Labor Against The War

This Saturday in DC is the big march against the war in Iraq.

and this leads us to the question of how do we grow the labor movement into a larger anti-imperialist movement to oppose war and corporate globalization.

of course, first and foremost, we should focus on union organizing: increasing union density and organizing whole industries. and many unions, including mine, are doing this in the most strategic, coordinated, and effective way that we know.

but as we do this, what do we do to make sure that the labor movement expands into a broader political movement for global social justice? and once we achieve higher union density, say in 20/30 years, how do we keep the labor movement from turning complacent and even complicit (with imperialism and other social problems) like it was the last time it had its peak in the middle of the 20th century.

i propose the idea that union leaders need to work on creating anti-imperialist committees at each union workplace, to work in conjunction with other community groups, to focus on raising consciousness of atrocities committed in the name of our government and to pressure the congressmen and senators whose districts include our workplaces.

these anti-imperialist committees can have screenings of movies like The Take and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and speaking events and townhall discussions featuring people like Michael Parenti. this could be something to work on in between contract fights. other ideas?

Bring Our Troops Home.