On Feb 24, 2009, at 4:02 PM, James Straub wrote:
> One, unions already have a task at hand, know what they need to be
> doing, and it's organizing.
and
> Two, most intellectuals have a particular ideological outlook in one
> way or another. So the question of what flavor of intellectual
> discourse to sponsor would be highly contentious. Very few union
> members are trotskyites. A great many of them are actually
> republicans. And a great many do not give two shits about
> politics. So the more ideological, more political, more radical
> intellectual discourse around unions and political economy, by
> necessity will mostly remain semi-independent of the formal labor
> union structures.
Don't you summarize a good bit of the political problem of American unions? They've got no analysis or strategy beyond organizing. SEIU is all about adding members, but it's not clear to what end. No union, except maybe little ones like the unmentionable CNA and the fringe UE, has any interest in appealing to the broader working class. You're describing reality, I know, but it's a deeply unfortunate one.
Doug