Aronowitz quote

The rest of his piece on the split-off of the Change to Win coalition from the AFL-CIO is fairly mundane, if reasonably accurate, but this quote has a bit of fire:

Whatever its practices, until the 1970s, the Teamsters paraded an image of economic power that was unrivalled by its AFL-CIO competitors most of whom were making nice to the bosses. The Teamsters had success because they offered a program of resistance. Are there any sections of Organized Labor that even remember how to talk the talk of class power when for decades, they have assured workers that they can secure justice by peaceful means, that the old methods of baptism by fire were outmoded and the labor movement had become “responsible”?

Can't remember the last time I read the phrase "class power"...

The Rights Revolution

Originally published in New Labor Forum in 2003. Maybe I'll make a digest, but for the time being I'm just posting this for reference...

By Nelson Lichtenstein

A GREAT PARADOX EMBODIES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR rights in the world today. Institutional trade unionism is not doing so well. This is most obvious in Anglo-America, where union density has declined dramatically during the last quarter century, and where unionism's influence, under both Labour and Democratic Party Administrations has been less than potent. With some notable exceptions-South Africa, South Korea, Brazil-one can say the same for union membership and power all over the world.