Comments on: Heat and Light over the Wisconsin Uprising: On Unions

By: Jeffrey Goldfarb

Jeffrey Goldfarb — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Yes, but I am not sure that this is true as Goldberg highlighted in one of his responses.

By: ra

ra — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:43:00 +0000

I think the central point of Henwood’s critique is that unions need to have a broad class focus, rather than one limited to their membership and sectional fights:

Though unions sometimes help out in living wage campaigns, they’re too interested in their own wages and benefits and not the needs of the broader working class. Public sector workers rarely make common cause with the consumers of public services, be they schools, health care, or transit.

By: Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Jeffrey C. Goldfarb — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:56:00 +0000

In fact, John, I think you are pointing to something very important. Over reliance on any particular strategy, whether it is elections or a general strike is foolish, understanding the limitation of different sorts of action is essential. And people will see these things differently. “The left” as a unit needn’t decide these matters, different people with different judgments and resources will act differently, ideally in a way that is mutually supportive. Putting loads of resources for us generally is a matter of our labor and commitments. I say here as I said earlier: let a thousand flowers bloom. In relation to Doug and those who condemn Obama and people who support Obama, our task is not to get in the way of others seeking justice. No magic solution, but a sure fire way of no solution is blocking others who seek one. Tell a young undocumented person that there is no difference today, or one of our students who can be covered by the parents insurance. But that is for our next post.

By: Jkrinsky Ccny

Jkrinsky Ccny — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Just a short comment on what still seems a bit more like heat rather than loads more light: nonelectoral work is often as good or better in terms of educating than electoral work. In fact, it might be good to keep in mind that if we want to talk about educative functions of activism, we should be clear about what lessons we think we’re learning. Without actually agreeing wholeheartedly with Doug, I think the point that one of the lessons of the defeat in Wisconsin is that putting loads of resources into electoral work involves some opportunity costs that should be taken seriously by labor and by progressives.

At the same time, a huge lesson that one learns from historical defeats is that the defeated group–often the left–is much more susceptible to sectarianism and sectarian kinds of argument that aren’t necessarily all that constructive….