[lbo-talk] Owners of the world unite

[Carrol Cox]

Mike Ballard: The ILA was dominated by Mafia types.  If "On the Waterfront"
had been made about the ILWU, I would agree with you about union bashing in
that film.

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The significance of any film (or novel or poem or for that matter
theoretical work or even symphony or ballet) is determined by the
reader/viewer/etc, not either the intentionof the maker _or_ the "facts"
behind the work.

For the viewer of Waterfront, it was just The Union in general, not some
particular corrupt union that came across. Most viewers would not know the
difference between the ILWU, the ILA, or (for that matter, the IWW. It was a
good movie, but like Yeats's "Irish Airman," utterly vile as well.

Carrol