<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/20/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Jim Straub</b> <<a href="mailto:rustbeltjacobin@gmail.com">rustbeltjacobin@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div><div>Indeed, Stern is no trot; those interested in his personal politics should recall the 70s socialist group New American Movement (NAM), which focused on building support for socialism in unions and feminist groups.  Stern was in it, some of the other seiu bigwigs too.... but being for revolution myself, I look up to the 1199er wing of seiu more (that's where all the commies flower). </div></div></blockquote><div><br>Thanks for letting me know this.  It actually gives me a personal connection.  I went off at the tender age of 17 to the U of Chicago in 1976 and the only socialist group truly active on Campus besides the Sparts and the RCP, was NAM.  So I joined NAM.  It was a group with a lot of interesting people but the meetings had some aspects of an encounter group.  It was the 70s after all.  I wonder if I met some of the people arourn SEIU while I was passing through the group.  I was too much of a hard Marxist, with a tint of infantile leftism to remain inside NAM for long, and then it dissovled/devolved into DSOC/DSA. <br></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div>Anyway, it is presently in the objective self-interest of many US companies for the country to get a single-payer health plan.  But doesn't it seem that even if we get to a point where all US corporations would benefit from it it still would be damn near impossible, what with the durability of the broad right coalition that rules our politics these days?  Those folks believe in their ideology so much they're willing to go up against the Fortune 500 on immigration; winning single payer will depend more on ability to overcome the broad right in the electoral arena than convincing GM it'd be cool for the gov to pick up their healthcare bill.  Not to say the dems are for single payer, or capable of waging that battle, or even capable of continuing as a serious party for another decade.  </div> <div> </div> <div>But a dull ache in my teeth tells me we need to win it anyway!</div></div></blockquote><div><br>Well, I think you expressed this better than I could.  <br></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div><div>On 7/18/06, Doug Henwood <<a href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com" title="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">dhenwood@panix.com</a>> wrote:<br>> Horse-and-Buggy Health Coverage <br>> By ANDY STERN <br>><br>> Today I sent a letter to every CEO in the Fortune 500 asking them to<br>> make health care their national priority. I urge corporate leaders to<br>> come forward. Our union members -- your employees -- will work with <br>> you. The old idea that business and labor can't work together for the<br><span></span>> common good is as outdated as lifetime jobs. The Service Employees<br>> International Union is the largest health-care union in the country. <br>> Our membership includes nearly one million nurses, doctors, hospital<br>> staff, nursing home and home care workers. We know health care. You<br>> know business. Together, let's build a new 21st-century American <br>> economy.<br><br><br>This is not class struggle politics, to say the least.  And the Old<br>Trotksyist would condemn Stern for class collaboration and for begging<br>the ruling class, instead of mobilizing the working class, etc. <br><br>But really! Doesn't such begging make sense?  Isn't it in the interest<br>of some the really big corporations to externalize the cost of health<br>care by getting the federal government to take care of it?  I think <br>people on this list have written about this.<br><br><br>Jerry<br> </div> </div><br>___________________________________<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk" target="_blank">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </a><br><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is<br>Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture<br><a href="http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/"> http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/</a> <br><br>His fiction, poetry, weblog is<br>Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories<br><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/">http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/ </a> <br><br>Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing<br><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/">http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/</a>