Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 13:00:52 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Scott=20Hamilton?= <s_h_hamilton-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: US labor against the war, etc



As if I'm sowing illsuions in the AFL-CIO! What I'm
saying is that workers won't leap straight from apathy
or (better) reformism to revolutionary positions and
revolutionary bottom-up unions. You seem to expect
workers to become instant revolutionaries after
reading abstract propaganda. If they don't, then
you're prepared to write off what they do in the same
way that you wrote off the non-revolutionary anti-war
movement. 

We have to create steps to revolutionary positions and
forms of organisation by putting forward good tactics
and demands. So, if a reformist union votes to strike
against war, we say: elect a recallable rank and file
commmitte to run the strike, don't leave it in the
hands of the tops. That's a step in the right
direction. Of course in our more detailed propaganda
we spell out the links between capitalism and war,
make the pitch for socialism etc but stuff like this
cannot replace concrete short-term demands and
tactics.

Tonight we found out that the blue collar National
Distribution Union, which has 1,500 delegates, has
endorsed and advertised the anti-war demo in Auckland
next Saturday. As far as I know this is the first time
a group of organised industrial workers has entered
the anti-war movement here. Yet the NDU's official
position is that the war is bad because it is not
endorsed by the UN. So what we do about this? Do we
refuse to march with the NDU contingent on Saturday?
Do we call them imperialists? Or do we follow the
ANSWER/Laura line of least resistance and refuse to
criticise them in the name of uniting the largest
possible forces? 

What we have to do is engage with where they are at
without adapting to where they are at, ie to their
backward position. So we can say 'look at the UN's
history of doing XYZ, you can't afford to have
confidence in them, and look at the example of the
Aussie workers who have pledged to take industrial
action - that's a better alternative'. This isn't
selling out, it's concretising our politics. If we
just said 'your leaders are scumbags (which they
are!), dump them, form a new revolutionary union and
overthrow capitalism' they would look at us and roll
their eyeballs.  

As to the relative merits of the USLAW and IWW
resolutions: have you read them both? I have no idea
what the background to USLAW is, but there can be no
question that there resolution is far superior. It
puts no faith in the US govt to act progressively, but
rather calls for workers to act in their own
interests. 


 

===="Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---