unions

Marta Russell ap888 at lafn.org
Thu Aug 8 16:26:14 PDT 2002



>At 01:30 PM 08/08/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>>Can't one then say the same thing about the disabilities rights movement?
>>Somehow I can't help but think that this is terribly reductionist....
>
>Not quite; disabilities rights workers agitate on behalf of ALL
>disabled people. Unions agitate on behalf of a select group of
>workers. If there were more solidarity among unions, they would be
>much more successful. I expect that Reagan's going after the
>air-traffic controllers first, was indicative of his belief that
>solidarity would be slight with this group of relatively privileged
>workers. He was right.
>
>Joanna

I interpreted the question differently -- in that rights seeking groups operate within liberal democracies.

Neither select unions nor the disability movement (DRM) has dealt with macroeconomic issues under capitalism such as the reserve army of labor. To me they both have narrow vision reliant upon capitalist power relations. The select unions are usually most interested in their wealth maximization -- via higher wages, better health care, etc. which can be interpreted as partial social justice, not total, and the DRM is interested in getting some disabled persons employment under the existant system but cannot (with a civil rights approach) make this possible for all of the unemployed disabled who would like a job,which, again, is partial social justice.

Each are more interested in their slice of pie than changing the pie itself. marta --



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list