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How Do We Get the Progressive Netroots to Care About Workers’ Rights? |
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Educating the netroots about the importance of workers’ rights issues is critical for us in the labor movement. And also extremely difficult. While today’s Slugging It Out with the Christian Right workshop by Working America here at YearlyKos drew a solid crowd—the workshop focused on grassroots political action—a handful took part in the Bread, Blogs and Roses workshop this afternoon. Is it because Bread, Blogs and Roses highlighted workers’ struggles to form unions in workplaces where employers harass and intimidate them, rather than focusing on political action (the crowd here is very politically active)? Or was it just a matter of logistics—that is, the featured speaker next door drew the lions-share of the crowd with a discussion of his book on the “political brain”? Or do we really have a long way to go to convince the netroots that workplace issues are very much a part of our mutual progressive agenda?
The participants in the workshop, which featured staff at American Rights at Work, the nation’s worker advocacy group, took part in a lively and deeply felt discussion about communicating the importance of workers’ efforts to form unions. Among featured speakers, registered nurse Maggie Nielsen, along with her co-workers at Resurrection Health Care, has sought to form a union with AFSCME here in Chicago. Nielsen shared her story (which you can read about here; get the latest on Resurrection here) and described the short-staffing conditions that employees say have compromised quality patient care. In response, Resurrection management for the past four years has fought the efforts of the health care workers to form a union and improve that care.
Blogger and political activist Nancy Scola, who blogged for us during the early months of the Employee Free Choice Act campaign this year, discussed her efforts to frame the workers’ stories she heard at Resurrection and among Verizon workers attempting to form a union with the Communication Workers of America. Scola said she tried to reach the netroots by presenting workers’ stories to in a way that made them engaging for blog readers. At the religion-oriented blog Street Prophets, for example, Scola said she framed the Resurrection campaign as one in which a Catholic-owned health system opposed workplace fairness. For the Verizon campaign, she focused on technical innovation.
Scola, who first got involved with the union movement when she took part in the Employee Free Choice Act campaign, helped frame the workshop discussion when she asked:
What can we do to make these issues connect?
Participants agreed that communicating our message means breaking out of the standard narratives about labor—the kind that stereotype union members and union workplaces. They also discussed how the nation’s historical emphasis on individualism—the American cowboy image—has worked against the idea of collective action. And they expressed the success they’ve had in framing economic issues by asking people if their children will be better off in the future than their parents.
At bottom, participants agreed, we need to make it clear to the netroots and the public that when we describe workers’ experiences on the job trying to form unions, the issue isn’t ”only” about workers’ rights. It’s about improving the economy and taking back our nation for America’s middle class. And it’s about connecting union organizing with political action.
And oh, by the way. As I finish this post, a new workshop has begun in the room where Bread, Blogs and Roses just wrapped up. The topic is the political challenge of the Christian right. And the workshop is packed.
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I say give netroots The Chamber of Commerce. Investigative bloggers can and will spend hours researching and reporting on this subversive organization. The Chamber of Commerce is a household word. Most everyone habitually read blurbs about Little League teams, senior centers, Boys State. Throw some dirt about The Chamber around the web, get some OpEd pieces in print, put damn sign holders on town commons.
We need an enemy with a face & our nemesis is The Chamber. The Chamber cries for our vengeance. Expose The Chambers’ anti-american worker’s activities by putting the organization in the spot-light. Reference historical pieces. I found a hard copy of a Chamber of Commerce BOOK through my interlibrary loan system! Try searching Wikipedia, publish the dirt.
Words such as union, workers’ rights, lock-out have been drilled into our heads as bad, evil, and to be feared. We’ve been brainwashed or as activists say “the winners write the history”! Initially, stay away from those words-
Create a new enemy, for example— AlQueda is a household word, everyone hates Al Queda–have we ever met an AlQueda member? No!
Create another new enemy, The Chamber of Commerce, which is already a household word. Then put on the heat and watch our legislators distance themselves from Labor, oops, I mean Commerce lobbyists. Maybe more than a few local merchants will withdraw their membership…
Check out The Chamber of Labor for yourselves
There’s sort of a cultural disconnect between progressive activists in general focused around class or discrimination issues and the “netroots.” It seems like part of the problem might be getting folks who have a very web-based lifestyle to identify with these causes.
