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:: Sunday, August 29, 2004 ::

Unity and the grass roots are labor’s real power Author: Scott Marshall, People's Weekly World
Number one is unity. Everyone agrees that organized labor is too small. That makes unity all the more important. In the face of corporate globalization and big business attack there should not be even the hint of splitting labor. It is enough of a problem that the Carpenters, a NUP union, left the AFL-CIO. Any idea of further divisions in labor would be disastrous. Most in labor, from the AFL-CIO leadership to the rank-and-file, feel the need for big change to make unions more effective, more democratic, and more strategic, with the aim to organize the millions of unorganized. But those changes need to be debated out and made within a framework of guaranteeing unity. Unity is the heart and soul of union power.

Number two is rank-and-file power. The debate on necessary changes in labor has to come from the bottom up. That doesn’t mean there is no role for leadership in promoting and helping to develop the ideas for change. It does mean that the debate has to fully engage rank-and-file union members at all levels, from the shop floor, to the union halls, to the central labor councils. An idea only becomes a material force when it is the property of the grass roots. After many years of debate and agitation, industrial unionism only replaced narrow craft unionism when millions of workers in the basic industries were ready and convinced to organize on an industrial basis and give this new idea a try.

posted 8:53 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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