Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 8:40 AM
Subject: RE: [Working-Class] Re: How the ruling class rules...
I challenge myself and all of us on this list to unleash of creative imaginations -- even at the risk of sounding completely utopian at first blush -- to break this most oppressive chain.
Tommy
What would you propose be done?
It seems to me we need to be creative in approaching those steps which are required for social change… education, organization, unity in action; without these three things being worked at simultaneously things will stay the same. This may sound old and tired but it has been the formula for change… there is no getting around this “don’t mourn, organize.”
It is easy to brand something like the present UAW contracts as “sell outs;” it is quite another thing to develop struggles that take labor in another direction.
I propose we all take a good hard look at the Ford contract and what it means to us all… and, make no mistake; this contract will impact all of us in one way or another from a number of perspectives. Health care is one. Using the threat of plant closures to blackmail workers, the communities and states where these plants are located is another. The alternative to these “sell outs” is to advocate something else AND initiate struggle.
The “creativity” you seek will come in the process of participating in the budding and developing struggles in opposition to these “sell outs.”
Has anyone taken the time to read the UAW’s statement on the Ford contract?
Here it is again: http://media.freep.com/pdf/ford_hourly.pdf see page 21
Please note the section on the joint UAW-Ford health care initiative. Obviously the UAW leadership plans on selling us out on the health care issue the same way they sold out Ford workers (and GM and Chrysler) in contract negotiations. If the UAW pushes for anything other than single-payer, universal health care Congressman John Conyers will drop his advocacy of HR 676 as quickly as he dropped plans to impeach Bush and Cheney and we will have to wait for Kucinich to get back from his interplanetary UFO experience for action on this.
The contract overview declares the creation of, under the heading on page 21 “National Institute of Health Care Reform” and states:
The UAW and Ford have agreed to an unprecedented commitment to im-
prove the affordability, accessibility and accountability of the U.S. health care
system, including the pursuit of a lasting solution to our national health care
cost crisis.
The parties have agreed to create the National Institute for Health Care
Reform that will serve as a premier research and educational health care reform
center dedicated to understanding, evaluating and developing thoughtful and
innovative reform to improve the medical delivery system in the United States
and expand access to high-quality, affordable and accountable health care
coverage for all Americans.
Ford has committed to five annual $1 million contributions to fund the
Institute.
This presents a very real danger to the single-payer universal health care movement intended to deliver labor into the Hillary Clinton fold.
I would encourage everyone to take a good hard look at how the UAW leadership worked with the Ford Motor Company to continue using the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as part of this sell-out as part of an elaborate blackmail scheme (This is included in the UAW overview). Those who continue to say this plant closure issue is a “done deal” rather than viewing it in the context of the entire class collaborationist sell out and capitulation to the automotive industry are themselves failing to understand what is taking place and they are withdrawing from the class struggle.
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
