In a message dated 8/8/2 3:14:18 AM, you wrote:
>Workers
>combining into organizations to protect their mutual interests - that's a
>basic staple of the principle of mutual aid. Is it only bad if we call
>this a "union"? If
>this is the minority trend, to believe in these kinds of basic solidaric
>examples of mutual aid, then more's the pity.
Exactly-- some of the most advanced and progressive union structures are very similar to the mutual aid and collectivism models spoken of in more utopian terms by anarchists and the like-- but, applied on a much larger level so that more people can benefit.But whether or not the formulation of labor's interests in the workplace end up manifesting themselves in a pragmatic or utopian manner, they do not, in and of themselves, a revolution make. Capitalism can only be "thrown into the dustbins of history" if workers, as a class, begin to assert and voice their interests in the actual political arena.
You think "union" is a term that Munson hates? Try this one on for size, Chuck: "Conquest of power."
-- David