On Jun 20, 2012, at 5:42 PM, michael yates wrote:
> Joshua, You are on the money here. A devasting labor loss like the Walker recall requires us to debate, to ask hard questions. Gordon Lafer chose to write that piece in the Nation. He could have written it in a comradely way, trying to find common ground to lay the bases for future solidarity. But he chose otherwise. Some say we are engaging in a left pissing match. I don't see it that way. Sam Gindin has been vilified by former CAW president Robert White (later head of the Canadian equivalent of the AFL-CIO) in pretty much the same way Doug and others were vilified by Lafer (and Corey Robin too) for suggesting that new strategies and organizing models had to be tried because the strategy of concessions was the road to ruin. White was ten times more vicious than Lafer. But Sam was right then and he, Doug, and others are right now. No one knows exactly what to do, but we know that what the unions are doing now isn't building a labor movement.
It was great to hear that Wisc activists were passing our stuff around. People are thinking. That gives me a lot of hope that this movement is still alive. I don't know what exactly to do, though I have some ideas about direction. But it's great to be provoking collective thinking.
The FT's Ed Luce gets the title of his book about the dire state of the USA, Time to Start Thinking, from a quote from Ernest Rutherford, a Nobelist in chem: "Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking."
Doug