First of all a big thanks to Sound Propeller for the encouraging and thoughtful reply to "BOTH AND." Sound Propeller's blog looks great. Here's the link: http://amomai.blogspot.com/
May Day would have been an auspicious day to make this particular contribution, but I have been preoccupied with rehearsing and performing. How to juggle everything else and life AND include activism and organizing will be the topic of more concentrated musing soon!
Moving along through my menu of topics (see my first post, "Not Only the Future"), we come, in reverse order to the topic of UNIONS. The degree to which the labor movement has been weakened and quieted is a frequent topic in the news, and it is a great concern for me. It has been noted elsewhere that that point in our history generally held up as the greatest period of general prosperity was the 1950's. It is no coincidence that the 50's was also the greatest period of strong organized labor. The three-way relationship of government, business, and labor at that time has been called an IRON TRIANGLE, in which each element had great power and commanded great respect from each of the other two. It reminds me of the three branches of government, and the checks and balances the executive, the legislative and the judiciary wield over each other. The weakening of the labor movement, as well as the pressure to de-regulate have compromised the Iron Triangle, and created a situation which is undemocratic and economically lopsided. Some will prosper in such a situation, but general prosperity and fairness are made highly improbable.
What is to be done? I had always been taken with the ideas of the Industrial Workers of the World, the I.W.W. Their big idea was that there should be ONE BIG UNION; that all workers should have the backs of all other workers, not simply those with whom they shared a common trade. I wasn't sure if the IWW (nicknamed the "wobblies" back in the day) were still around, but emphatically, yes, they are: http://www.iww.org/ So my current plan is to join this union. I hope to find a local group here in Seattle, but no luck thus far. If it comes down to it, I'll join online. In the meantime I encourage all of you to read the information at the IWW site, and to join also, if that feels right to you.
I don't have many details of the history of the formation of the AFL-CIO, but I wonder if that was a mission at some point in the past. UFCW Local 21 broke ties with the AFL-CIO when I was a member about seven years ago, so my impression is that that might not be going so well these days. But my union didn't make an effort to explain to us what happened and our reps kind of had a blase, patronizing attitude about it when they mentioned it to us.
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