Marta:
> Justice for Janitors and other SEIU organizing has taken one segment
> of the Latino community however and made it more progressive and more
> visible. Can't say in numbers what the proportions are.
> marta
-That is a very important observation which underlies the importance of a
-"vanguard party" in organizing the masses. Without such a party, the
-masses are a reactionary mob, populist rhetoric and "noble savage"
-mythology notwithstanding.
Come on-- SEIU has been effective but so has the latino-oriented California Catholic Church itself in leading the charge against Prop 187, against the death penalty, for affirmative action, against cuts in welfare, for better laws for farmworkers and so on. Catholic "social conservativism" shows how complicated placing such a term on the right really is, just as all the socially liberal Wall Street Journal types make its easy mapping onto the left silly.
The fact remains that heavily immigrant communities (outside the Cuban areas of Florida) elect some of the most progressive elected officials in the country. They are supporting some of the most innovative and militant union organizing in the country. And all without taking orders from a vanguard party.
-- Nathan Newman