Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Frankly, I think that the steering wheel has come off in the hands of those at the top for the most part because they have unscrewed the linkage.

I believe that the UK 'reforms' being pursued with such vigour by the Coalition government are going to have unintended consequences......

And note I was not referring to Labour or Unions - but to Labour and Union members.


"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Mon Jan 10th, 2011 at 04:24:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
As was I.

Union and Party members are only members until the national secretary yanks their cards, making them UnPersons.  The kind of petty-assed shit that goes down when the peasants are revolting.  


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Jan 10th, 2011 at 06:52:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It would be the Unions' loss, not theirs.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson
by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Mon Jan 10th, 2011 at 07:24:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
No disagreement on that, here.

The local members lose as well.  They lose the advantages belonging to a national organization such as money and news exposure.  And the externalities of solidarity, fraternity, & all that Left Wing socialist-hippy stuff.  (He wrote with self-deprecating self-mockery.)

And the Right Wing can put out a anti-campaign based around "Even their Union thinks they are wackos."

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Jan 10th, 2011 at 07:38:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
However, if they get thrown out for local mobilization of direct responses ~ they are already organizing. And they already have a reason to continue organizing in response to being kicked out.

Recall when the Anti-Slavery Whigs in the US were purged from the Whig Party, and it was the Whig Party that collapsed as a result.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon Jan 10th, 2011 at 11:51:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Exactly.

Either the Union leaders facilitate what the members wish to do, or the Unions wither on the vine.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Tue Jan 11th, 2011 at 05:18:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The right talk a lot of trash about cooperation, but their own solidarity is to be envied. Is this the power of corruption? Or is it so usefull to fool people to distrust each other?

As is known, many neocons were former Marxists. They certainly preserved the discipline! And they harness other method of Communists: seize the mass media. Lenin's revolution took the telegraph first, Fidel Casttro stared on the radio, and now we have Foxnews and talk radios...

by das monde on Tue Jan 11th, 2011 at 06:50:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series