Grit-TV: Jane McAlevey- 'Building the Labor Movement in President Obama's Second Term'

Source:Grit-TV- Jane McAlevey, talking to Laura Flanders about American labor.

"With a Democrat again in the White House for the next four years, the labor movement has won some much-needed breathing room, says organizer and author Jane McAlevey. Now's the time, McAlevey says, to get the best activists back in the field and push hard for expanded labor rights.

From Grit-TV

Professor Noam Chomsky who is an admitted Libertarian-Socialist, once said that America doesn't have a Labor Party, that we have two parties that are essentially business parties. Actually, he used stronger language than that when interviewed by Bill Moyers like twenty years ago.

Noam Chomsky- "America doesn't even have two parties, that we have one party, with two different factions, one of them called Democrats the other called Republicans". I as a Liberal Democrat actually I obviously disagree with that, we have two business friendly parties. As far as the leadership in both parties, but we also have a labor friendly party. A major party that believes in the right to organize, thats pro-union in the Democratic Party. But what we don't have is a major party thats not only pro-union and labor, but thats also anti-business, anti-big business, anti-corporate. Not necessarily anti-capitalist, just not in favor of large corporations.

We don't have a major social democratic or democratic socialist party, even. (However you want to phrase it) That every other major democracy has in the rest of the developed world at least. What America does have in the Democratic Party, a party thats made up of Social Democrats. But who for the most part except for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is more interested in governing and advancing the ball. Which includes compromise and doing things she normally wouldn't do, rather than never compromising and always standing up for the movement. And keep fighting partisan battles that never seem to end.

Which is what Social Democrats would prefer the Democratic Leadership to do rather than dealing with Republicans. Same thing with the GOP as it relates to the Tea Party. So what Social Democrats have as far as major party, is a party that may share a lot if not most of its goals.

Like affordable health insurance for everyone but doesn't share the same policies as far as how to achieve those goals. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 being a perfect example of that, where Social Democrats wanted single payer Medicare For All. The Democratic Leadership instead expanded the private health insurance system for people who currently can't afford it. Going forward Social Democrats need to understand this and figure this out and know that the Democratic Leadership doesn't always have it's back when it comes to passing policies and legislation to achieve the goals that both factions may share. And figure out what's the best path for them moving forward. Keep settling for a party that at best gives them half of what they want or developing a party that will fight for everything that they want instead.