Re: [PEN-L] Battleground: NW Ohio

[Waistline2]

In a message dated 10/19/2004 5:34:14 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:   >>> Eventually, leftists have to get out of the racist/sexist 19th century in their understanding of class. The majority of "blue-collar" workers (in so far as the phrase has any meaning at all) are women, black men, latinos, and immigrants (legal and illegal). Moreover, industrial workers make up a small proportion of the working class, and unionized workers make up a minority of industrial workers. Were it not for AFSCME, NEA, AFT, and SEIU the union movement (in numbers) would be insiginificant. (Hope Michael Hoover is around to correct this, because it probably includes some important errors, but its general thrust is basic).   You can make a "start" in understanding class in the US,  if you recognize that the movement of the '60s (all sectors) was a working-class movement. Understanding of class that can't incorporate this fact at their core simply are living in another century.   In any case, it seems (and not just in the U.S.) that for the most part labor unions are politically radical only when the issues are either (a) the right to unionize or (b) hours of labor. This list (with Tom Walker's constant needling) ought to be sensitive to the latter point.   Leftists will get nowhere until they free themselves from the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, NOW, and the DP. In specific local situtations individual leftists or local left groups can work with particular AFL-CIO locals or even the NAACP, but not with the DP, nor with the national and state leaderships of any of the DP fronts named.   Carrol<<<   Comment   Damn.   Brilliant.   I agree.   The "Million Worker March," which turned out several thousand of peoples, does not need to be over analyzed but understood.     Man, Ohio is no joke and its industrial class when into rebellion in a big way when General Motors build its futuristic plant in the 1970s. Right now I forget the details but I do not forget the rebellion.   I still hate driving through Ohio and their particular organization of highway patrol men, although the peoples have been "up and down" with me for a lifetime. On the balance, it depends how close you are to Toledo.     Peace.   Melvin P.