>At the beginning of April, I will be addressing a meeting of the
>national staff of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
>America in Wilkes Barre, PA. The title of my talk is "The U.S. Labor
>Movement and the Role of the Left in It." I would be grateful for
>suggestions from list members both as to what I should emphasize and
>what articles, commentaries, etc. I should definitely read in advance to
>help me prepare the talk.
I think you, we, "the left," should do everything we can to encourage and prod organized labor to develop its recent trend towards internationalism and towards working with broader coalitions than they have in the past. I'm thinking of the better side of its WTO actions, the deepening of ties with foreign unions, its shift on immigration, and its work with community, student, and environmental groups of the sort it wouldn't touch a few years ago. I suspect one of the reasons the unions are doing these things is because more leftists are getting involved. Sweeney & Co may not be so great themselves, but there seems to be a lot of fresh blood in organized labor, and we should try to figure out how to intensify that trend.
Doug