Should communists be union reps?
Sep 22 2006 14:38
#212
Well, I'm bowing out. I think it is good to end on a more open moment. We could wrangle over aspects further (negativity, proletariat, etc.), but I think we have reached a certain clarity and i can't see a way for myself at least to say more that would be useful.
Not sure if this ended up adding much for people who were looking for an answer in the simple sense of whether or not we should be union reps or whatever. Probably not 
Revol, thanks, I really appreciated your posts as well. Its only a shame we could not drag Devrim in away from pointless arguing over the ICC.
Chris
Sep 27 2006 23:18
#213
All these words, and this
Lazy wrote:
Trade Unions are like companies-within-companies, if you're prepared to work for one, then you may as well work for the other.
is the most thought-provoking statement in all these threads, I think (which is slightly worrying for me because as far as I can tell LR always tries to make his posts as nonsensical as possible).
One question though, Rinser, surely what we've got here is a question of 1 company bad, 2 companies worse. So just because we're in one company, I see no reason why this opens the floodgates to join a second.
Sharma - I sort of get where you're coming from on the idea that the class struggle merely reproduces the classes we wish to negate. BUT, I think revol hits the nail on its head - how the hell is the whole class thing going to vanish in one big boom? To cite Argentina is a bit weird, to me. Surely the reason Argentian didn't account for much was exactly because it was located within a class struggle (and most certainly not outside of class struggle) - and the representatives of the anti-working class, in this case the Argentinian state and its IMF/international capital backers, made sure that the occupied factories/picqueteros (sorry, can't spell that) didn't get the upper hand and remained relatively harmless marginals in Argentinian society. I.E. it was precisely because it WAS part of a class struggle, and that the proletariat (in the form that it took in the case of the Argentinian struggle), was far weaker than its class enemies, that it was defeated.
Hi
Those last two posts have caused me to modify my position. I maintain the best interests of the working class are served by allowing its members to take on formal positions within capitalist enterprises, including trade unions, should they see fit. However, I concede that communists, defending the fundamental objectives and methods of communism, should not be union reps.
As for the political content of redtwister’s and cph_shawarma’s communism, well they're both pretty bullet proof and I would make an even bigger idiot of myself than usual if I attempted to simplify either of them enough to start a fight here. Good luck to them both.
Love
LR