Blacks Caught in the Middle of Organized Labor’s ‘Train Wreck’ - by Bill Fletcher Jr., Chicago Defender
No attempt has been made by either side in this debate to bring the debate to the members. The members have not been asked their opinions, nor has there been much effort toward constructive and principled debates. Instead members find themselves feeling that they are at the base of Mount Olympus while the gods fight out the final battle thousands of feet above their heads.
Ironically, a debate needs to take place, but it needs to be reframed in its entirety, a thought that probably scares the leaders rather than the members. It needs to be a debate about a compelling vision for the future of workers in the U.S.A., not to mention the rest of the world. It needs to be a debate about what sorts of strategies work in the face of dramatic changes in the economy, including the way that work is done, and the fact that growing numbers of people are not working in the formal economy at all.