Marvin Gandall wrote: > > I regularly vote for the > social-democratic NDP in Canada. But I think it's worth pointing out, > for the purposes of your debate, that I don't do so because I think the > party, in the unlikely event it should take power at the national level, > will govern much differently than the Liberals or Conservatives. The NDP > 's history of governing at the provincial level in the West and in > Ontario shows this to not be the case. > > What attracts me to the party is its social composition. It's where the > trade union and social movement activists are to be found,
Hypothesis: Trade Unions are actively left in their politics ONLY during their early stages, when the chief issue is establishing the right to exist. Once that right is established, they rapidly cease to be an element in left politics. At the present time, with only scattered exceptions, one will not, in the u.s., find social activists _and_ trade union leadership in the same social/political locations. In most instances of radical activists inside the trade-union movement you are more apt to meet those activists in organizations separate from the trade union itself. And, of course, in the u.s. the membership in unions has shrunk to the point where it makes up an extremely small proportion of non-public employees. If we want to "reach" the "working class" our efforts for the most part will have to be directed to non-union workers. My wife was president of the APWU local for many years, and also served on the County AFL-CIO Central Council. It doesn't take two hands to count the number of "activists" she met in those years. Before being employed in the Post Office she had led for a number of years an organizing committee (variously attached to AFSCME, NEA, & SEIU) among clerical employees at Illinois State U. I make these observations to emphasize that I am _not_ talking from a vantage point outside the union movement. I'm for unions, not against them, but leftists at the present time simply should not fool themselves into thinking, again _at the present time_, unions are a very important locus for leftist activity. Carrol Carrol
