>It could be a repeat, for example, of
>what happened in Ontario after the NDP formed a one-term government in
>1990-95. The public sector unions and the Canadian Auto Workers under Buzz
>Hargrove led a bitter internal fight against the Bob Rae government which
>introduced an austerity program, including a wage freeze and collective
>bargaining rollbacks in response to pressure from the bond market.
While the times and contexts ie a social democratic party vs. an unabashed capitalist party are different, it's not impossible for a similar outcome, espeicially since we all know fer sure which way the Dems swing.
>These
>post-election battles between the beleaguered unions and austerity-minded
>social democratic governments are now commonplace, of course. Which raises
>the question: what keeps the unions wedded to these parties despite their
>repeated disappointments with them? The traditional left answer is that the
>workers lack sufficient consciousness of the nature of their party
>leadership and program, which I don't think is altogether true.
Agreed, although I've heard from progressive union-members that trying to bring that consciousness about's like pulling teeth. Nobody wants even to _talk_ politics, never mind (tepid) left politics.
>I think they
>know quite well what they are voting for when they vote for these parties.
Determined by the relative lack of choice in political representation, yes, that makes sense. And aided by not knowing for sure how much the party would sell them out to capitalist interests.
Todd
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