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Metal Workers & Miners Unions Consider Merger
Dan La Botz June 28, 2010
Unions Representing Workers in Canada, Mexico qnd U.S. Explore Merger:
Would Create International Union of One Million Metal Workers and Miners
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents 850,000 workers in Canada, the Caribbean and the United States, and the National Union of Miners and Metal Workers (SNTMMRM), known as the Mineros, which represents 180,000 workers in Mexico, have announced plans to explore uniting into one international union. The agreement to begin exploration of a merger was signed on June 21.
Max Lane on Indonesia: A review
Dan La Botz June 11, 2010
Max Lane. Unfinished Revolution: Indonesia Before and After Suharto. New York: Verso, 2008. 312 pages. Notes, index. $29.95
| Summer 2010 | Vol:XIII-1 | Whole #: 49 |
Iran: Reform and Revolution
Yassamine Mather
Recent news about Iran has been dominated by U.S. attempts to increase sanctions, and one could be forgiven for thinking the world hegemonic capitalist power is preparing war against a major nuclear power. The reality is far different: all the fuss is about a country where nine months of mass protests have not only weakened the state but also divided the ruling circles, making reconciliation at the top impossible.
| Summer 2010 | Vol:XIII-1 | Whole #: 49 |
Revolutionary Prefigurations: The Green Movement, Critical Solidarity, and the Struggle for Iran's Future
Danny Postel
A year has now passed since the explosive appearance of Iran’s Green movement in June 2009. Suspecting malfeasance in the official tally of the country’s June 12 presidential election, millions of Iranians took to the streets. The historian Ervand Abrahamian, author of the classic Iran Between Two Revolutions, described the silent rally of June 15 at Azadi (Freedom) Square in Tehran (London Review of Books, 7/23/09):
| Summer 2004 | Vol:X-1 | Whole #: 37 |
The New Unity Partnership: Sweeney Critics Would Bureaucratize to Organize
Herman Benson
What John Sweeney did unto Lane Kirkland in 1995 may now be done unto him. On September 18, this year, Sweeney announced he would run for reelection as AFL-CIO president, along with Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president. But his term of office doesn't expire until mid 2005, almost two years to go.
The Need to Say NO
Phyllis Jacobson
[This review appeared in New Politics, vol. I, no. 4, summer 1962 (old series).]
As a novelist, a middle class man of the mid-century, a Jew and a socialist, Harvey Swados is that wonderful rarity in the United States today, a committed human being. His recently published collection of essays written over the last ten years, A Radical’s America,* reveals his deep sense of disturbance about the quality of contemporary American life, its cant and corruption.
Does "union democracy" undermine "solidarity?"
Herman Benson May 17, 2010
[We have asked labor activists to respond to "Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?" by Robert Fitch, to encourage discussion on the important issues raised in the article. What follows is the response of Herman Benson.]
| Joanne Landy | May 13, 2010 |
We are writing to extend our heartfelt solidarity and support to you, Egyptian workers, who in recent months have been courageously demanding that your government address your desperate economic conditions. The American press has been shamefully muted about the grim economic and political realities of life for people in Egypt, a key strategic U.S. ally in the Middle East.
| Winter 2005 | Vol:X-2 | Whole #: 38 |
Inside the House of Labor
Title: Rebels, Reformers and Racketeers: How Insurgents Transformed the Labor MovementBy: Herman Benson
New York: Association for Union Democracy, 2004, 216 pp. $17.50
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Reviewed by Gene Carroll
Winter 2005
While the labor movement in the United States is a beacon for democracy, too often it fails as a beacon of democracy. Herman Benson makes this clear in his remarkable personal memoir, Rebels, Reformers and Racketeers: How Insurgents Transformed the Labor Movement.
| Winter 2005 | Vol:X-2 | Whole #: 38 |
Does Buhle Ask Union Democracy to Save the World?
Herman Benson
It is difficult to know just what Paul Buhle is driving at; it's even more difficult to figure out what relevance his remarks have to what I wrote in New Politics about the undemocratic leanings of the New Unity Partnership.