This will be a two-part post, with the second part being a brief focus on the inadequate methodology of social democrats and trade unionists. The radical left need to take measures against such inadequate methodology. I demonstrate briefly their inadequate methodology by referring to John Dewey’s philosophy of human nature and contrast it with one implicit social-democratic view that limits consideration to the immediate human body without taking into consideration the wider context within which the human body operates and lives.
The first part focuses on a discussion I had on Facebook a few weeks ago about the issue of a law passed in Ohio, the United States, which prevents girls who are raped (sexually abused) from having an abortion. I am certainly opposed to such a law, but it is insufficient to simply condemn such a law. It is necessary to understand how such a law could be formulated in the first place if we are to prevent the emergence of such laws (and worse) in the future. Social democrats and trade unionists, however, often merely react with gut feelings that are inadequate to the task of opposing on a wider basis the roots of such laws (and policies related to such laws).
Below I paste a copy of the conservation on Facebook. It is instructive in how limited the view of social democracy or social reformism and trade unionism really is and how ineffective as a consequence their responses will be. It is also instructive how such limitations arise from a typical method that social democrats or reformists and trade unionists use.
To be sure, social democrats or reformists and trade unionists may prevent, on occasion, the formulation and passing of such laws, but since they never address the roots of such laws, they will inevitably be incapable of eradicating the conditions for such laws to arise in the first place.
Tina Faibish, who is the main discussant below, is president of local 552 of OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union).
Here is the discussion, including my reply. After my reply, there was–silence.
chicagotribune.com
The story of Should 11-year-old girls have to bear their rapists’ babies? Ohio says yes .An impregnated preteen girl in Massillon, Ohio, has drawn national attention to the state’s new, highly restrictive abortion laws.
15Tina Robin Faibish and 14 others
18 Comments
Kristen Bones Disgusting
Raymadawn Hamilton Hell no!!!!!!!
Liz Seaward Ash No they should not…this is disgusting
Natalie Ashlyne Brooke Michener Wtf these law makers have to go who the hell would do that to someone
Fred Harris Undoubtedly this is amoral [should be immoral]–but so too is having to work for an employer. And yet how many among the left really find working for an employer to be “disgusting?”
Tina Robin Faibish Fred Harris come on are you kidding me, you can not look at these two issues as if the level of unjust is similar or comparable because they are not!
Fred Harris Of course, social democrats simply ignore the day-to-day exploitation and oppression of billions of workers (this is so trivial) when compared to the issue of “11-year old girls having to bear their rapists’ babies.” This shows the extent to which the social-democratic left have been indoctrinated into accepting the employer-employee relation–which treats human beings as things.
So “moral”! Such phrases as “decent work,” and “$15 and Fairness” hide the immorality of being treated as things.
The social-democratic left want to present themselves as morally superior, and yet they ignore the persistent and day-to-day subordination of billions of workers to the power of employers.
By the way, I do have a daughter. And she has been treated unjustly in various ways–including being treated as a thing by employers. I neither ignore the other ways in which she has been treated unjustly–nor the way in which she has been treated unjustly as an employee. The social-democratic left, however, do not consider it unjust to have to work for an employer. Their trite phrases, such as “decent work” express their own biases.
Laura Betty Fred Harris really?
Fred Harris Really what?
Fred Harris I have a blog on the issue of the employer-employee relation and the bankruptcy of the social-democratic left–theabolitionary
Tina Robin Faibish Fred Harris this is your MO and why no one is listening. Your comparison is completely off topic, and undermines the legitimacy and outrage as it relates to this discussion. In other words, as valid as your point may be, this is not the appropriate place to reference a comparison that clearly does not exist!
Fred Harris Let us see. There was a topic on Hydro. Social democrats made many unrelated comments on that topic. But if I make a comment in a supposed unrelated topic, it is considered inappropriate.
As for no one listening to me–social democrats automatically do not listen to me–that is to be expected. But some people from India, China, the UK, the US, Canada have gone on my blog.
As for my “MO”: the MO [modus operandi—a typical way of approaching the world or of doing something] of social democrats is automatically to ignore the issue of the power of employers as a class.
As for the topic of being forced to have babies after being raped–of course this should be opposed. My daughter accused the man (Juan Ulises) who lived with her mother of raping her. He was charged, but the charges were dropped because it was his word against hers. She maintains his guilt to this day–and I believe her. Is this on topic?
But social democrats simply ignore the issue of the power of employers which occurs every day at work. They like to consider themselves morally superior as I said above.
To paraphrase the mathematician, philosopher of education and philosopher of science, Alfred North Whitehead: it is very difficult to engage critically with something that you constantly experience every day as normal.
Feel free to delete me from the Facebook account.
Nina Keogh Tina Robin Faibish yup.
Fred Harris From Tina Robin Faibish “come on are you kidding me, you can not look at these two issues as if the level of unjust is similar or comparable because they are not!”
