In Capital Vol. I Marx makes the following remark when discussing the general law of capitalist accumulation: "...as soon as they (laborers) discover that the degree of intensity of the competition amongst themselves depends wholly on the pressure of the relative surplus population; as soon as, by setting up trade unions, ect., they try to organize planned co-operation between the employed and the unemployed in order to obviate or weaken the ruinous effects of this natural law of capitalist production on their class. So soon does capital and its sycophant, political economy, cry out at the infringement of the 'eternal' and soc to speak 'sacred' law of supply and demand."
Does anyone know the history of attempts to build a union of the unemployed in the US or attempts by organized labor to reach out to the unemployed? Does anyone think this idea would resonate with sections of the, organized and otherwise, labor and activists during this crisis? Any thoughts on what this could do politically?
Brad