On Aug 19, 2011, at 10:09 PM, wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
> I was implicitly referring back to the question of 'attitude' earlier
> in the conversation. To turn to the practical question, I can think
> of a couple practical examples out of the trade union struggle. HERE
> Local 17 made some interesting contributions in the late 90's. They
> brought up the ways that companies were using immigration status to
> engage in union busting, and eventually challenged the AFL-CIO's
> views on immigration. This focused on a group of hotel workers who
> were threatened with deportation for organizing. The second is the
> focus of the 2000 strike, which focused on the need to increase wages
> for the back of the shop workers, who were predominantly immigrant
> and non-white. Both struggles challenged the racist practices of the
> hotel industry in order to fight for greater workers' rights.
But that's an example of people working together towards a common goal and, one hopes that it could lead to an overcoming of divisions. It didn't operate by focusing on "racism" or talking about "living hells" or any of that melodramatic stuff. It's "workers of the world" unite at a ground level, and you can't beat it. It doesn't have much to do with the sort of thing you see all the time about racial wealth disparities. Well, yeah, they're big, but what do you do about them?
Doug