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How is your view of unions shaped by your class position?
Survey Responses:
Answers:
- Most leaders of our trade unions are bureaucrats, mainly interested in their own positions, etc., etc. So, what else is new? The top leaders were never what the UNION is all about, anyway. Our unions are the basic organizations for working class people. They are not everything we need by any stretch of the imagination (we need our own party for one thing) but they are absolutely essential. We need to hold onto them, improve them and create conditions where more of our sisters and brothers can organize into unions, too.
- As fully conscious member of the UK working class I am anti-union! The betrayal of the working class by the TUC bureaucracy, the way they sold out the Grunwick women, the miners, the dockers, etc They're willful neglect of those in the service sector, and domestic workers (women!) and the vast majority of untenured casual workers has been criminal. Trade unionism has failed the working class, as has Leninism and Social Democracy. We need workers' organisations like the Wobblies (NOT a trades union!) or the Independent Working Class Assoc. to succeed. In short my negative view of trade unions has been shaping by 25 years of working class experience and activism. To be clear to is anti-unionsism from the left. There is a left feminist and anarchist tradition that despairs at unions. The labiour movemnent leaders have so often been so successful in selling out the class war they are in effect fifth columnists!!
- First, let me say that my three siblings and I were raised in a working class, union household in NYC from post-WW II through the early 1970s. My dad (a Teamster) was a factory worker and a laborer and mom worked in a sweatshop making dresses. By example, both my parents always taught us to fight for the underdog and for the rights of workers to be paid ""a fair day's wages for a fair day's work."" They believed that ""an injury to one was an injury to all."" I've been a member of a couple of unions and proud of it. It's only been through organized labor and their struggles and victories that many blue, brown and white collar workers today enjoy a better life, even in our current economic crisis. My parents' working class position and struggles to make a better life for their children and my past personal experience as a rank-and-file union member and official makes me a wholehearted supporter of unions and what they can still do to protect the rights of workers. My wife and I are now solidly part of the middle class and no longer members of a union, but we continue to support the rights of workers to organize. At every opportunity, we share these beliefs with our daughter.
MORE SURVEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
March 2009: If your family (or ancestors) immigrated to this country, how did this impact your family's current class status?
February 2009: How have you seen classism play out in the social change organizations you've been a part of?
December 2008: What's the biggest change concerning class you hope to see in the next year?
November 2008: How is your access to technology – or lack of access – shaped by your class position? How does your class position affect the ways you use that technology?
October 2008: How do you see class issues shaping the election and the national debate over the Wall Street meltdown?
September 2008: Do you think that colleges and universities should use class-based affirmative action in order to increase diversity?
July 2008: What messages did you get from family, friends, school, work, the media or other sources about welfare? What kind of welfare do you think our government ought to provide?
June 2008: How has gender affected your class experience?
May 2008: What's the most memorable symbol of class from your childhood?
April 2008: How can publishers, librarians, and teachers make working class literature (including poetry) relevant to you?
March 2008: How do you think Barack Obama’s success in running for the Democratic candidacy for President will impact the way we think about race and class?
February 2008: How do you see class impacting your parents' parenting? Your own?
January 2008: Do you have any New Years resolutions that concern class and/or classism, and what are they?
December 2007:What does your religious, spiritual or philosophical tradition say to you about simplicity and poverty, especially related to holidays?
November 2007: What did you learn in school about the Native American experience?
October 2007: Have you, a family member or friend ever worked in agriculture? What were the circumstances?
September 2007: How did (or does) your social class impact your educational experiences?
August 2007: What books or films have expanded your understanding of class?
July 2007: How does your current class position effect what kind of vacations you take?
June 2007: How does your class background affect how you use the commons (public spaces, commodities and rights)?
May 2007:How do you see class differences in the way that holidays are celebrated?
April 2007: How does your class affect what you eat?
March 2007:Has class status affected your family's mental health and or access to services? How?
February 2007: How do you feel your class situation has impacted your experience in or with sports?
December 2006: What responsibility do different economic classes bear for reducing their contributions to global warming pollution? Should wealthy people assume more of the cost of fixing the problem?
November 2006: For those who have served (or who are currently serving) in the military: Have you encountered classist attitudes about your choice to serve? For everyone: Do you see a class divide in terms of who serves in the military? What does this mean for the military and the country?
October 2006: How is television perpetuating stereotypes or classist portrayals? What are some examples of characters, storylines, or news stories that you have found particularly troubling?
September 2006: Higher Education can be a class marker, the access channel to "upward" mobility,or class liberator. What are the connections with class and higher education for you?
August 2006: How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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