Solidarity Is a Force Stronger Than Gravity

May 21, 2019 7:58 AM

"Our great task today — your task and my task, is to build a labor movement for this new century — a labor movement for all of America’s workers — a labor movement as big and bold as America itself "On May 10, 2019, Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson gave a speech to the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America’s annual Eugene Debs–Lucy Gonzalez Parsons–A. Philip Randolph Dinner. We reproduce the speech here in full, lightly edited for online publication. (Jacobin) "When I mention Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), to people in the labor movement, the response is usually something like: “I would follow her to the gates of hell.” Sara Nelson Is Not Afraid To Strike Back (The Nation) " A few hours of training is not a just transition. The transition needs to begin before the jobs go away. A just transition must ensure pensions and healthcare are protected for workers who spent their lives powering our country in the fossil fuel industries." The Green New Deal Needs Labor’s Support. We Asked Sara Nelson How To Get It. (In These Times)
posted by The Whelk (6 comments total)

While Trump and much of the media caricature the working class as white men in hard hats, today’s rabble-rousers are really service and care workers.

Not just Trump or the media, unfortunately.

Fortunately, I don’t think Nelson or her colleagues care about how they’re characterized as much as they care about kicking ass. And I have a feeling that’s how it’ll go, generally. If they (including men in the left) eventually get a clue — big, big if, and we know some of them never will — it will be after they’ve gotten their asses thoroughly kicked.

Which I will enjoy.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:20 AM on May 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

I mean, tbh I will enjoy all the ass kicking. There are so many asses to be kicked.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:25 AM on May 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Nelson’s very public challenge has made her a leading contender to replace Richard Trumka as president of the AFL-CIO if he retires as expected, at the end of his term, in two years.

This would be fine: "The AFL-CIO’s Energy Committee has publicly opposed the Green New Deal, so the “Full Size SUV” is not an instance of hypocrisy."
posted by entropone at 8:26 AM on May 21, 2019

Related to that fantastic speech about fighting for the economic interests of the working class, there is an interesting essay today by the publisher of Quillette about this week's Australian election results, which touches on some of the tensions between economic and cultural issues among different groups who have traditionally combined to make up the Left.

Progressive politicians like to assume that, on election day at least, blue-collar workers and urban progressives will bridge their differences, and make common cause to support leftist economic policies. This assumption might once have been warranted. But it certainly isn’t now—in large part because the intellectuals, activists and media pundits who present the most visible face of modern leftism are the same people openly attacking the values and cultural tastes of working and middle-class voters.

Many MeFites have expressed derisive views about pieces Quillette has published, but this seems a usefully thought-provoking analysis of a recent, real-world election and the coalition-building (and -maintaining) challenges the Left is facing.
posted by PhineasGage at 10:47 AM on May 21, 2019

But it certainly isn’t now—in large part because the intellectuals, activists and media pundits who present the most visible face of modern leftism are the same people openly attacking the values and cultural tastes of working and middle-class voters.

If the values and cultural tastes of those working- and middle-class voters involve denying the basic humanity of people, then they ought to be attacked. As for Quillette: I deride it because, like America's National Review, it serves as a platform to polish some extremely ugly, retrograde politics.
posted by arkhangel at 1:39 PM on May 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

Hey, so the animators on Bojack Horseman Are fomenting action to demand a Union, this video explains it all
posted by The Whelk at 11:02 AM on June 2, 2019