[lbo-talk] Dumb and Dumber: The Million Worker March, October 17

[Michael Dawson]

Dumb and dumber -- Lacny is a DP dupe, and takes a crack at the 10,000
Worker March for not solving a problem the AFL-CIO can't imagine how to
solve, because it doesn't give a crap about hotel workers, compared to auto
workers, school teachers, and others who can pay their high dues.  Yoshie,
meanwhile, misses the even bigger point:  What could a MWM have done for
hotel workers if its organizers had had the self-discipline to organize an
actual MWM, which is quite imaginable, but would have taken lots of hard,
non-self-aggrandizing work?  Now, instead, they've embarrassed and belittled
the very idea, which was actually excellent, if you took it seriously,
rather than cynically and self-servingly.

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Yoshie Furuhashi
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 7:59 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org; furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Subject: [lbo-talk] Class Action: The Million Worker March, October 17

John Lacny makes it sound as if ILWU Local 10, the initiators and 
main organizers of the Million Worker March, weren't supporting hotel 
workers:
>In a number of the cities where the marchers probably came from in 
>the first place, hotel workers are out on strike and in need of 
>serious support from other people. That's a concrete struggle to get 
>involved in, but the organizers of this demonstration wanted to have 
>a catch-all rally in Washington instead, with lots of fiery 
>speakers, but no concrete task to accomplish.

The reality is that ILWU Local 10, through the Million Worker March, 
chose to link a concrete short-term task of supporting hotel workers 
with the general long-term task of building social, economic, and 
political democracy:

<blockquote>Later in the afternoon, following speeches by King's son, 
Martin Luther King III, and other civil rights and union leaders, a 
few hundred marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Hotel Washington 
on 15th Street NW in support of District hotel workers.

Negotiators for several major Washington hotels and the union that 
represents 3,800 hotel employees remain deadlocked on a new contract. 
Protesters chanted outside the hotel's doors as police looked on. 
Three hotel workers leaned out a third-floor window, looked down on 
the crowd and waved in support.  (Manny Fernandez and David Nakamura, 
"Unionists Mobilize for Work, Benefits: Thousands Drawn to Rally at 
Lincoln Memorial in Prelude to Nov. Vote," _Washington Post_, 
October 18, 2004, p. B1, 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40594-2004Oct17.html>)</bloc
kquote>

The hotel workers in D.C. understood and appreciated the Million 
Worker March's demonstration of solidarity -- the only one that made 
the _Washington Post_ on that day (or before it for that matter); and 
I'm sure that hotel workers in San Francisco find ILWU Local 10 among 
their most dependable allies.  Wouldn't it have been nice if the 
AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE, USLAW, UfPJ, etc. had seriously mobilized for 
the Million Worker March and used the occasion to bring hotel 
workers' struggles (the lists of hotels on strike and under the 
strike watch: 
<http://www.hotellaboradvisor.info/hotelguidestrike.asp>) to national 
attention?
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
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