Association for Union Democracy

Skraeling
Posts: 271 Joined: 07-04-06 Location: Dùn Èideann, NZ
Submitted by Skraeling on 30 January, 2008 - 23:12.

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me a bit about the Association for Union Democracy (AUD) http://www.uniondemocracy.org/index.htm

Where are they coming from? What do they mean by union democracy? And what strategies do they use?
Do they use a broad left caucus strategy or a rank and file one to reform unions?

cheers

syndicalist
Posts: 1368 Joined: 15-04-06
1 February, 2008 - 13:06

AUD has been around a long time. Their main line of activitiy has been using the various legal systems (law suits,labor labor, fedeal law) to ensure proper election of officers, etc. A very stuffy approach.

That siad, they've publshed some interestesting stuff.

petey "They gonna eat your shoulders."
Posts: 2960 Joined: 13-10-05
2 February, 2008 - 00:10

yeah, thanks mitch, i just came across them too recently, via benson's blog

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4156 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
2 February, 2008 - 03:45

Trots.

fnbrill ""Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies." - Tacitus"
Posts: 778 Joined: 13-01-07
2 February, 2008 - 04:27
thugarchist wrote:
Trots.

What flavor?

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4156 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
2 February, 2008 - 05:17
fnbrill wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Trots.

What flavor?

Mild ones. Not bad folks really. They're fairly harmless for the most part. I know a union fatcat who is one of those deluded leftists who can justify anything horrible they do because they're "fighting the good fight" who's tight with the director of aud and when there was a democracy challenge in the local got him to promise to rat out the base movement if they approached him.

None of this stuff is useful.

MJ "tastes like gym socks, orchards and godhead"
Posts: 1892 Joined: 05-01-06 Location: Massachusetts
2 February, 2008 - 15:46

Hey how mild are Socialist Action, if we're playing this game? I met a guy at a picket who's a rep or steward or something here, involved in a general 'reform' caucus in his (undeniably shit) local. Some later googling associated him with that group when he was in the Northwest, no surprise. Just curious, cuz I might be calling him to help on some other practical stuff in the neighborhood where he lives...

fnbrill ""Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies." - Tacitus"
Posts: 778 Joined: 13-01-07
2 February, 2008 - 15:57
MJ wrote:
Hey how mild are Socialist Action, if we're playing this game? I met a guy at a picket who's a rep or steward or something here, involved in a general 'reform' caucus in his (undeniably shit) local. Some later googling associated him with that group when he was in the Northwest, no surprise. Just curious, cuz I might be calling him to help on some other practical stuff in the neighborhood where he lives...

Not very. They are the new Trotskyist orthodoxy. After the SWP(US) renounced trotskyism there were a series of expulsions. SA is the one which seems to have survived and grown under the mantle of basic trotskyist Cannon.

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4156 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
2 February, 2008 - 15:59

Who can keep these sects straight? Its hard enough to remember all the fucking stupid anarchy groups.

syndicalist
Posts: 1368 Joined: 15-04-06
2 February, 2008 - 16:02

Yeah, I'd agree with fnbrill on Soc.Action.* Here's something written by one of their people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Action_(US)

BTW, founder of AUD, Herman Benson**, was long ago a trot. It would be unfair to paint them with an ideological label in any meaningful sense. But, yes, I would agree that they are on the finges of the "Labor Notes"*** broad left political fringes.

* http://www.solidarity-us.org/uawbigthree

** Herman Benson's "Rebels, Reformers, and Racketeers: How insurgents transformed the labor movement"

http://www.uniondemocracy.com/UDR/64-Rebels%20excerpt.htm#toc

*** http://www.labornotes.org/

fnbrill ""Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies." - Tacitus"
Posts: 778 Joined: 13-01-07
2 February, 2008 - 16:20
thugarchist wrote:
Who can keep these sects straight? Its hard enough to remember all the fucking stupid anarchy groups.

I generally can, but my memory works that way.

But I wouldn't catagorize the SocA as a sect, I think they will be the biggest/most consistent trot group soon.

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4156 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
2 February, 2008 - 16:40
fnbrill wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Who can keep these sects straight? Its hard enough to remember all the fucking stupid anarchy groups.

I generally can, but my memory works that way.

But I wouldn't catagorize the SocA as a sect, I think they will be the biggest/most consistent trot group soon.

Jeezuz. We're all a bunch of fringe cultists. Its ok to admit it.

MJ "tastes like gym socks, orchards and godhead"
Posts: 1892 Joined: 05-01-06 Location: Massachusetts
2 February, 2008 - 17:16

Oh. Yikes. Thanks Brill and Syndicalist, I'll take that under advisement. sad

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4156 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
2 February, 2008 - 17:22
MJ wrote:
Oh. Yikes. Thanks Brill and Syndicalist, I'll take that under advisement. sad

I didn't get the idea that Brill was describing them insultingly. Brill?

fnbrill ""Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies." - Tacitus"
Posts: 778 Joined: 13-01-07
2 February, 2008 - 18:30

I would say 'clinically'. I am no fan of the trotskyist agenda, but I do believe in being honest and realistic about folks I disagree with.

I just think they are going to be the trot force to be recconded with. They aren't issue chasers like the ISO, their membership aren't nut-jobs ala wsws.org/SEP They have a great deal of experience in organizing in the 1970s and they are gaining younger folks. They are serious and focused.

MJ, they haven't shown the desire the old SWP had for internal manipulation of community organizing. Here in PDX their members have been quite principled. But perhaps that's because they don't have the membership numbers yet. Don't know.

Thug

Yes, we are all cultists, but I'm fringe, you're mainstream. tongue

OliverTwister "Tied directly to Bekken and the Philly camp"
Posts: 2215 Joined: 10-10-05 Location: San Francisco, USA
4 February, 2008 - 11:36

They're apparently the only trot group in the US with an elected official - a guy on the board of supervisors of Douglas County, Minnesota. (according to wikipedia).

j.rogue "Not as good as cops."
Posts: 1446 Joined: 08-04-07 Location: Not Texas
4 February, 2008 - 21:13
thugarchist wrote:
Who can keep these sects straight? Its hard enough to remember all the fucking stupid anarchy groups.

Lordy, where is xConorx and his charts when you need them?