> >How about unionizing 600,000 people last year, including the largest number
> >of private-sector employees in two decades, giving them some democratic
> >control of their workplaces?
To which an exasperated Doug responded:
> Jesus H Christ, Nathan, I said unionization is a good thing. I'm not
> some Spart fundamentalist, you know.
And now I note out of frustration that severe critics of Sweeney's business unionism are not fundamentalists either. In the latest New Politics for example such criticism is voiced by Kim Moody (a rather well grounded trotskyist labor newspaper editor with whom Walter Daum has important disagreements), Peter Rachleff (who has combined the tradition of council communism with meticulous historical work and engagement in class struggle--e.g., the Hormel Strike), Staughton Lynd (an eclectic labor attorny whose influences include Rosa Luxemburg and liberation theologians).
Paul Buhle in his important reply does not dismiss them as fundamentalists either. And I am bit taken aback that such great labor historians and activists are being dismissed here here in such absolute terms.
Best, Rakesh