I think this might relate to the history of the UAW in relation to progressive struggles. My friend Barry Eidlin wrote a nice piece on this for our LA comrades during the recent election struggle in UAW 2865. I reprinted it here. http://workresumedonthetower.blogspot.com/2011/06/background-on-uaw-structure-and.html
As a side note, as we have gotten more involved in the larger structures of the UAW, there really seems to a personality cult without a personality surrounding Bob King. We were recently told, "Your membership thinks that it can interpret the constitution, but only Bob King can interpret the constitution." Our eboard have had to listen to a lot of adoring comments about the man from the international staff. He's also the class collaborator. Needless to say, I can understand the deep cynicism coming out of the UAW framework.
robert wood
> Here is something UAW dissident Greg Shotwell just wrote about labor
> leaders and OWS. What do people think of this?
>
> I know that many labor union locals have been active in this, which is a
> grat thing. Top labor leaders, however, I am not so sure if there support
> is help or hindrance. They'll go for Obama in the end. Hopefully, as OWS
> expands, many organizations and institutions will be radically affected,
> including the wretched labor bureaucracy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The Operable Word is Occupy
>
>
>
>
> As Occupy Wall Street, the only genuine social movement to captivate
> American youth in fifty years, seizes the arena of debate from
> professional shills, union leaders rush to secure the privilege of
> bureaucracy.
>
>
>
> Beware. Infiltrators are more pernicious than police.
>
>
>
> Occupiers should be wary of trusting union leaders who have consistently
> undermined, sold out, and betrayed every militant uprising or cry for more
> democracy in the labor movement.
>
>
>
> Most union leaders in the U.S. are wedded to the prostitution of social
> ideals. Every union in the United States is in thrall to the number one
> pimp on Wall Street, the Democratic Party.
>
>
>
> Concession and compromise to the One Percent is the M.O. of U.S. unions.
>
>
>
> Rank and file workers should be able to see themselves in the bloody skull
> of Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen, struck dumb by Oakland police. Every day
> workers make heroic sacrifices to provide a dignified life for their
> families. Every day union leaders shoot down workers’ aspirations and
> incapacitate any chance workers have to shield their families from the
> latest act of economic terrorism.
>
>
>
>
> Where is the union leader in the United States today who has the temerity
> to defy the capitalist oligarchy? For the most part, we don’t have genuine
> union leaders, we have corporate servants with union titles and six figure
> salaries.
>
>
>
> When U.S. corporations invested profits “Made in America” overseas, labor
> unions in the U.S. cut wages for new hires and blamed foreign competition.
>
>
>
>
> When U.S. corporations underfunded pensions, U.S. labor leaders forced
> retirees to make sacrifices.
>
>
>
> The operable word for rank and file workers isn’t competition, concession,
> or compromise. The operable word is Occupy.
>
>
>
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>
>