Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 14:14:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jeffrey Booth <booth2-AT-husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: re: labour aristocracy



Jon,
	I realize that replying to an e-mail message from June 19th now,
almost a week later, is some sort of cyber-space sin... but I just got
around to reading your message today and something you said at the end
really caught my eye. "Will thousands of U.S. workers march next May Day
in Mexico city?"  I guess you were being ironic but think about it:  what
a great idea!  I'm serious.  Why can't we (the Labor movement and some of
the Left) organize a sizable contingent to hook up with the F.A.T. next
May Day in Mexico city?!?  I realize this would be extremely difficult but
not impossible.  The Teamsters, UNITE!, the U.E. and other unions have
been doing work in Mexico and could help.  The Labor Party could help. 
Imagine a big U.S. contingent:  what a boost for international solidarity! 
It would be amazing and would capture people's imagination if a serious
effort were made. 

	Whaddya think?

			In All Seriousness,
					    Jeff Booth	  		

On 19 Jun 1996, Jon Flanders wrote:

>  >> One qusetion; could all the members of the working class, world
>  wide, drive new cars every three years? If the answer is no, then
>  you have to face the fact that some members of the working class
>  - the working class being defined as those who depend on selling
>  their labour power - are going to have to lessen their current
>  rate of consumption. Either that or you are going to have to
>  redifine who belongs to the working class. <<R. Hickman
> 
>  Jon Flanders:
> 
>   As a card-carrying member of the Labour Aristocrats, railroad branch, I
> would like to comment on this discussion.
> 
>   In our railroad yard, we have acres of new cars out of Detroit and Japan,
> headed for all points. It is becoming more and more galling to those of us who
> work next to them to realize that our chances of buying one grow less and less
> each year.
> 
> 
> 
>   The way a few of us have obtained new vehicles is through winning the
> railroad lottery, ie. suing after an injury. I know of an electrician who cut
> off his thumb and won enough to buy a snazzy Camaro.
> 
>    Of course, most US workers are aristocrats in the sense that we drive cars
> at all. And it will take a few more years of high mileage driving to wake up
> the class to their comradeship with workers of the third world.
>  Will my Olds make it to 200,000 miles? Will thousands of US workers march
> next May Day in Mexico City? Stay tuned.
> 
>   E-mail from: Jonathan E. Flanders, 19-Jun-1996
> 
> 
> 
> 
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