Re: Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
In 2000, Bill Clinton spoke at a LRA event. Front pg. photo in the NYT had a smiling Clinton and Hoffa, Jr. Michael Pugliese - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 1:50 PM Subject: [PEN-L:15004] Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left I know that this e-mail will create some controversy, but I think that it is a political issue that needs a full airing. In the last few weeks on LBO-Talk, someone made a comment, in passing, that suggested that Hoffa had not been such a bad leader of the Teamsters. I disagreed, but it didn't seem like it was more than a general impression on the part of the person or an issue of enough importance to pursue. In the last few days, however, another poster has sent to a number of left listservs a "report" on the Teamsters' recent Convention, which purports to demonstrate that the Teamsters under Hoffa are the most democratic and most successful of all American unions. Before this "report" becomes a basis for the verification of vague impressions, it is necessary to take a deeper look at what is going on here. The report forwarded on the Teamsters was written by Greg Tarpinian of the Labor Research Association, a group which has been a primary front group of the Communist Party with regard to its labor movement work. It continues a pro-Hoffa perspective that the LRA and the CPUSA has held since prior to the election of Hoffa. Why would the CPUSA take a position so contrary to the rank-and-file movement in the Teamsters Union? The answer is appallingly simple. The founders and leaders of Teamsters for a Democratic Union are, for the most part, Trotskyists, affiliated with the journal _Labor Notes_ and the organization Solidarity. Their Trotskyist roots go back decades to the original International Socialists group in the US. The CPUSA would rather team up with Hoffa Jr. then with a rank-and-file group led by Trotskyists. Now, I do want to make it clear that there are criticisms one can make of how TDU has conducted the struggle within the Teamsters, and on other occasions, I have made them here on LBO-Talk. But it is one thing to criticize from a position of solidarity with the efforts to democratize and cleanup the Teamsters; an entirely different thing to join with those who oppose democratization and clean unionism. There is no question but that Hoffa Jr. has been forced to make some major concessions on issues of union democracy, as the considerably more accurate report by David Moberg in _In These Times_ indicates. [http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2518/moberg2518.html] No doubt, too, TDU rhetoric about the imminent collapse of the Teamsters under Hoffa Jr. is hyperbolic. But there also is no question that every corrupt Teamsters' official and every organized crime element within the union supported Hoffa Jr. in the last election, and will do so again. There is no question that, whatever their faults, the future of union democracy and clean unionism in the Teamsters lies, for the immediately foreseeable future, with the TDU. It is rank opportunism of the worst sort that LRA and the CPUSA has teamed up with Hoffa Jr. Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869) Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
Re: Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
I am rushing out the door to go to Washington, DC for an AFT conference, so I may not do this full justice. The UFT has taken a position, for some time now, against abolishing the Board of Education and against direct mayoral control. Our view has historically been that there needs to be some intermediate body that can shield public education from direct political control. In the recent past, it has become clear that this stance can cut more than one way. At the same time that it denies the mayor direct political control, it also provides him an alibi in terms of accountability. I don't have control, Giuliani says, so I am not responsible. But because he does have the control of the purse strings, he can also make it financially impossible for the public schools to move ahead. This is particularly a problem with respect to the problem of underfunding by the state, since the state feels, with some justification, that everytime they increase funding to NYC public schools, the mayor decreases city funding by the same amount. The UFT recently adopted a position that would attempt to deal with this quandary. Our proposal is to give the mayor a majority of the appointments to the Board of Education, but to keep the Board as an independent agency. Would that work? I don't know, but it seems worth a try, given the current dilemma. The UFT does not support the position that Hillary took, therefore, of direct mayoral control. To be fair, however, it is also the position of all the Democratic mayoral candidates. There are issues here that extend beyond the reign of Giuliani. << Speaking of opportunism, Leo, what do you make of Hillary Clinton endorsing Rudy's position on abolishing the NYC Board of Ed, and putting the schools under mayoral control? What's the union's position on this? Doug >> Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869) Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
Re: Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
