Grad Unions and Other Labor Leaders

[kelley]

At 03:37 PM 7/20/00 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>I know careful strategy that is not self-defeating has less appeal than a
>>purist lost cause like Nader, but it may actually help change policy and
>>improve people's lives rather than just be an excuse to bash other
>>activists for not being pure enough in their methods.
>
>Nathan, this is a very cheap shot, which I'll charitably attribute to the 
>remnants of a guilty conscience. I'm not looking for an excuse to bash 
>activists; you're the one doing the bashing in this window, in fact. Nor 
>am I interested in promoting self-defeat. In fact, those of us who 
>(critically) support Nader are looking for a way out of the short-term, 
>vote Democratic pragmatism that promotes long-term self-defeat. Every 2 or 
>4 years it's, yeah it'd be nice if X could win, but s/he can't, so better 
>vote Dem. And so the Dems can flip the bird to their most loyal voters and 
>become ever-more-loyal servants of capital. At some point, wouldn't even a 
>pragmatic social democrat have to break with this logic - not out of 
>purity, but out of a desire to stop this endless process of concession and 
>compromise?
>
>Doug

god i love it when you get down to brass tacks.

kell