[Peace-discuss] why support the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride

[Morton K. Brussel]

Is this an AWARE issue? A race issue?

Organized labor is not a monolith. Question: Ought one to support 
organized labor in principle, irrespective of what its leaders or its 
membership state or do. One might say that organized labor represents 
the great mass of common working people, under-compensated and 
under-appreciated, opposing the established power structure, and hence 
unreservedly deserves support. But we should recognize that it is, 
after all, just another pressure group that frequently supports 
regressive policies for selfish and nearsighted ends. I believe that 
one should be pragmatic, undogmatic, about what labor groups to support 
and when. On the whole organized labor in the U.S. , certainly as 
represented by the major unions, seems to be a neutral force for 
justice and fairness, sometimes pushing in a progressive direction, 
sometimes otherwise. One would think and hope that it would be 
consistently progressive and humanitarian, but that clearly is not the 
case.

The present discussion seems to bear this out.

As for illegal immigrant workers, clearly they should be treated with 
sympathy, justice, and civil rights, but I'm not sure that allowing an 
unlimited flow is good policy, just as I'm not convinced that free 
capital access across global markets is a good idea.

MKB


Wednesday, September 24, 2003, at 04:08  PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> Thanks for posting that, Carl-
>
> I’m not sure how you meant it, but I think it shows
> what we’re up against in the labor movement and in a
> way progressive politics generally.

Etc.