A week ago I admitted I thought much of the left lives in fantasy-land with regard to their relevance. Doug replied, if leftists are on the moon, what planet does the US working class live on?--- the one that overwhelmingly votes for one of two political parties which we see as both being hostile to their interests, the one that is engaged in far more fratricidal conflict within itself than in offensive battle against their masters, etc. I attempted to mock my workerist tendencies by saying workers in the US live in the gritty real world, where its better to fight the terrorists over there than here, and the rapture is coming.
You then pointed out that only a third of workers in the US think this, said I was stereotyping as bad as a minstrelsy show, and urged me to get out more.
I agree, about a bedrock third of workers in the US hold such far-right views, and do not deviate from them. I would also argue that many more flirt with these views in their political loyalties; this is why Bush is in power, and the Dems (another capitalist imperialist party) are the only opposition. I think its a significant fact that between a third and a majority of the population is on the right, and in both my union work and political strategy in general I believe that 'moving' folks out of the right is as or more important than mobilizing the left's existing base (which is miniscule--- if 'only' a third of workers hold far-right views, how many adhere to your own politics, Miles? 4, 5%?). I would not at all discount the hugely important fact that many workers, mostly people of color, oppose the far-right and Bush very ardently, by and large if not on all issues.
You say I'm crazy to think many workers are deeply conservative, that I'm indulging in minstrelsy, and should get out more. But you know what, Miles? I spent the past two years working for a union of hospital workers in nevada, and spent much of that time in a small, rural town called Elko. Could it be that I think that there is a serious problem with many workers being right-wing because the unit of RNs I was helping bargain a new contract was approximately 80% republican, despite being a deeply collar, mining town oriented group of people, almost all of whom were active members of the union and were mostly very militant about fighting the boss for their demands? Or that because attempts to organize the service unit of poorer workers, largely people of color, at the hospital floundered when the majority of latino workers in dietary who were jehova's witnesses would not join the union (because their religion is against it), leading other, pentecostal, christians to be wary as well?
As we unionists attempt to rebuild the labor movement as one step in a larger project of social change, it gives me pause, that so many individual seiu militants, some of whom I've been quite close with, remain deeply conservative on so many issues. I no longer, as I once did, see it as a case of people being led away from their economic interests by 'false consciousness' culture war or social issues, ala thomas frank. I actually take the depth and breadth of working-class rightism in this country very seriously, because I think it poses our greatest challenge, one that is growing, not shrinking, despite Bush's sinking poll numbers.
As a matter of fact Miles, I get out quite a bit. I've been a working in a variety of service sector jobs since I was fifteen, and in the past couple years have worked for unions helping workers organize, during which time I do literally nothing except drive from one workers house to another, twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week, to talk to them about their job, their views, and their fight. Doing this in Columbus, Youngstown, Cincinnati, southside Chicago, Defiance OH, Las Vegas, Henderson, and Elko NV, I've worked in urban, rural, exurban, and inner-right suburban areas, with workers of all skill and income levels from impoverished home health aides to frankly wealthy registered nurses. The assertion that my views of workers are founded on minstrelsy is baseless and malevolent and I take offense at it.
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> > If we're going back to Jim's weird stereotype of the working class as
> > a block of far right Christian fundamentalists who all support the war
> > in Iraq, sure, I will mercilessly skewer that view, because it's so
> > obviously contradicted by data.
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> What the...? You're talking about Jim Straub, right? When has he
> said anything like that?
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