If there were not different interpretations of history, only
one history professor would ever be needed. Shall it be Newt
Gingrich?

According to Diane Gutenkauf:
>
> Henry Grunder wrote on 1/4
> >snip
> >It was part of the genius of the early leaders of the US labor
> >movement, that they were able to get disparate occupations to
> >subordinate their group identification and affinities, in favor
> >of seeing themselves as having a common cause. Thus, steel
> >workers, electricians, butchers, brakemen, bicycle makers, and
> >so on, were made to think of themselves as "American labor."
> >The great advances in the lot of working persons in this
> >country in this century were the fruit of this change of
> >mindset.  snip<
>
> Funny, that's not how I read labor history. One of Debs' great failures was th
at
> he was unable to achieve the above. The United Workers of the World NEVER beca
me
> a major player in the labor movement because they were unable to unite workers
> from all professions. Workers couldn't think of themselves as united for a
> common cause and couldn't get beyond " I'm a brakeman, I'm a steel worker."
> Socialism will never work in this country, despite some very notable
> achievements. (Debs was the party's last charasmatic leader and he died in
> 1926.)
>
> It is unfair to demean the laudable achivements of a group of dedicated worker
s
> who are willing to rise beyond politics and class struggles to provide a great
er
> good--that of making some of the world's great artistic, historical, and natur
al
> history collections available to all comers. Marx would have wanted it that wa
y.
>
> Diane Gutenkauf, Curator,
> (Raised and Educated by members of the Workmans Circle, SP, UWW, Amalgamated
> Garment Workers, and ILGWU)
> [log in to unmask]
>