http://briarpatchmagazine.com Fiercely independent (and often irreverent) news & views. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:36:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/06/22/dare-anyone-say-a-word/ http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/06/22/dare-anyone-say-a-word/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:33:55 +0000 dave http://briarpatchmagazine.com/?p=670 By John Peters Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 114 June 17, 2008 There is always something unsettling about people who say one thing and do another. There is for one thing the hypocrisy. Then, there is the uncertainty. It only takes a few disappointments to sow the seeds of doubt about whether you can ever trust a person's judgement again or whether you can ever expect them to fulfill their responsibilities in the future. These problems become even greater when those in leadership positions engage in such 'shambolic' efforts that involve saying much and doing little, while rejecting all criticism. Couple this with trying to shut down any hints of debate or questioning of decisions or strategies, and what you end up with is a sort of variation on the 'Emperor has no clothes' fable. All these problems were very much in evidence at the recent Canadian Labour Congress Convention in Toronto (May 26-30, 2008) and all of these problems raise serious red flags about the state of the Canadian labour movement today. But in a variation of the story, there was something even more staged and more malevolent about the Congress - more an event of the ‘Leader has no clothes, but I dare anyone to say anything about it.' Even though there were many good resolutions dealing with renewing organizing, fighting privatization, establishing a national pharmacare program, and protecting and renewing good, unionized manufacturing jobs, there was very little to suggest that the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) would play any effective role in pushing these policies forward. Many of the final CLC resolutions suggested nothing more than future meetings with union staff to discuss options. Others only broached the importance of raising issues. Few detailed how a campaign would actually be launched. None made the promise that any money would be devoted to these causes. Even more worrisome was that in the floor debates, there was a good deal of evidence that the CLC and many in leadership positions were more interested in trying to shut down discussion and shut down the kind of activism necessary to move progressive ideas forward, rather than trying to stir passions, raise public awareness, and mobilize workers across Canada. ]]> http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/06/22/dare-anyone-say-a-word/feed/