Labor Notes Conference 2016

Submitted by syndicalist on April 12, 2016

Anyone go to this conference? General interest feedback is welcome.

syndicalist

8 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on April 13, 2016

Anyone?

Hieronymous

8 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Hieronymous on April 13, 2016

I went, but was there mostly for the 2-day Railroad Workers United Biennial Convention just prior in the same hotel complex. I attended the RWU event as a "solidarity" member, presented on "International working class solidarity down supply chains," and helped coordinate visiting delegations of Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean railroad workers who participated in workshops at both RWU and Labor Notes. Joe Burns also presented at RWU, talking about the CHAOS strikes of the Association of Flight Attendants (affiliated with CWA) who are under the same restrictions of the Railway Labor Act as the 13 craft unions on the rails.

The Chinese delegation, having split into two smaller groups, is currently on a speaking tour to promote their China on Strike book, which was launched with a workshop at Labor Notes. I'm currently writing a report-back on the visit of the Chinese comrades to Chicago, San Francisco, and Oakland and will post it on libcom when it's completed.

Labor Notes itself was more miss-than-hit, the miss embodied by the uncritical worship of Bernie Sanders campaign for Commander-in-Chief of capitalism's hegemon. It was pretty nauseating! The hit was meeting rank-and-file militants from around the world, especially those talking about strikes and genuine class struggle.

I only attended two Labor Notes workshops, the aforementioned launch of China on Strike and another about "Fighting on the World's Railroads" with railroaders from North America, Asia and France. Many of the others in the schedule were uninspiring sessions about reforming business unions from within or being a good piecard, which seemed awful.