I'm gonna say this again, and keep saying it until someone gatdam hears me:
Unions in the 21st Century need "auxiliaries"; organizations appended to them where those forced to work without a union can pay a small dues and get something; like "burial insurance", group discounts offered to union members, some damn things; and can also be engaged in community with union members and organizers, on a soft, discreet level.
The 'labor aristocracy' that unions have become in 21st century America can not overcome the forces of Big Capital by themselves, fighting alone; they gotta find ways of including people shut out of their enclaves, to make a sufficient counter-force that Capital can't always identify or predict the effect of, to appear in the fight.
You gotta give them something, tho', these people stuck outside; you can't just expect them to climb up the wall themselves to you. It's a perfectly normal + acceptable question for a $9-an-hour worker to ask, "What's in it for me?".
Why?
Because there's almost nothing in anything on either side to help them survive right now, that's why. They ask that because they have to, because their energy is precious and limited; and they need most of it to make it to next month and next year.
Before you go to war with a bigger anthill, your hill should expand its colony and territory, any way it can.
You can't hope to have solidarity without affinity; and the union movement at present has forgotten how to build affinity with those left outside it by conditions beyond their control.
I'm going to miss you in Philly because the date just doesn't work for me. I lament the missed opportunity to shake your hand and offer gratitude and support. The book is important, and I've been telling every friend I know who needs to hear about it. Which is everyone.
Amen. Solidarity means solidarity with all workers (except the cops, fuck the cops)
"Those strikes were illegal, but it didn’t matter. Strikes are stronger than laws."
Being a runaway slave was illegal too at one point.
I'm gonna say this again, and keep saying it until someone gatdam hears me:
Unions in the 21st Century need "auxiliaries"; organizations appended to them where those forced to work without a union can pay a small dues and get something; like "burial insurance", group discounts offered to union members, some damn things; and can also be engaged in community with union members and organizers, on a soft, discreet level.
The 'labor aristocracy' that unions have become in 21st century America can not overcome the forces of Big Capital by themselves, fighting alone; they gotta find ways of including people shut out of their enclaves, to make a sufficient counter-force that Capital can't always identify or predict the effect of, to appear in the fight.
You gotta give them something, tho', these people stuck outside; you can't just expect them to climb up the wall themselves to you. It's a perfectly normal + acceptable question for a $9-an-hour worker to ask, "What's in it for me?".
Why?
Because there's almost nothing in anything on either side to help them survive right now, that's why. They ask that because they have to, because their energy is precious and limited; and they need most of it to make it to next month and next year.
Before you go to war with a bigger anthill, your hill should expand its colony and territory, any way it can.
This is true. Everyone in.
You can't hope to have solidarity without affinity; and the union movement at present has forgotten how to build affinity with those left outside it by conditions beyond their control.
That's a REALLY smart idea. And that kind of 'membership' would be a bellwether...a data set for gauging union interest.
I'm going to miss you in Philly because the date just doesn't work for me. I lament the missed opportunity to shake your hand and offer gratitude and support. The book is important, and I've been telling every friend I know who needs to hear about it. Which is everyone.
Thank you my man I appreciate your support.
a Strike Fund would be a wonderful thing, and a wonderful thing to debate/argue about