[lbo-talk] NYT on French unions

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Thu Mar 30 17:16:58 PST 2006


----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Claxton" <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> -This comment ignores the fact that no one expected more than 20,000 -people to show up. Even giving SEIU credit for getting all those -20,000 out, that's still about half a million people that came -because of something else. I think what people are saying here is -not that unions are not doing positive things, but that they are -missing the chance to do more, a hell of a lot more, with the -resources they have. And why should we not expect that?

If the intention was to have 20,000, then SEIU committed resources to supply about one-forth of the intended participants, which is hardly a "marginal" commitment as some folks said.

But the reality is that if many orders of magnitude more showed up -- which in such mass movement moments is always unexpected -- it was only possible, and not a logistical disaster, because folks like SEIU and others committed those resources.

Mass movements can't be called into being with any amount of resources-- in fact, the best approach is to support a variety of approaches and then when the match lights the tinder, come in with full support. My point has been that the unions have been investing in a whole range of initiatives in Los Angeles for well over a decade and the mass mobilization last week was one fruit of those efforts. The unions hardly can claim sole ownership but it's probably not unreasonable to say that without the links forged with the church, unions and immigrant rights groups through the Justice for Janitors mobilizations, those results would have been far less likely.

Nathan newman



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