You have a proud history as a militant, John, but you were pushing a very heavy rock up a very steep hill as a member of a craft union and it may well have coloured your dark view of the labour movement. As at the political level, the long historical relationship with the employing class has ranged from collaboration to struggle with many shades in between. When I was involved in the Canadian federal government sector, its dozen or so unions ran the gamut from the collaborationist IBEW, whose leader headed the union side of the joint consultation forum which engaged in “collective begging”, to the militant postal workers whose leader JC Parrot served a two month jail term for leading the union’s defiance of a back to work order.
The spectrum began to narrow when the Communists were purged from the trade unions at the onset of the Cold War. But far more than the loss of that left-wing leadership, what has really sapped working class militancy have been the effects of automation, outsourcing, and contracting out in our lifetime. The industrial unions have been decimated and unlike the long period preceding the Cold War when the labour movement was on on the rise, they have seen it waging mainly defensive battles in support of members' demands for layoff protection and buyout packages while strike action and other expressions of working class militancy in support of better pay, benefits, and working conditions have fallen off a cliff since the 80’s. Even Eugene Debs would not make much difference in these circumstances, although I’d join with him as I would have with John in trying rather than capitulating. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42466): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42466 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120140354/21656 -=-=- 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/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
