>And again, you are free to make your definition of "radical" to suit
>yourself, but as a radical, there is good reason why many see Sweeney - who
>has pushed for immigration amnesty and organizing of the poorest workers in
>the US - as one of the best bets for advancing radicalism in the US.
>If I have a soft spot for Sweeney, it is that like John L. Lewis before him
>(who was personally more reactionary in many ways than Sweeney), he is
>devoting lots of resources to that day-to-day task of organizing. I can
>wish Sweeney was more radical in certain areas, but the fact that he spends
>so much of his own time and organizational resources on that critical
>organizing means that I am just not going to consider that less important
>than that he didn't extend a demo in Seattle for an extra few hours, or even
>days.
>
Nathan, you mentioned that you had read the recent New Politics issue in which Jane Slaughter contributes some detailed criticism of Sweeney's accomplishments. I would appreciate your reply.
I worry that people are raising strategic choices between reform
>strategies to a level of religion, where heretics will be burned and
>excommunicated as soon as the opportunity arises.
I thought it was the plodding Stalinist bureaucrats to which the AFL CIO leadership has an affinity that excommunicated and burned heretics or at least ensured that they would be ignored. At any rate, I look forward to your comments on the analysis by Slaughter and others.
Thanks, Rakesh