-And don't miss Jerry Tucker's good piece on the recent Change to Win -convention in St. Louis -(<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/tucker041005.html>). I was curious about -Andy Stern's statements in an impromptu press conference:
-"When asked about how to talk with the union membership, Brother Stern said, -'Blogs and the internet. Union halls and small groups aren't working.' At -one point in the interview, he made the assertion that engaging in 'class -struggle unionism was outdated' and that 'a new partnership with employers -was necessary to build unions and America.'"
At some level, Stern saying nothing other than the reality that labor hasn't been using class struggle rhetoric for fifty years. Militancy yes, but not explicit class struggle.
So why the curiosity? As for partnership with employers willing to cut a deal-- again what else is new?
At a certain level, Stern is playing some media games to make this sound like something new but Stern is a solid social unionist, not a radical class struggle unionist. Which is better than most union leaders in the last few decades.
-- Nathan Newman