<html> This is true - look at WTO Seattle.  On tuesday between ~10AM and 4PM the police repression was held in abeyance while the massive labor march took place (which I participated in - not a cop in sight on the march route or around the stadium). So the labor presence prevented the police from breaking up the civ-disobedience youngsters blockading the WTO - in other words, they were the key condition for its success in delaying the WTO for half a day, causing the happy train wreck of the whole show. Think maybe the Clinton White House had something to do with this? At 09:31 AM 1/4/01 -0500, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>. . . Moreover, we ought to wake up to the fact that, with the disappearance of the Soviet Union & the socialist challenge, organized labor in America has become even more dispensable to the Democrats than in 1986 when _Prisoners..._ got published.  Decades of loyal anti-communist service on the part of the AFL-CIO have ironically resulted in its own relegation to the political margins.  Yoshie "Dispensable"?  This is wildly inaccurate. The Party would be absolutely dead meat w/o labor.  You must mean, labor's interests are dispensable, but there is no doubt labor's resources are essential.  The wonder is how little labor gets/asks for in return. mbs </blockquote></html>