File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9712, message 329


Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 19:49:35 -0500 (EST)
From: "Bruce D. Burleson" <anvil-AT-tiac.net>
Subject: Re: M-I: Rank and file committees






On Fri, 19 Dec 1997, Lew wrote:

> Rank and file committees within the unions tend to be manipulative,
> divisive and ultimately counter productive. 


Total baloney.  Rank-and-file committees are a great way for workers
with advanced political ideas to share them, in the course of struggle,
with workers whose ideas are backward.


> In order to be effective,
> unions have to seek to organise all workers irresespective of the fact
> that they are divided in their political views. Allowing the unions to
> dominated by one or other leftist organisation promotes division not
> unity. The leftist organisations which go in for this kind of thing do
> so because they see it as an easier way of gaining influence among
> workers, when those workers ordinarily woudn't touch them with a barge
> pole.


Again, baloney.  I think it all has to do with HOW the leftists 
approach the union.  If it is done in a sectarian way (i.e. thrusting
newspapers in the faces of workers on a picket line) and not a
way that contributes in a positive way to the struggle (e.g., building
solidarity committees, making coffee on the picket line, helping
workers who are out of strike funds), then your point is valid.  But
again it all depends on what the strategy is.


> Unions can be effective tools for resisting the downward pressure on
> wages and conditions. But to be effective it requires a memebership who
> are prepared to get involved in the running of their union, and not to
> leave it to the well-entrenched full-time leadership. In the long run,
> however, this is only a defensive rearguard action - running fast just
> to stand still - and their real interest is in revolutionary political
> action. This is not something that unions can do.


Well, what an ultraleft argument if I ever heard one.  Why don't we
just write off the unions, then, since Lew thinks they're now irrelevant
to the struggle for revolution?

How idiotic.  Unions are why we have a WEEKEND, not to mention child
labor laws, overtime laws, and (in the U.S.) OSHA.  Hello?

Bruce Burleson




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