| Over the course of a week, two of the most important elements of the progressive coalition meet consecutively in the great city of Chicago. Starting first will be YearlyKos, a convention of bloggers and blog readers, which will be followed immediately by the annual summer meeting of the AFL-CIO. The juxtaposition of these two events is important and fascinating symbolically. These two movements, so different in so many ways, make up two of the most fundamental foundation blocks for building a progressive majority in this country. Lacking one or the other, progressivism will go down in flames. Strengthening both, and having the two movements working together, gives us a fighting chance.
I have always believed that a vital labor movement is an absolutely essential element of building a progressive majority. At its core, labor is about two things: economic security for working people and being treated fairly at work. They are the only entity that has those two things, day in and day out, as the heart of its fundamental mission. Without those two things, how exactly does one have a progressive society? |
Flowing from that fundamental mission, organized labor has always been in the middle of most of the biggest fights about fairness and justice that the progressive movement has taken on. Labor has been a leading player on Social Security, civil rights laws, health care, progressive taxation, more money for education and social services, and a hundred other social and economic justice fights over the last 70 years.
But no one has been more hurt by the right-wing's potential dominance in recent years than the union movement. Anti-labor businesses have attacked labor organizing drives with a vengeance, and right-wing politicians have eviscerated the FDR-era laws that protected those organizing rights. Combined with a fading American manufacturing base and globalization, union membership has been in steady decline for decades. And their membership decline has led, naturally, to their decline in political strength.
All of this is well-known by those who follow progressive politics, but the relationship between labor and the new movement of online activists has not been explored enough. This new movement, less than 10 years old however you measure it, has gained in power exponentially in the last few years, and has become a new cornerstone in the rebuilding of progressive power in this country. That is obviously good news for labor, as for all the wider progressive movement, because any rise in the movement tides lifts all boats.
The challenge, though, is clear. The structures and cultures of these two movements could not be more different, and that will make working together a challenge. The demographics are different as well, as blog readers tend to be higher-income and whiter and more male than union members. These two movements will test each other's patience, and will misunderstand each other a lot of the time, especially if their respective leaders are not open-minded with each other.
These differences, though, can be turned into major assets. If each movement learns from the strengths of the other, and the leadership and membership of both sides combine in their organizing, great things could happen. If unions can teach online activists about effective lobbying from the inside, for example, and online activists teach unions about speed and effectiveness in moving a message, everyone is strengthened. Another example: unions could show online activists how to build and maintain enduring institutional power and relations; online activists could teach unions the benefit of open, small "d" democratic dialogue via the Internet.
These two movements need each other, and I hope can continue to dialogue about how to work together. I hope the week in Chicago will result in some cross-fertilization regarding how to work together.
I would love to hear the OpenLeft community's thoughts on all this and how to make this alliance strong, and deep and productive. |
