Union Perspectives

Union leaders must be leaders to the rank and file, not just to the hierarchy of the union. They need to set aside their own personal ambitions, and think of the low-level workers. The workers, who promote the union, are the rank and file and they should know the names of their leaders and their jobs. They should also understand what their jobs represent, and should also know the entire history of their union and the history of the labor movement: those who fought, some to the death, for the rights the GOP are now stripping away today. They should know the good and the bad, and the successes and failures of the union movement and labor history. The wage slaves must stop fighting among themselves and treat all workers as brothers and sisters. The International Workers of the World had it right, the problem was they were ahead of their time in their thinking, and did not have the communication tools we have today. Now, we have the tools to organize the wage slaves of the world, but we ...

It is very hard to educate and organize at the same time as workers are working 12-hour days seven days a week. You have to work your organizing and protesting in sync with education. Workers must have the knowledge of worker history so they have confidence in what they believe. I once was told by a human resource manager at Point Magu Navy base that the reason labor loses in negotiations is that human resource people know more about labor history than the workers, which is why I study labor history. The Art of War tells us that to win you must know yourself (labor history) and know your enemy. If you only know one of these you will only win about half of your fights, but if you know both yourself and your enemy, you have a better chance of winning all your fights. Also, labor must have a good knowledge of how the capitalist system works for you and fighting for better wages you must understand economics. You can split out the truth and the bullshit and it is not rocket science to lear...