> Some don't like that Unite Here and SEIU ruthlessly pursue union
> density through corporate campaigns to win organizing rights. Fair enough.
> Let's hear your plan. Because it's not an academic question
> for those who work to put food on their table -- a rebuilt labor movement
> genuinely is badly needed for us all.
No question that corp campaigns and strategic bargaining are a good thing, an essential tool. The hard truth is that establishing a union is just the first step of the battle - then you have to create networks of solidarity, an internal political culture with permanent links to social movements, cross-border and international forms of solidarity, etc. Nor can we expect unions to be a substitute for mass Left parties, unions need to grow in tandem with such parties.
I'm not counseling despair or inaction, but the first step is to admit just how much power neoliberal capital has over the US right now. It's fearsomely hard to organize workers, and many workers are deeply corrupted by their whiteness or other symbolic imperial privileges. (Where would they get Left perspectives? Not from TV or film, though the videogame culture is a welcome exception - games and parts of the music culture are probably the only mainstream sources of subversive messages for US workers right now). Those are real constraints, and not the fault of any individual union leader or union.
-- DRR