Tuesday, March 4, 1997
UNIONS:
University has little likeness to reality of worker agitation,
labor movementBy James Plummer
The Cavalier Daily
Courtesy of University Wire
One nice thing about university life is that it bears only a
passing resemblance to the real world.
Any perspective, no matter how silly or discredited, is liable
to take on great import in the ivory tower.
But the university is preparing itself for just such a love-fest
later this week.
Professors, students and union thugs from around the region are
expected to descend upon the university for a teach-in titled
"Worker’s Rights Are Civil Rights." Organizers of this
self-proclaimed "historic convocation" hope to revive the
"campus-community ‘teach-in’." The "teach-in," of course, was all
the rage at colleges during the late ’60s when students gathered
and exchanged ideas in an intellectual forum before deciding to
tune in, turn on and burn their draft cards. You may remember the
last teach-in attempted at the university was to warn students of
the evils of the Balanced Budget Amendment and other provisions of
the Contract With America. Almost a dozen people attended.
According to the press release, this week’s event is organized
by "faculty, students and staff who believe that the revival of the
labor movement is but the next stage in the civil rights
revolution."
Life, liberty and the pursuit of four weeks paid vacation and a
free dental plan, right?
Many speakers and participants are the usual suspects in the
university’s leftist community: Donal Day, Julian Bond, Nelson
Lichtenstein, even one of the ubiquitous Jefferies brothers.
Also scheduled: consumer advocate and national pain-in-the-ass
Ralph Nader, whose groundbreaking work in consumer advocacy has
done more to foster paranoia and disinformation than anyone else,
with the possible exception of whoever headed up the Roswell
operation. There was apparently some anxiety about whether Nader
could make it to the event, since he demanded to be driven to the
university in a mid-size American sedan with lap belts in the front
and back seats.
Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO will be
speaking as well. Presumably, he won’t be speaking about the "civil
right" to have your mandatory union dues spent campaigning against
candidates you and your family support. As treasurer, he presided
over just such a use of funds in last year’s congressional races.
Trumka wasn’t able to spend as much treasure as he would have
liked, however, since a number of television stations around the
country refused to air the AFL-CIO’s commercials due to the union’s
outrageous distortions and lies.
Jimmy Brooks of the Charlottesville Local American Postal
Workers Union will be speaking on a panel asking, "How can Virginia
workers have a voice?" A more relevant panel would ask questions
like "Why is it that my little sister’s postcard from Disney World
has taken more than a week to get here?" or "You’re not of those
mailmen who is going to snap and kill a bunch of people, are
you?"
While Brooks is grappling with those important questions, some
university students will be talking about opportunities for
students to work in the labor movement, such as last summer’s
"Union Summer" campaign. The AFL-CIO paid students’ travel costs as
well as a $210 a week stipend to meet in big cities to deal with
the vital concerns of the average American worker: campaigning
against the California Civil Rights Initiative, demanding justice
for janitors and, of course, getting those mean old Republicans out
of Congress.
Organizers are especially proud that "the event has won the
support of such well-known (sic) Charlottesville figures as folk
singer John McCutcheon." McCutcheon, listed as a "Folksinger and
Organizer" will be speaking on "Organizing the South," as well as
providing entertainment at the closing reception. McCutcheon is
setting a fine example for the area’s musicians. I certainly can’t
be the only one looking forward to hearing Dave Matthews’ views on
the gold standard, and Otis Wants Bread’s take on Serbo-Croatian
relations.
The "teach-in," … during the late ’60s (was) when students
gathered and exchanged ideas in an intellectual forum …