> Nathan Newman wrote:
> > the stellar and admirable political work and views of US unions and
> > their role in the last week's protests here in the US.
>
> -Could you please elaborate on their role in the last week's protests?
> Thanks.
>
> http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/129992/1/4536
> "In Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local
> 1877, a
> janitor's union, provided security for the protests and coordinated
> around
> one hundred buses that dropped off protesters from around the
> country. "
100 SEIU buses mean about 5,000 SEIU members (supposing that all who are on the SEIU buses are SEIU members). SEIU has over 600,000 members in California. So, that means that the union mobilized less than 1% of its members in California to the LA rally. And that's the union that is probably doing the most in mobilizing members for immigrant rights.
American trade unions, once anti-immigrant organizations, have dramatically improved their official position on immigrant rights, but the official position doesn't seem to translate easily into rank- and-file members' practical action for them.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>