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The Rank and File Strategy: Building A Socialist Movement in the U.S.
Moody, Kim
http://solidarity-us.org/rankandfilestrategy/Date Written: 2006-08-24 Publisher: Solidarity Year Published: 2006 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23800 We are seeing more and more attempts by rank and file union members to make their unions more democratic and more effective in fighting today's highly aggressive employers and in organizing the unorganized. Abstract: - Excerpt: There is no more "American exception," no more "American Dream." There is no more upward mobility for the vast majority. A highly internationalized capitalism is dragging most of us down, here and abroad. The crisis of capitalist “globalization” was never more evident. And all across the world, we see growing resistance to the power of capital and its neoliberal political allies. Even in the U.S., there are signs of revitalization and renewed militancy in organized labor. This is not just a matter of more strikes like those at UPS (1997), General Motors (1994-98) and US West (1998), although, as we shall see, they represent something very important. We also see more and more attempts by rank and file union members to make their unions more democratic and more effective in fighting today’s highly aggressive employers and in organizing the unorganized. At the same time we see the beginnings of class independence in the political sphere, with the formation of the Labor Party by several national and scores of local unions in 1996. Subject Headings |