Thursday, January 05, 2017

Fwd: Fast and furious



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington


I realize that these missives have been coming fast and furiously, but the attached article by Jonathan Rosenblum in Tikkun is an important contribution to our understanding of what needs to be done in the era of Trump and Republican dominance.  It also exposes the futility of depending upon the tired nostrums of the neoliberal New Democrats for band-aid solutions.  It is certainly not the whole answer; and it is clear that labor unions in the form we have come to know them will never return to the positions of power within the economy which they once occupied.  This is not because of a particular fault with the idea of organizing, but the changing nature of manufacturing in the era of technological mechanization and robotics.  Indeed, what Rosenblum suggests is a powerful merger of the organizing impetus with a view toward expanding to a more global arrangement of continuing to defend what they now have while at the same time expanding alliances with other groups seeking to change the direction of neoliberal destruction of common needs.  If there is any real hope in the coming years, it will take this type unionizing effort and cooperation among divergent groups seeking not just inwardly focused goals, but goals shared among the larger sphere of communities in need.


John



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