[lbo-talk] Fitch on The Split

John Lacny jlacny at earthlink.net
Sat Jul 30 05:43:01 PDT 2005


Jim Devine:


> I think the people are losing the forest (the big picture) in
> the trees (Fitch's journalistic shortcomings).

The problem is that it's more than "journalistic shortcomings." The largest gains for SEIU in recent years have been among homecare workers, so it was the heart of Fitch's argument that "SEIU isn't organizing real workers." That happens to be ill-informed piffle. And the problem is that so much of the discussion and "critique" on this issue is based on impressionistic pronouncements from people who don't know what they're talking about, and sometimes it's based on plain misunderstanding, inaccuracy, and made-up "facts." On this list, it's got to the point where even Nathan Newman -- who unlike me tends to have the forebearance of a saint in these matters -- has been visibly losing his patience with it.


> What do people think of the idea that the truncated AFL-CIO
> can't expand because it represents relatively high-wage
> workers in stagnant employment sectors -- and that the
> SEIU-led C2W coalition can't expand because the resistance
> to it is so strong?

Sorry to be curt, but I read that as "You can't win, so you might as well just give up." Well, fuck that.

- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com

Tell no lies, claim no easy victories



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