[lbo-talk] a teacher in trouble and the union

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > 
> > Nathan Newman wrote:
> > 
> > >  union bashing
> > 
> > Would you give this formula a rest? It's a propagandistic way of
> > deflecting well-earned criticism.
> > 
> > >There is more union bashing on this list than any other
> > >"progressive" forum I am part of.
> > 
> > No more than in a typical issue of Labor Notes.
> > 
> 
> I think the word "criticism" (as a political term) is regularly misused
> on this list, and is being misused here. Criticism in Labor Notes is
> FROM THE INSIDE, while the tone of alleged criticism on this list always
> has the tone of external carping. It's only this morning that I finally
> found the word to describe that tone: Snobbery. "I am not as others are;
> I'm above that; I'm not part of 'That Left Out There' or 'That Union
> Movement Out THere.' I'm independent."
> 
> Carrol

Criticism is only available for insiders? Outsiders can therefore only carp?
You can't possibly mean this so why write it?

Does one have to be a US citizen to criticise the US? Venezuelans can only carp about US policies?

Can any communist criticise the FSU or do you have been a citizen of the USSR to do so?

Who determines inside and outside? Are former union members allowed to critize or is it just carping once 
they are no longer active members?

John Thornton