I think it’s broader than unions though. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of netroots activity surrounding things like affordable housing or structural racism either. Sometimes it seems like people tend towards critical, not constructive web activity (unless they’re formal or informal web-workers and identify as such).
If you really want to get mass action from folks who are young and web-oriented, it might be feasible to create some sort of social networking website in the manner of facebook or myspace (more modest of course) or work with an already existing site, focused around actually implementing progressive constructive alternatives to corporate rule.
For instance, set up a site like facebook that has utilities embedded that help people connect with union organizers or coworkers potentially interested in unionizing. Encourage unions and progressive nonprofits to host “groups” and pages for members and sympathizers. Set up “virtual picket lines” and web-promoted consumer boycotts to deploy in contract negotiations or organizing campaigns. Etc. etc.
Something like that would give labor and progressive class movements much more web-presence, and encourage younger progressives to identify with positive efforts to build a more equitable and just society.
One more point, that seems interesting to me. The most political and active members of the web community are folks involved in free software and open source communities. Some are paid and some aren’t but most I’ve encountered make me think of the logic of older craft unions. There’s tremendous dedication to the “craft” and its quality, but it’s combined with a very adversarial stance regarding corporate production and mainstream business. Many of the most ardent and skillful proponents are explicitly anti-corporate and have sophisticated critiques of copyright law tailored towards big business and against grassroots producers.
It would be interesting if a union like the CWA tried to create something akin to the SEIU’s Purple Ocean, targetted to open source partisans and workers and featuring structural aspects of a craft union.
Just a random thought though.
“Bread, Blogs and Roses”, the title of the workshop suggests that people will be interested in the workshop because they Know the history of the labor movement. The labor strikes of 1910-1928 are worse than ancient history, the history of the labor movement is erased from our history books. Don’t believe me? Look in your own history books for: The Ludlow Massacre, Mother Jones, Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Eugene Victor Debs.
Now check out Howard Zinn’s American History book or Michael True’s “People Power”, ISBN 81-316-0087-4. Both Zinn and True’s books are easy reads containing a wealth of information and references to original sources.
We need to know our labor history. If you prefer to learn history through music pick up some of Pete Seeger’s music, if you like novels try “The Grapes of Wrath”, “East of Eden”, “The Jungle”. You’ll meet hoboes, fighters, and great public speakers, immigrants, and arrogant coal barons, people living 10 in a room, corrupt police, Jews, Poles, Irishmen , conspirators, and communists.
Maybe, just maybe if we all learn one new thing about workers’ history and we talk to one friend about what we just learned then people would all start talking to each other about labor things and we could start a movement!!
Which reminds me of Arlo Guthrie. Arlo said, when asked if he was concerned that President Reagan was sleeping a lot (Reagan’s aides did say he napped a lot) , Arlo said, “no, I don’t mind, I think more presidents and presidentces should sleep more . And if they’d all sleep together they could do to each other what they’ve been doing to us”!
Yearlykos inspired a lot of diaries at the dailykos website. This is where many progressive ideas are discussed and debated by the netroots. Several people were energized to support Unions and the labor movement by the forum with candidate, John Edwards. The diaries are lively, and overall are very pro labor. The netroots support returning the power in our country to the working people. The reason is exactly as you say… this is the best way to protect our economy and make our country strong. We need to value work again in our country. We have shifted away, and now value the power of the big corporate operations. This is not good for our country. The netroots get it. And the point is driven home when John Edwards makes time to go out and walk picket lines. Workers rights will keep America strong for our children and our grandchildren.
Many progressives and netroots people have a family member or friend who belong to a union, and many are union members themselves. When John Edwards says, “this is the right thing to do”, a lot of bloggers are listening. This is right. And reasonable people can understand that.
Go over to dailykos.com and sign up and tell everybody how YOU feel.
There is a problom for some bloggers with embracing all of what would be a progressive agenda. Many have not been exposed to the history of struggles and alliances formed for the common good.
The blogosphere has long been dominated by an affluent white voice with independant funding. Issues of economic justice/class, racial discrimination and disability challenges just don’t get big play.
Walmart opposition has been the largest support base backed-up by the video “High Costs of Low Prices” but that is unique.
We all need to reach out more and use the medium but there is always the question of what benefits who without control of the megaphone by rational and honest sources, a limited perspective on blogs .