Certainly my political group (Solidarity) has no objection to working with trade unions. I don't think that the term "objectively left" tells us anything, though. Trade unions are what they are, and Bob Fitch (among others) filled us in on the dirty details. We don't work in trade unions because they are "objectively left". We work in trade unions because they are the only mass institution of the working class.
^^^^ CB: I agree we work in trade unions because they are the main mass institutions of the working class. As I recall , we were discussing Carrol's claim that there is no organized Left, not the reason we work in trade unions. I guess the discussion of whether there is an organized Left is something of a wild goose chase project. It's also a bit of a semantic and academic discussion. My attitude is that it is dispiriting for Left activists to be thinking " gee , there's no organized Left". So, why not say there is a mass organized left in the trade unions, civil rights organizations, etc. , or that because they are mass working class organizations we work there. Or in terms of your original comment summarizing and supporting Carrol's position:
"For what it's worth, I think I agree with the core of Carrol's position, which I understand to be the following.
(1) There is no organized left in the United States worth the name (and an unorganized left is no left at all). "
^^^ CB I'd say this formulation is not a good one because it will discourage Leftists from activism. Trade unions have a left purpose, fundamentally, even if historically there has been a lot of opportunism in unions ( both in the rank and file and leadership; the leadership reflects the rank and file more than Solidarity allows)
^^^
One day, those trade unions may even be controlled by their members. With rare exceptions, though, unions are controlled by their officers and bureaucracy. Even if the members of unions manage to take control, there is no guarantee (though there is the hope) that the left will find a mass base there. But that's the institutional ground on which we work.
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