Leo, I can't comment on why Tarpinian and the LRA would take the ridiculous position that they do. But you mischaracterize the TDU and Labor Notes, something of which I have intimate knowledge,a t least wrt to Labor Notes. The founders and leaders of LN are _not_ Trots. Maybe some of them were a long time ago, I mean 15 or more years ago. Some of them are in my outfit, Soli, and we are not a Trot group. I am not a Trot. Kim Moody is not a Trot. Jane Slaughter and Mike Parker are Trots. As for TDU, many of the leaders are just ordinary rank and file militants whose ideology is union democracy, not Trotskyism, not even socialism. The socialists I know among the TDU leadership are not Trots. So you are mistaken. Moreover, the statement is harmful as well as wrong, as it could lead to red baiting in the union movement. So stop it. Personally, I suspect that a CP oriented group might just be attracted to union bureaucracies and opposed to rank and file militants and union democracy rather than opposedto Trots. But I don't make any characterizations of LRA or Tarpinian, except wrong-headed on this matter. If your take on who is a Commie is as accurate as your take on who is a Trot, the LRA & T are not Commies. --jks > >Why would the CPUSA take a position so contrary to the rank-and-file >movement >in the Teamsters Union? The answer is appallingly simple. The founders and >leaders of Teamsters for a Democratic Union are, for the most part, >Trotskyists, affiliated with the journal _Labor Notes_ and the organization >Solidarity. Their Trotskyist roots go back decades to the original >International Socialists group in the US. The CPUSA would rather team up >with >Hoffa Jr. then with a rank-and-file group led by Trotskyists. > _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
Re: Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
Speaking of opportunism, Leo, what do you make of Hillary Clinton endorsing Rudy's position on abolishing the NYC Board of Ed, and putting the schools under mayoral control? What's the union's position on this? Doug
Re: Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >The report forwarded on the Teamsters was written by Greg Tarpinian of the >Labor Research Association, a group which has been a primary front group of >the Communist Party with regard to its labor movement work. It continues a >pro-Hoffa perspective that the LRA and the CPUSA has held since prior to the >election of Hoffa. > >Why would the CPUSA take a position so contrary to the rank-and-file movement >in the Teamsters Union? Leaving aside the Hoffa question for the moment, as far as I know, Tarpinian is no longer associated with the CPUSA. As I recall, his ex-wife was Gus Hall's secretary, but he split with both the wife and the party some years ago. It's quite possible that old habits die hard, and that he's taking an anti-Trot position, but I don't think it's out of following Party discipline. Doug
Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left
I know that this e-mail will create some controversy, but I think that it is a political issue that needs a full airing. In the last few weeks on LBO-Talk, someone made a comment, in passing, that suggested that Hoffa had not been such a bad leader of the Teamsters. I disagreed, but it didn't seem like it was more than a general impression on the part of the person or an issue of enough importance to pursue. In the last few days, however, another poster has sent to a number of left listservs a "report" on the Teamsters' recent Convention, which purports to demonstrate that the Teamsters under Hoffa are the most democratic and most successful of all American unions. Before this "report" becomes a basis for the verification of vague impressions, it is necessary to take a deeper look at what is going on here. The report forwarded on the Teamsters was written by Greg Tarpinian of the Labor Research Association, a group which has been a primary front group of the Communist Party with regard to its labor movement work. It continues a pro-Hoffa perspective that the LRA and the CPUSA has held since prior to the election of Hoffa. Why would the CPUSA take a position so contrary to the rank-and-file movement in the Teamsters Union? The answer is appallingly simple. The founders and leaders of Teamsters for a Democratic Union are, for the most part, Trotskyists, affiliated with the journal _Labor Notes_ and the organization Solidarity. Their Trotskyist roots go back decades to the original International Socialists group in the US. The CPUSA would rather team up with Hoffa Jr. then with a rank-and-file group led by Trotskyists. Now, I do want to make it clear that there are criticisms one can make of how TDU has conducted the struggle within the Teamsters, and on other occasions, I have made them here on LBO-Talk. But it is one thing to criticize from a position of solidarity with the efforts to democratize and cleanup the Teamsters; an entirely different thing to join with those who oppose democratization and clean unionism. There is no question but that Hoffa Jr. has been forced to make some major concessions on issues of union democracy, as the considerably more accurate report by David Moberg in _In These Times_ indicates. [http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2518/moberg2518.html] No doubt, too, TDU rhetoric about the imminent collapse of the Teamsters under Hoffa Jr. is hyperbolic. But there also is no question that every corrupt Teamsters' official and every organized crime element within the union supported Hoffa Jr. in the last election, and will do so again. There is no question that, whatever their faults, the future of union democracy and clean unionism in the Teamsters lies, for the immediately foreseeable future, with the TDU. It is rank opportunism of the worst sort that LRA and the CPUSA has teamed up with Hoffa Jr. Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869) Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
