Exchange $500 million in subsidies to build a new HQ - and 7 years of Rudy's workfare and police crackdowns. They contribute immensely to the low level of political opposition in this city. The major municipal union, DC37, has just come through massive corruption scandals, involving millions stolen from the dues payments of cafeteria workers and the crudest sort of election fraud. And our central labor council is just a fucking disaster.
Since Rudy is trying to take a pound of flesh from the teachers right now, I'd be very curious to hear from Leo just what they've done to build public support for their position.
Doug