On Sat, Jul 13, 2024 at 08:58 PM, Mark Baugher wrote: > > >> Charlie wrote: >> >> Taking the heads of major trade unions as representing the state of class >> consciousness?!!! > > Weren't they elected?
Yes, though some are first appointed as staff reps eligible to run for elected office higher up. They mostly rise from the ranks as local officers and stewards in their workplaces, part of the small activist core which is more union-conscious than the mass of the members they represent. Politically, they disproportionately favour left-centre parties. In Canada, for example, a significantly higher percentage of active trade unionists support the NDP and to a lesser extent groups further to the left than the working class population which usually votes for the Liberals or Conservatives. This was so in my time and I don’t think things have much changed. It's fair to say that the class and political consciousness of local and national union leaders is not only in tune with but is, if anything, slightly to the left of the class as a whole. This contradicts the widely view on the far left that the ranks are more militant than the union leadership which is holding them back and selling them out. It's true that the perks of power and the interactions of union leaders with employers and politicians at the top distances them from their base and encourages class collaboration rather than confrontation. But not always. They're prepared to promote strike action and other forms of confrontation when they perceive the relationship of forces to be in the union's favour - usually when material conditions see labour in short supply and workers worrying more about inflation than finding another job if necessary. The reverse is true when unemployment is high and working class mobility and confidence is low. In both cases, the behaviour of the leadership is typically conditioned by the mood of their members and not in contradiction to it. The trade union leaders mentioned on this thread each fit the profile. O’Brien was a trucker who hauled equipment to construction sites as well as an activist in his Boston local. Fain worked as an electrician at a auto parts plant in Indiana and was a leader in the UAW local there. Both rose through the ranks, led rank and file insurgencies against entrenched and more conservative union leaderships, and secured popular agreements with the leading employers in their industries which reversed years of concession bargaining. I’m pointing out where the consciousness of the working class is at, not where we would like it to be, and I don't see the same dichotomy between the trade union leadership and the base that Charlie and others do. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31157): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31157 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107175980/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
