Activist Class War
posted Nov. 22 - 5:50 pm by Paula E. Kirman
Sam Gindin touched upon unions and how they are run during his talk on Saturday afternoon. I know several people who are for worker's rights, but are anti-union. Why? They are too top-down. The executives who run the unions get rich off of union fees, while little of the wealth is passed along to the workers. This is first of all a generalization - not all unions work that way. Secondly, this is not a problem with unions in and of themselves - it is a problem with the way unions are run. I agree that a more grassroots approach is needed.
And then, there are some groups of workers viewed by other groups as elitist. Auto workers, where Gindin was involved with for much of his professional life, is one such group. Judy Rebick even talked a but about these apparent class wars between workers and activists when talking about the slow food movement. While seeming at first a bourgeois gourmet movement, by looking beneath the surface and actually listening to what these activists have to say, it becomes apparent that there are levels of activism that range from ethical sourcing of food to a more pleasurable lifestyle.
Activist are familiar with the term "class war" as referring to the differences between the socio-economic levels. When we become involved in "class wars" between different factions of our community, we devolve into what becomes lack of cooperation towards our greater cause: trying to create and contribute to a better economic system than we have.
Control of unions needs to be in the hands of the workers as much as possible. As well, activists from all different struggles need to view each other as comrades instead of judging each other based upon their issues of choice. Otherwise, we become disorganized and pawns in the capitalist game.
