[lbo-talk] About that Emma Goldman special on PBS last

[Michael Catolico]

one complaint i had with the production was the portrayal of the labor 
history  of the period.  there were numerous statements /conjectures 
that goldman was blinded to the "american" laborer's mentality.  the 
implication seemed to be that all workers really wanted was a shorter 
work week and  slightly better pay/working conditions - i.e. they 
weren't interested in any of that communism/socialism/end-of-capitalism 
malarkey. 

almost all the violence seemed to be attributed to fanatical, fringe 
self-proclaimed  representatives of the workers. the  real struggle of 
workers  against the pervasive violence of the anti-union capitalists 
was ignored and  somehow turned into peaceful negotiations that were 
sporadically interrupted by the misguided "terrorists."  the ideological 
lesson is of course that workers still embrace capitalism and all the 
wonderful benefits it brings; any disputes are  simply market-type 
mechanisms that address a few "imbalances." all-in-all a very 
post-reagan, post 9/11 depiction of working class struggle in the U.S.
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