Thanks for this piece. Reminds me of Hoffa/Nixon, though there are no Kennedy's breathing down the IBT's neck. We need to go a little deeper into that social function of elections in capitalist society. There is virtually no mass discussion now of what elections actually are, how they mask the dictatorship of the capitalist class, what the workers’ direct action alternative to elections is. Yet the quick spread of anti-genocide encampments in universities, like the rise in strikes and union organizing, shows that direct action is again on the agenda. That direct action in itself tends to unmask the electoral trap, the con-game of elections: how could the young people facing cops and thugs and expulsions and jail in the anti-genocide encampments bring themselves to vote for Joe Biden, who has presided over the exterminist assault on Gaza? The 1960s civil rights and antiwar militants faced the same fraud of the electoral system: how on earth could we vote for a Democrat after what we’d seen them do in Vietnam? And since Vietnam U.S. imperialism has just gone from bad to worse. So we need to revive mass discussion, deep critique, of elections as a system of capitalist rule.
Hey, on May Day I spoke with you about speaking at our Delegate Assembly. I was thinking maybe a book signing either Friday or Saturday evening, October 11 or 12. Does something like that work?
Unionized labor pretty much fixes all of it. If there is anything approximating a panacea for what ails America, unionized labor is hands-down the closest thing to it, or that we could ever get to it.
i love the idea of more people being involved in labor organizing! however, in practice I'm curious what the options are for people who are not traditional employees. for instance, contract workers, or even people who are self employed. in my field (mental health), most providers are either contractors or self employed so we're not legally allowed to unionize because we can be accused of price fixing! of course in reality what that does is make it impossible to collectively bargain for more consistent and higher insurance payments, protection against insurance company clawbacks, etc. our professional associations (there are several depending on one's degree and or license), basically only do legislative advocacy - not nothing but also not really in the trenches in the way that some unions are doing. the only way I've found to address this is by talking individually with other people in my field but it's no substitute for collective action.
Hello from Russia! Independent unionizing here is basically unlawful and there is no real right to strike. Curiously, the most militant and successful strikes are conducted by contract workers and self-employed. Though they cannot demand union contract they can, in fact, get what they want by sheer force of a strike
How come no mention of Biden and the Democrats brutal suppression of the Railroad Workers Strike? We just had another rail worker killed a week ago. I get the Railroad Workers Union newsletter and there are regular reports of rail worker deaths due to corporate incompetence, budget cutting and the corporate and uniparty view that workers are no more than disposable tool manipulators.
The political system is so rotted out by corporate money that the parties are essentially one big uniparty ponzi scheme. We need far more than corrupt uniparty politics. We need targeted strikes and boycotts, general strikes, wildcat strikes, sit-ins and occupations. Workers need to grasp and exercise the power they have and bring the whole criminal enterprise of the uniparty scam to a grinding halt.
We need action.
When you have a political system that poops out an addled, meandering, MBNA bankster bro hack like Biden or a corrupt megalomaniac scam artist like Trump as your only two choices, it's time to recognize the game is up. All the gears and valves of the political machine are rusted, rotted and stolen. Time to start over. We live in a deadly mockery of democracy, so dreaming the political tools of democracy will somehow right things is a dangerous, time and energy wasting diversion.
When rail workers are sold out and betrayed by the uniparty it doesn't just affect rail workers, it places every community those trains roll through at great risk, as was proven with the rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, which spread toxic chemicals to over a dozen other states. Keeping workers safe makes communities safe. The uniparty doesn't give a flip.
O'Brien is busily perpetuating the myth that workers have only two real choices. If he was a true reformer, he might consider lending his bully pulpit as well as some of his expansive treasury to do what Tony Mazzocchi did, build a real working class alternative. Instead he appears to be auditioning for Suckretary of Labor.
I wonder what Teamsters staff (as opposed to Teamsters management) think about this - musing on this as it relates to the NEA locking its own staff out and state subsidiaries also negotiating in bad faith with their own staff.
Occam’s razor suggests Mr. O’Brien, seeing as the IBT votes via direct election (meaning one member, one vote) is simply in self preservation mode, attempting to shore up the vote of the high school educated white male, which primarily makes up his membership. In other words, he’s trying to protect his cushy job and taking the path of least resistance to do so.
I wouldnt be so sure as a union ironworker for over 28 years and 10 years in other union trades in NYC I would suggest that the numbers are closer to 50-50.
My exact same thoughts and sentiments. Teamsters have been betrayed by their president. I'm glad some people are speaking out because my own audience is vanishingly small.
trump will go down in history as one of, if not thee greatest con men ever…O Brian is just another one of his marks… teamsters beware your leadership is shaken…
I opened my email and saw “Hamilton Nolan” with a subject line of “You Patsy” and I was immediately like “Oh god, what’d I do?”
Ha! Me too.
LOL!
oh... life is about the honest unfiltered reactions of others, sharing the unexpected. you made me snort!
Thank you for sharing this! Beautiful.
Oh phew, I'm glad it wasn't just me. I was girding up to be personally attacked by HamNo and clearing out a corner to cry in.
Thanks for this piece. Reminds me of Hoffa/Nixon, though there are no Kennedy's breathing down the IBT's neck. We need to go a little deeper into that social function of elections in capitalist society. There is virtually no mass discussion now of what elections actually are, how they mask the dictatorship of the capitalist class, what the workers’ direct action alternative to elections is. Yet the quick spread of anti-genocide encampments in universities, like the rise in strikes and union organizing, shows that direct action is again on the agenda. That direct action in itself tends to unmask the electoral trap, the con-game of elections: how could the young people facing cops and thugs and expulsions and jail in the anti-genocide encampments bring themselves to vote for Joe Biden, who has presided over the exterminist assault on Gaza? The 1960s civil rights and antiwar militants faced the same fraud of the electoral system: how on earth could we vote for a Democrat after what we’d seen them do in Vietnam? And since Vietnam U.S. imperialism has just gone from bad to worse. So we need to revive mass discussion, deep critique, of elections as a system of capitalist rule.
