Cory DoctorowA Collective Bargain: Workplace democracy is a training ground for true national democracy
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
#reviews #Unions #labor #JaneMcAlevey #democracy #WinningElections #OccupyDemocrats
Bosses rig #union votes the same way Republicans rig elections: #disinformation, divide-and-rule, #VoterSuppression, #gerrymandering. Union organizers know how to win that kind of election, and they can teach us all.
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
The #DemocraticParty establishment wants voters to cast a ballot and then go to sleep for two years until it's time to cast another ballot. That's why they hate #unions: unions stay awake, demanding that the Democrats GOVERN instead of selling out.
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
If only the #DemocraticParty leadership took #unions as seriously as #billionaires do!
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
#JaneMcAlevey knows how to win elections - not with "data-driven microtargeting," but with supermajorities of active people who build their strength by winning fight after fight after fight.
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
Rob LoftisMcAlevey's book is excellent.
Laura J Mixon@pluralistic This is brilliant and so important to realize. It’s holographic: the pattern of the fight is there at every level of discourse.
Emmett O'Connell@pluralistic when I first got involved in local Dem politics in the #pnw in that early 00s, I was taken aback that the core operating principle of a county and state part was win elections, not necessarily make a better world or do anything outside elections
RobCorneliusI think that is true of politicians the world over nowadays. See Keir Starmer's "Labour" party here in the UK for a prime example.
People don't go into politics to help anyone but themselves.
Kevin Leecaster@robcornelius @emmettoconnell @pluralistic
People stay out of politics for purely selfish reasons too.
People stay out of politics for purely selfish reasons too.
@GreenFire @emmettoconnell @pluralistic
This is true of course. I decided to keep out of very local politics where I live as its so fucking DULL. Just people droning on about planning and the state of the poor peoples houses.
Ugly Bag of Mostly Water@emmettoconnell @pluralistic
This is why I quit working for dems, went left and eventually landed where I am today.
I was working in the progressive wing of a county dem group, and I kept hearing about how we couldn't work on or toward things working people like me needed. We needed to keep doing nothing except get their folks elected so they could keep doing nothing except getting their folks elected. I started checking www.opensecrets.org and doing some thinking. Then left for the left.
Luke (Shiv)@emmettoconnell @pluralistic With the way things have been going in the US, I've looked at ways to get involved with both politics and community... And it's really disappointing how there was basically nothing from the local, state, or national Democratic party. Monthly local party meetings, but that was it. The ways to get involved are "Register, Vote, Volunteer [for voting activities], and Donate". No events organized, even with all the shit going on in the news, and nothing like food drives, or bbqs/Town Halls, or anything that would make people feel like the Dem party was part of the community and there for people. It could be so much better, and being there all year with those sorts of activities is how you convince people that Dems do actually want to help you, but it doesn't seem like leadership is interested in more than votes. I wish the Democratic party would invest in organizing, not just voting.
Magitism@emmettoconnell @pluralistic This isn’t a problem with the Dems or GOP, it is a problem with party-based politics. Especially in a two-party system. The only solutions to it are either more parties or turning the parties into non-functional labels. Ideally both.
Erlend Sogge Heggen@pluralistic Ezra Klein did a great #podcast interview with McAlevey in 2020: “Labor organizer Jane McAlevey on how the left builds power all wrong; a master class in political organizing.”
https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2020/3/17/21182149/jane-mcalevey-the-ezra-klein-show-labor-organizing
