I agree. If you read "left" mailing lists, some are acting as if this is some major tragedy. The AFL has been a cancer on the US labor movement since Samuel Gompers founded it in 1886. It exists to prevent change, it is rotten in every way. If there was actually anything good about it, the forces of darkness would have stamped it out a long time ago, like they did with real labor federations like the Knights of Labor, the IWW, the CIO. The AFL has a disgusting history - replacing the Knights of Labor's method of industrial organizing with craft organizing, handing power from the rank-and-file over to a labor hierarchy, rabid support of US imperialism (the major pro-war rally held in New York since the war started was put together by the mob-run construction trade councils) and so on.
In 1954, 35.6% of non-government jobs were unionized, figty years later, in 2004, that number was 7.9%. That plunge happened because union federations have been too busy fighting "communism" at home and abroad, putting locals that are too militant into trusteeship and so forth to actually organize workers, or even keep the ones they have.
And what has changed? The AFL-CIO right now is trying to undermine Venezuela's government. Thus in this case, a weaker AFL-CIO means a safer Venezuela. The candidate for president the AFL-CIO supported, John Kerry, said "President Chavez's policies have been detrimental to our interests and those of his neighbors." Well I'm not sure who he means by "our" when he says "our interests" - it certainly doesn't include me, although I suppose it includes the AFL-CIO and Democratic leadership.
For myself, I can live with people genuflecting to the Democratic Party, saying it's important that John Kerry get elected and whatnot. Or as John Lacny once said "Even people in safe states have to vote for Kerry so that we can have the moral victory of winning the overall vote". Fine. But I will not accept this attitude at all with regard to labor unions. You can give in, compromise and whatnot all you want with your political parties, but this sort of attitude will not be accepted insofar as the unions.
Lance