Democrats screw over unions for the nth time

[DaringMehring]

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/15/obama_to_unions_see_you_next_year/singleton/

http://www.cwa-union.org/pages/congress-not-a-compromise

Amazing given the support the union apparatuses usually provide to Democrats. It seems like the ruling class is more and more united in having decided to simply get rid of unions, even though many unions are the most reliable cops the bosses have. I guess they need to fully clear the way for austerity.

[blake 3:17]

I'd recommend the second link first. For those of us with social democratic parties, we do whine about them a lot. They do open certain spaces for discussion & action. The NDP here has only held executive office on the provincial level. When they've fucked the labour movement over there's been massive blow back.


Obama has NO electoral threat from the Left either within the Democratic party or a left/Green/socialist party that could swing anything. The Obama/Clinton administration only needs to move to the right to maintain office.

If I were in the US I'd probably vote Green, but whatevs...

[Os Cangaceiros]

I guess they need to fully clear the way for austerity.

I've read some people speculate that unions may become an insurgent force again, because they're seen as being redundant and unnecessary in the modern era (by the economic planners, that is). Capital isn't willing to make the same pact with organized labor that it did after WW2.

[DaringMehring]

I've read some people speculate that unions may become an insurgent force again, because they're seen as being redundant and unnecessary in the modern era (by the economic planners, that is). Capital isn't willing to make the same pact with organized labor that it did after WW2.

There are certainly some signs. For instance, the split of NUHW from SEIU, or the fact that several unions including CWA and NUHW have gotten together some decent sized strikes. It's still pretty small right now, but the push could grow especially if more radicals get into the union game, and if the population in general radicalized more with stuff like Occupy. The working class is going to express itself some how as the attacks get more and more intolerable, and one way might be through reviving the union movement as a radical force. There are definitely internal struggles happening right now.

[Drosophila]

The national Democratic Party may as well just be called a for-profit corporation. All they care about is money and power. They don't give a shit if the people representing them actually espouse a set of beliefs/policies (so long as they get voted in by the sheep).

[Rafiq]

The national Democratic Party may as well just be called a for-profit corporation. All they care about is money and power. They don't give a shit if the people representing them actually espouse a set of beliefs/policies (so long as they get voted in by the sheep).

Thanks for this, extremely useful post in regards to the democratic party. I always thought them to be good-hearted, revolutionary folk who've got purely Moral motivations.

[Prometeo liberado]

Thanks for this, extremely useful post in regards to the democratic party. I always thought them to be good-hearted, revolutionary folk who've got purely Moral motivations.

It always makes me happy every time the veil comes of the democratic party and we see the ugly visage that has always been there. So much of American labor still hold to these altruistic ideas, forever chasing the carrot. Good post.

[Thirsty Crow]

I've read some people speculate that unions may become an insurgent force again, because they're seen as being redundant and unnecessary in the modern era (by the economic planners, that is). Capital isn't willing to make the same pact with organized labor that it did after WW2.
I'd say that this is a generalization whichg overlooks concrete differences between different parts of the world.
From my experience, unions are vital for keeping ruling class hegemony intact here where I live, the mechanism being especially visible in the case of workers in the public sector, whose jobs will be axed with the support of unions (I think this will be more of a drawn out process, rather than a vicious austerity blitzkrieg, but it is clear from press releases that major public workers' unions have participated in the first plan, to sack 5000 workers).