Differences in understanding, vision and theory underpinning have never translated in my world as a reason not to work together to accomplish a common objective. Then, again, I grew up in Union Town USA . . . Detroit. Unions - industrial trade union especially, combine into association, skilled and unskilled, political fascists and the most left wing communists, Stalinist and anarchists around one common objective: wages and conditions of labor. The article, "US Auto Workers and Their Union Face Many Challenge" by John Rummel, apparently his "Report to the National Committee of the Communist Party June 24, 2006" contained information and approach to the question of unity of the trade unions and labor that has been a constant theme in our working class movement forever. What is clear to me is that the UAW as it exists is doomed to extinction and this is not the result of factories "running way" overseas, as such, but the unretractable shrinking and destruction of the old industrial form of the working class, in its fundamental character. A bitter lesson many of us discovered years ago is the impossibility of uniting a well paid worker with a poorly paid workers on the basis of the demands of the well paid workers - in unions. The truth of the matter is that all better paid workers in America and perhaps the world today, know that their better pay exist as the direct result of a mass of laborers being badly paid. That is why folks acquire skills, education, trade, etc. Then the color factor remains a huge divide in America, even when the workers are paid the same wages. Baker's story is instructive and reveals the real time dynamics of what we are faced with in the labor movement and problems of the trade union movement. Baker's story is credible and authenticate and he is a former Vice Presidents (if memory serves me correct) of one of the Ford Local 600 - Rouge, buildings. I ran Baker's speech because be does not approach the problem from the standpoint of "American Jobs running away overseas" . . . and calling for building more factories in America as the solution or partial solution to this stage of the crisis of the industrial system and value production. Baker's approach is different and calls for defense of the bottom of the social ladder. "Only by uniting with the goals of those on the bottom can we uplift all of society." Then of course I am a retired autoworker from the Daimler/Chrysler division, so I called a few people to get the current facts about the companies effort to create a system of "throw away" workers. My information is pretty valid and time accurate. A complex struggle and shift is taking place in the UAW. Melvin P.
_______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
