Greetings Economists,
I just wanted to second what Marta wrote about SEIU and UDWA. I worked
in the IHSS program as a home care worker and was a minor part of the
organizing campaign for the SEIU drive to bring home care workers into the
union. There is an important distinction to be made in the way of the
disabled social movement in this case, where health care in institutional
work is organized to alienate disabled people as opposed to "independent"
living and there is a (deliberately) over looked social structure involved
to keep the disabled systemically exploited in institutions for reasons of
profits. It is important to look deeper into this division where corporate
health management uses their position of authority over health care to bind
disabled people into extreme oppression and what it socially means to get to
the bottom of those corporate policies.
SEIU is involved in organizing a lot of the janitors in Los Angeles.
There is a real attempt by that union to organize the unorganized which
while not enough is one of the more progressive areas in the union movement
in the U.S. I know nothing about UDWA, but I trust Marta knows a lot about
these issues. I'm not surprised that union reps don't respond to request
for interviews or whatever from Tim. I've been a shop steward in spread
thin areas of union representation. The problem Tim points out is a
backwards county lacks resources to organize properly. Which is sad. And
also why it is important to organize amongst the most oppressed in order
that the social issues start getting brought up and made a debate on the
left whatever the immediate contradictions seem to say. Whatever the look
and feel to Tim we can do something in the long run by exposing these issues
to deeper investigation and analysis.
It is one example of why Pen-L is important because we can educate each
other to the deeper meaning of things. For example, I think people often
will advocate killing babies because they might know through amnio centesis
know the baby has cystic fibrosis. Most often that sort of unchallenged
advocacy is done out of not investigating and understanding the nature of
oppression against disabled people. Picking out someone to kill because
their disability doesn't meet able bodied standards (ableism) is both common
and done without challenge. That is why standing up to those reactionary
attitudes is the very core of what the disability rights movement.
In that regard to Marta I stand with you proud!
thanks,
Doyle Saylor
