Die Neue Zeit
12th September 2011, 01:58
Late last year, long-time rank-and-file union activist and assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University, Kim Scipes, published an important book that draws much needed attention to the regressive impact that US labor has had, and is continuing to have, on radical activism the world over -- a significant issue that to date has been overlooked with tragic consequences by most progressive labor commentators.
For most people, it is obvious that international solidarity should be the bounding principle of any labor movement, but in practice this has not always been the case. Much of this has to do with the capitalist-aided rise of (unaccountable) labor leaders who speak of solidarity while practicing sabotage; sabotage that has cost the lives of countless workers struggling against the oppressive machinery of global capital. The fact that labor leaders (not rank-and-file activists) have so regularly sold-out workers to capitalists is despicable, but nevertheless in a world awash in capital it is quite understandable -- which is why reading Scipes's detailed exposition on the history of this misleadership is so important, especially for workers seeking to rectify this situation. Scipes notes that his...
... book makes three major claims: (1) the foreign policy program of the AFL-CIO (and the AFL before it) tries to dominate foreign labor movements, especially in developing countries and, therefore, is an imperialist foreign policy; since it comes from within the labor movement, it should be understood as being labor imperialism; (2) that this labor imperialism began before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, so it was not a reaction to the Bolsheviks, but rather preceded their efforts; and (3) while being designed to advance the interests of the U.S. Empire, it comes at the expense of developing country workers and, increasingly, at the expense of American working people -- ultimately, U.S. labor imperialism also hurts American workers. (p.xxiv)
Scipes calls for activists to intensify the struggle within the AFL-CIO and work on the urgent task of transforming the crippling American version of trade unionism "at least into social justice union forms of economic trade unionism, and preferably into social movement unionism." This will be no easy task. However, armed with the historical insights developed in his invaluable book, rank-and-file trade unionists will now at least be in a more favorable position to organize their fight to reclaim the labor movement: working to collectively transform the sordid history of labor imperialism into a democratic member-driven alternative that will assert the demands of popular democracy in the face of capitalism; thereby working to produce democracy, not Empire.
Full article: http://www.swans.com/library/art17/barker88.html
For most people, it is obvious that international solidarity should be the bounding principle of any labor movement, but in practice this has not always been the case. Much of this has to do with the capitalist-aided rise of (unaccountable) labor leaders who speak of solidarity while practicing sabotage; sabotage that has cost the lives of countless workers struggling against the oppressive machinery of global capital. The fact that labor leaders (not rank-and-file activists) have so regularly sold-out workers to capitalists is despicable, but nevertheless in a world awash in capital it is quite understandable -- which is why reading Scipes's detailed exposition on the history of this misleadership is so important, especially for workers seeking to rectify this situation. Scipes notes that his...
... book makes three major claims: (1) the foreign policy program of the AFL-CIO (and the AFL before it) tries to dominate foreign labor movements, especially in developing countries and, therefore, is an imperialist foreign policy; since it comes from within the labor movement, it should be understood as being labor imperialism; (2) that this labor imperialism began before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, so it was not a reaction to the Bolsheviks, but rather preceded their efforts; and (3) while being designed to advance the interests of the U.S. Empire, it comes at the expense of developing country workers and, increasingly, at the expense of American working people -- ultimately, U.S. labor imperialism also hurts American workers. (p.xxiv)
Scipes calls for activists to intensify the struggle within the AFL-CIO and work on the urgent task of transforming the crippling American version of trade unionism "at least into social justice union forms of economic trade unionism, and preferably into social movement unionism." This will be no easy task. However, armed with the historical insights developed in his invaluable book, rank-and-file trade unionists will now at least be in a more favorable position to organize their fight to reclaim the labor movement: working to collectively transform the sordid history of labor imperialism into a democratic member-driven alternative that will assert the demands of popular democracy in the face of capitalism; thereby working to produce democracy, not Empire.
Full article: http://www.swans.com/library/art17/barker88.html