This is the first post for a site dedicated to discussions and organizing around issues relating to the struggle of the working class for its own living conditions, the defense of its basic rights and preparations for a new and better future. In order to further these goals I invite discussions on a broad rang of topics relating to the political, social and cultural conditions of workers around the world. These topics include but are not limited to: war and imperialist aggression, the labor movement, class consciousness, the process of production under capitalism, the process of reproduction under capitalism,race and ethnicity, nationalism, internationalism, women's liberation, capitalism, anarchism, socialism, communism, Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, what is Stalinism, Maoism, Titoism, globalization, neo-liberalism, opportunism, and fascism. Seeing this list one may argue that a socialist bias exists. This is correct. This site is a discussion board for people interested in improving the lot of the mass of humanity by means other than the ballot box and the Democratic Party.
To further this goal I ask that a topic be posted or proposed for discussion. I or a participant who feels knowledgeable on a subject will suggest readings and an informed debate should take place. I would like to avoid jingoism and other means that short-circuit thinking. One example may be calling someone an opportunist without further qualification and discussion. Please offer logical arguments for the positions you take. I expect participants to hold the editor to the same standard. This is how we learn.
I look forward to interesting discussions.
Nicky
About Me
- Nicholas
- Michigan, United States
- My class origins are in the petty bourgeois and upper working class. My parents were teachers and small business owners. My racial identity in the U.S. is white, though I denounce white privilege. My gender is male and I am committed to a class-conscious Women's and Gay liberation movement . I have received a priveliged middle class university education. I am in the process of becoming a professional academic/professional revolutionary. I work as a teacher and as an exploited adjunct lecturer at a community college.
2 comments:
GoodMorning Comrades,
Thank you for the invite.
I feel the need to direct our attention to the current NY transit strike and the call of the International Union for its Local members to return to work in spite of their decision to strike.
As we all know the labor bosses and aristocrats have bought into the capitalist system and are comfortable with their current level of representation in the body politic.
What hope do we have as working people if the supposed leaders of organized labor sell out the rank and file?
Is this what union leaders mean by solidarity?
Shame on them! And shame on anyone who supports their decision to leave their local members hanging in the wind.
On the New York Transport workers strike.
Comrade Scott brings up a good point about what is called the labor bureacracy. The labor bureaucrats are, in the Marxist view, parasites who lead the working class in name but in deed act in the defense of capital and the ruling class and order. They have become devorsed from the needs and wishes of the workers. In the case of the transport workers the labor bureaucrats broke down in the face of state prohibitions, capitalist resistance, "popular" commuter disapproval and negative press such as the following:
"The strike cost the city untold millions in police overtime and lost business and productivity at the very height of the Christmas rush and forced millions of commuters, holiday shoppers and tourists to carpool, take taxis, ride bicycles or trudge through the freezing cold. But the strike did not cause the utter chaos that many had feared, and traffic in many parts of town wassurprisinglylight(http://abcnews. go.com/US/wireStory?id=1435591)."
What the above quote shows is a biased neo-classical economic calculus of costs only in terms of business dollars and lost potential productivity. Nothing is mentioned about the daily exploitation and humiliation of the workers. The dangerous routes plagued by criminals and abusive commuters (Its New York remember)that they work in on a daily basis. The often off-the-clock and non contract specified work performed by transportation workers. Finally, Christmas is envoked as a convenient ideological battle axe against labor.
The rapid retreat by labor in a union town such as New York is another reminder of the historic low point in labor strength, working class power and class consciousness that the United States has been moving toward for many decades. This decline has, in large part, been aided by the labor bureacracy and their alliance with U.S. capital and imperialism.
For more information on these topics see:
Michael Goldfield, "The Decline of Oranized Labor in the United States" 1987 University of Chicago Press
Leon Trotsky, "Trade Unions in the Epoch of imperialist Decay"
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky /works/1940/1940-tu.htm
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