[lbo-talk] NYT on French unions

[andie nachgeborenen]

Nathan is legally and probably politically correct,
but this would be class war -- and if there were a
strike like that here it would be class war -- and the
working class response would have to be escalate. It's
not possible to say precisely what that would mean,
but one scenario would involve large scale primary and
illegal secondary strikes and boycotts, sitdowns and
occupations, aimed at key industries, preferably ones
where capital flight was difficult, combined with a
campaign to win public support as much as possible.
Physical confrontation of the Homestead/Harlan County
variety would not be unlikely. The media and the
liberal Democrats would condemn the unions'/workers'
illegal action. Strike funds would be vulnerable to
seizure unless protected. Runious fines would be
imposed on unions. Think of the British miner's strike
of 1984 -- the workers lost that one, and they might
well this -- but the pattern of ruling class response
should be studied. You better believe the other side
studies it. Nothing like this is on the immediate
horizon, but well-behaved supplicants going hat in
hand to politely beg a crust from their masters will
be lucky to get crumbs and kick.

--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> Chuck wrote:
> 
> >Nathan Newman wrote:
> >
> >>If a similiar strike happened in the US, every
> major shop floor 
> >>union leader would be told the next day that there
> was no job for 
> >>them to return to.  And the courts would not only
> uphold that 
> >>decision but issue an injunction against any other
> union member 
> >>threatening to strike in solidarity over those
> firings.
> >
> >Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
> 
> You said in four words what I was about to say in
> 40. I never thought 
> of myself as a typical can-do American, but I'm
> amazed by Nathan's 
> fatalism and negativity. Lose a single-payer
> referendum in 
> California, and just give up on the whole thing.
> Don't figure out 
> what you did right and wrong and how you might do
> better the next 
> time, just get really really small in your
> ambitions. And don't look 
> to French unions as something we might learn from -
> everything's 
> different here, so it's hopeless. One thing we could
> learn - the 
> French unions think and act on behalf of the whole
> working class, and 
> are deeply political (and not in the sense of giving
> 35 million euros 
> to some hacks). Maybe there's something to Fitch's
> point about having 
> competing unions; they have to deliver to win
> adherents, and they've 
> been doing a pretty good job of it.
> 
> And if a million workers went out on strike for a
> day, what could the 
> bosses do?
> 
> Doug
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