An analysis piece from Workers Power..........

[socialist_n_TN]

2. Thanks for reading mike and thanks for the kind words.........

One thing we tried to bring out in the article was how much more unrestricted these orgs are compared to regular unions. That's why they are important. Until Taft-Hartley is repealed, unions and, by extension, the entire working class will be hamstrung. These guys don't have the same restrictions against political and solidarity strikes as regular unions do. They just have to muster the will and the organization.

Academic unions are great, especially for the times we live in now, but as a Marxist I feel we've got to go beyond academia and into the working class as a whole for raising consciousness. People actually expect academic unions to be "left" whereas the UAW for instance, is still the "business union" model. When those types of unions take a left turn on a consistent basis, THEN workers will start making some noise and progress against the capitalist aggression.

Another advantage of these ALOs is especially important IMO and that's the fact of their "industrial" union model. IOW, no craft lines to interfere with solidarity. That's also an advantage that the UAW has too. But no matter what the advantage IS, you have to be able to use it AS an advantage.

Thanks again mike and keep on keeping on with the union you're affiliated with. The more organized we ALL are, the better chance we have of fighting back and I think that academic unions are the point of the spear of the working class as far as raising consciousness. And at this point in time, raising consciousness is job one.