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In the current Jacobin issue on labor, Sam Gindin has an article which correctly details the promise and pitfalls of "social movement unionism." He astutely points to the organizational superiority in size and (potentially)in more democratic functioning of unions compared to amorphous, smaller and often less democratic (for all the talk of horizontalism) social movements. He also correctly stresses the need for unions to expand their scope to take up the class needs of members and their families and neighbors outside of work. He concludes with a section on the need for a socialist party to provide vanguard elements to push all that. Still, he's vague and confusing about exactly what kind of party it should be. Which in a way is appropriate: For lack of a clear version of what kind of party was needed, he and his partner in crime Leo Panitch fell back on the "realist" school of party-building represented so sickeningly by Syriza, i.e., threaten the ruling class that you'll stand up to them, but be sure to leave yourself room to climb down when the "realities" of class forces demand. And save your venom for any genuine leftist who would dare scream "betrayal!" For years I've been telling friends that anything Jeffrey Sachs says about reducing poverty is not worth listening to given his role as architect of genocidal austerity in the former workers' states. The parallel here is that I can never again take seriously any radical propositions put forward by Gindin after the yeoman's service he performed for the sell-outs in Athens. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/beyond-social-movement-unionism/ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
