Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 17:33:52 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: Re: M-I: WSJ on labor's "opportunity"



Doug accuses the CPUSA of generating some unpleasant odors of its own:

>You could say [that] about the CPUSA, no? U.S. unions are corrupt,
>undemocratic, and often reactionary. They're better now than they were 3 or
>5 years ago, though, and that's a good thing for the working class. Hoffa
>and Feldman would represent serious steps back.


I generally agree, Doug, and I'm certainly not defending Hoffa or any
successor to Albert Shanker (he, along with Kirkland and Donahue, so far as
I am concerned, should have had their heads shaved and been marched down
Madison Avenue as war criminals).  On the other hand, experience has taught
me that people generally get the leadership they deserve.  Rank and file
Labor has sat there, squat and docile, for how long?  Fifty years?   When
times were good, they're quarrels were limited to bickering over wages and
privileges.  Now that times are not so good, they still bicker over wages
and privileges, only now they are getting a sense of the finite; they still
prefer capitalism in crisis, hoping that it will last out their time, to
actually getting up off their ass and doing something about it.  No one
knows why, it's just a fact of their nature.  

And, yes, I suppose you could say the same about the Commies.

Louis Godena



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