You are doing the work Larry!
Hey, on May Day I spoke with you about speaking at our Delegate Assembly. I was thinking maybe a book signing either Friday or Saturday evening, October 11 or 12. Does something like that work?
Those dates might be tough but email me-- Hamilton.Nolan@gmail.com
Unionized labor pretty much fixes all of it. If there is anything approximating a panacea for what ails America, unionized labor is hands-down the closest thing to it, or that we could ever get to it.
i love the idea of more people being involved in labor organizing! however, in practice I'm curious what the options are for people who are not traditional employees. for instance, contract workers, or even people who are self employed. in my field (mental health), most providers are either contractors or self employed so we're not legally allowed to unionize because we can be accused of price fixing! of course in reality what that does is make it impossible to collectively bargain for more consistent and higher insurance payments, protection against insurance company clawbacks, etc. our professional associations (there are several depending on one's degree and or license), basically only do legislative advocacy - not nothing but also not really in the trenches in the way that some unions are doing. the only way I've found to address this is by talking individually with other people in my field but it's no substitute for collective action.
More info on this: https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/what-can-i-do-to-help-the-labor-movement
Hello from Russia! Independent unionizing here is basically unlawful and there is no real right to strike. Curiously, the most militant and successful strikes are conducted by contract workers and self-employed. Though they cannot demand union contract they can, in fact, get what they want by sheer force of a strike
zdrastvuyte! wow, that's very interesting. thank you for sharing, I'll have to look that up!
You can look it up there (use translator to read): 1) about strike in Russian Amazon-like company https://september.media/ru/articles/wildberries-strike-ru
2) about strikes in Uber Eats-like companies https://zona.media/article/2023/01/31/courier
I tried to post this on Facebook and was kicked off for trying to do so. America, where are you?
You're the third person who told me this. As I suspected, Mark Zuckerberg is controlled by the Teamsters.
My link to post was booted within a minute.
How come no mention of Biden and the Democrats brutal suppression of the Railroad Workers Strike? We just had another rail worker killed a week ago. I get the Railroad Workers Union newsletter and there are regular reports of rail worker deaths due to corporate incompetence, budget cutting and the corporate and uniparty view that workers are no more than disposable tool manipulators.
The political system is so rotted out by corporate money that the parties are essentially one big uniparty ponzi scheme. We need far more than corrupt uniparty politics. We need targeted strikes and boycotts, general strikes, wildcat strikes, sit-ins and occupations. Workers need to grasp and exercise the power they have and bring the whole criminal enterprise of the uniparty scam to a grinding halt.
We need action.
When you have a political system that poops out an addled, meandering, MBNA bankster bro hack like Biden or a corrupt megalomaniac scam artist like Trump as your only two choices, it's time to recognize the game is up. All the gears and valves of the political machine are rusted, rotted and stolen. Time to start over. We live in a deadly mockery of democracy, so dreaming the political tools of democracy will somehow right things is a dangerous, time and energy wasting diversion.
When rail workers are sold out and betrayed by the uniparty it doesn't just affect rail workers, it places every community those trains roll through at great risk, as was proven with the rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, which spread toxic chemicals to over a dozen other states. Keeping workers safe makes communities safe. The uniparty doesn't give a flip.
You can subscribe to the Railroad Workers Union newsletter here: https://www.railroadworkersunited.org/
Note :While a grandfather worked as a rail postal worker back in the 1930s, I am not a rail worker, but am a fan of the Railroad Workers Union.
"We are not beholden to anyone, or any party." He said, at a major party's convention.
Also I read about this in the American Prospect and I was waiting for your response. You did not disappoint.
Excellent. I hope we are not whistling in the wind.
O'Brien is busily perpetuating the myth that workers have only two real choices. If he was a true reformer, he might consider lending his bully pulpit as well as some of his expansive treasury to do what Tony Mazzocchi did, build a real working class alternative. Instead he appears to be auditioning for Suckretary of Labor.
Posted to FB without comment, they removed it. Why? What’s their algorithm reacting to?
Powerful.
Facebook removed my post when I posted this. I see it's happening to others.
I wonder what Teamsters staff (as opposed to Teamsters management) think about this - musing on this as it relates to the NEA locking its own staff out and state subsidiaries also negotiating in bad faith with their own staff.
Occam’s razor suggests Mr. O’Brien, seeing as the IBT votes via direct election (meaning one member, one vote) is simply in self preservation mode, attempting to shore up the vote of the high school educated white male, which primarily makes up his membership. In other words, he’s trying to protect his cushy job and taking the path of least resistance to do so.
Certainly a factor but the majority of Teamsters are not Trump voters.
I wouldnt be so sure as a union ironworker for over 28 years and 10 years in other union trades in NYC I would suggest that the numbers are closer to 50-50.
By far the most accurate assessment of O'Brien's motivation. Amazing how how the racism is just not mentioned.
My exact same thoughts and sentiments. Teamsters have been betrayed by their president. I'm glad some people are speaking out because my own audience is vanishingly small.
trump will go down in history as one of, if not thee greatest con men ever…O Brian is just another one of his marks… teamsters beware your leadership is shaken…
Facebook removed my post when I posted this. I see it's happening to others.
Oh, is that why? Facebook just takes down bullshit? That's definitely news, considering how much bullshit they let spread over the last 2 decades.