> All I can say is that I have participated in SEIU's work in Ohio,
> Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, California and Pennsylvania, in a number
> of locals and divisions and industries, and I have seen very little
> firsthand that would correlate with Andy's depiction of SEIU staffers as
> either "naive kids" or "Stern gang phonies",
Yep, I didn't see naivete or gangsterism during my time at SEIU (awhile back, I know, but let's just say I have my sources), just good people with varying levels of political consciousness (some fairly mainstream, some quite radical) trying to move the mountain and often burning themselves out. I know I did -- I was writing book-length tracts of cultural criticism during my off-work hours. Sleep? No time for that. Utter madness. I must have looked and sounded like an underworld zombie my last few months there...
Critique is good, and critique of organizing strategies is needed. But the across-the-board slams on Big Labor confuse the symptom with the ailment: the US Left lacks the infrastructures which would enable useful conversations to happen, e.g. Left parties, institutes, think-tanks, etc. That's one of the reasons LBO-talk is such a power-house list -- this is where economists, activists, culture-vultures, citizens, all kinds of people meet. But creating those spaces isn't the sole responsibility of unions. We all have to pitch in, however we can, with whatever tools we're handy with.
-- DRR