“Two, unless these workers centers are doing bona fide collective bargaining, with written contracts binding the employer, in writing, in a document enforceable both in court and on the streets, to provide certain wages, working hours, working conditions, terms of employment, grievance procedures and benefits, the “New Worker Organizing” they are doing isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.

I know that sounds harsh, but the reality is, American workers need REAL LABOR UNIONS (Especially Latin@ workers – Mr Garvey’s “Spanish Speakers” – and doubly especially Latin@ immigrant workers)

We don’t need discussion groups, or clubs, or self help groups, or self employment “worker cooperative” schemes – we need real unions that can lead real pre 1937 style recognition strikes and fight them both on the street and in the court system.

Other than the Laundry Workers Center, I really don’t see that.

I see a lot of social work, and I see a lot of employment agencies (the jornalero centers) and a lot of lobbying, but I don’t see real trade unionism going on outside of LWC.”

I’d be careful about this point. Again, I’m writing in terms of the New York City context, but the worker center/workers’ rights nonprofit Brandworkers International ( http://www.brandworkers.org/ ) has been very successful in its agitational and organizing efforts — in joint efforts with NYC’s IWW branch, it’s led a string of union organizing and legal victories over the past couple of years (just browse through the web site for details). Not to mention that it also has a considerable working class base (situated in the food production and processing industry of the city), consisting primarily of immigrant workers with roots in the Latin American nation-states. It also has/had (more likely had, at this point) the involvement of two workers of Chinese descent (both Mandarin Chinese speakers, so far as I can tell/recall). Additionally, it has performed memorial activities in honor of a young worker from Guatemala who died in an industrial accident.

Finally, I can also add that the executive director of Brandworkers is also a frequent contributor to left publications such as Counterpunch. Granted, so far as Counterpunch is concerned, I’m well aware of the fact that it publishes (or has published) paleoconservatives like Paul Craig Roberts and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists like Israel Shamir (who also wrote a paean to the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot for…. Counterpunch).

“A couple of things.

One – “Spanish Speaking”?

Seriously?

Was this article written in 1947?

I’m surprised he didn’t talk about “Negroes” and “Orientals”!”

Well, speaking from personal experience, I’ve seen the term “Spanish speakers” in outreach materials at the Queens Library location in Flushing, New York CIty. And, for the record, I’ve also seen the term “Chinese speakers” — that’s not really surprising given that present-day Flushing is a fairly diverse community, consisting of immigrants from East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia along with immigrants from Latin America. Granted, though, the majority consists of immigrants from China (back in the 1980s and 1990s, immigrants from Taiwan) who tend to speak Fujianese, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, etc.

I can just as well point out that there may be a few, some, or a lot of Latin@ workers who speak Portuguese as their first language.

Likewise, some Latin@s may prefer to self-identify as Chican@.

One – “Spanish Speaking”?

Seriously?

Was this article written in 1947?

I’m surprised he didn’t talk about “Negroes” and “Orientals”!

I actually contacted the author about that, when I read this article elsewhere he gave some bullshitty evasive excuse for his archaic racial terminology.

Two, unless these workers centers are doing bona fide collective bargaining, with written contracts binding the employer, in writing, in a document enforceable both in court and on the streets, to provide certain wages, working hours, working conditions, terms of employment, grievance procedures and benefits, the “New Worker Organizing” they are doing isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.

I know that sounds harsh, but the reality is, American workers need REAL LABOR UNIONS (Especially Latin@ workers – Mr Garvey’s “Spanish Speakers” – and doubly especially Latin@ immigrant workers)

We don’t need discussion groups, or clubs, or self help groups, or self employment “worker cooperative” schemes – we need real unions that can lead real pre 1937 style recognition strikes and fight them both on the street and in the court system.

Other than the Laundry Workers Center, I really don’t see that.

I see a lot of social work, and I see a lot of employment agencies (the jornalero centers) and a lot of lobbying, but I don’t see real trade unionism going on outside of LWC

That includes the OUR Walmart group, who are basically doing advocacy and lobbying backed by the occasional concerted action, but they aren’t going for all the marbles and demanding union recognition.

That’s a problem