Children grow up to be adults–and in our society, things to be used by employers. According to the moral social democrats, their concerns take priority over the day-to-day treatment of billions of workers.
Why are they not on the same level? Why focus on this particular occurrence in a particular state? That it is morally disgusting, I fully admit.
However, social democrats–by this person’s own admission–do not find the fact that billions of workers worldwide are treated as things on a daily basis to be of the same moral consideration. But what of the children of today? Is that not their fate tomorrow unless we stop permitting any person to be treated as a thing at work?
Is it moral to ignore the future of children?
Is it moral for the top 20 largest private employers to obtain $59 billion in profit (approximately $59 000 per unemployed person in Canada)? What of the children who suffer because of this?
Etc.
What of the over 200,000 Guatemalans who were butchered during the civil war (including children) in order to defend a system of employers?
Etc.
Or the “morality” of talking about employers paying their “fair share” of the taxes–after they have exploited workers in order to obtain the profits in the first place.
Yup.
Liz Seaward Ash Fred Harris one thing has nothing to do with the other…you’re delusional..
Fred Harris Note the lack of argument here and the lack of establishment of connections–and the resort to insults.
The issue of not permitting female children who are raped to have an abortion has to do with “property rights”–and that definitely has to do with the employer-employee relation and capitalism in general.
The struggle of women (and children) to control their own bodies forms part of a larger struggle to control our lives.
To say that they have nothing to do with each other is absurd–and shows the narrow-mindedness of the social-democratic left.
But that is to be expected–since the social-democratic left do not object to the general control of our bodies by employers but only particular forms. of it.
After all, do they not express such things as “decent work”–while simultaneously not criticizing the power of employers to control our lives at work in various ways. The social-democratic left like to “compartmentalize” our lives–separating out was is necessarily connected so that they can feel themselves morally–and intellectually–superior.
From the book Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Do Not Talk About It) (Ellizabeth Anderson–a woman, who probably would be considered delusional by the social-democratic left), pages 37-39
Communist Dictatorships in Our Midst
Imagine a government that assigns almost everyone a superior whom they must obey. Although superiors give most inferiors a routine to follow, there is no rule of law. Orders may be arbitrary and can change at any time, without prior notice or opportunity to appeal. Superiors are unaccountable to those they order around. They are neither elected nor removable by their inferiors.
Inferiors have no right to complain in court about how they are being treated, except in a few narrowly defined cases. They also have no right to be consulted about the orders they are given. There are multiple ranks in the society ruled by this government. The content of the orders people receive varies, depending on their rank. Higher- ranked individuals may be granted considerable freedom in deciding how to carry out their orders, and may issue some orders to some inferiors. The most highly ranked individual takes no orders but issues many. The lowest-ranked may have their bodily movements and speech minutely regulated for most of the day.
This government does not recognize a personal or private sphere of autonomy free from sanction. It may prescribe a dress code and forbid certain hairstyles. Everyone lives under surveillance, to ensure that they are complying with orders. Superiors may snoop into inferiors’ e-mail and record their phone conversations. Suspicionless searches of their bodies and personal effects may be routine. They can be ordered to submit to medical testing. The government may dictate the language spoken and forbid communication in any other language. It may forbid certain topics of discussion. People can be sanctioned for their consensual sexual activity or for their choice of spouse or life partner. They can be sanctioned for their political activity and required to engage in political activity they do not agree with.
The economic system of the society run by this government is communist. The government owns all the nonlabor means of production in the society it governs. It organizes production by means of central planning. The form of the government is a dictatorship. In some cases, the dictator is appointed by an oligarchy. In other cases, the dictator is self- appointed. Although the control that this government exercises over its members is pervasive, its sanctioning powers are limited. It cannot execute or imprison anyone for violating orders. It can demote people to lower ranks. The most common sanction is exile. Individuals are also free to emigrate, although if they do, there is usually no going back. Exile or emigration can have severe collateral consequences. The vast majority have no realistic option but to try to immigrate to another communist dictatorship, although there are many to choose from. A few
manage to escape into anarchic hinterlands, or set up their own dictatorships.
This government mostly secures compliance with carrots. Because it controls all the income in the society, it pays more to people who follow orders particularly well and promotes them to higher rank. Because it controls communication, it also has a propaganda apparatus that often persuades many to support the regime. This need not amount to brainwashing. In many cases, people willingly support the regime and comply with its orders because they identify with and profit from it. Others support the regime because, although they are subordinate to some superior, they get to exercise dominion over inferiors. It should not be surprising that support for the regime for these reasons tends to increase, the more highly ranked a person is.
Would people subject to such a government be free? I expect
that most people in the United States would think not. Yet most work under just such a government: it is the modern workplace, as it exists for most establishments in the United States. The dictator is the chief executive officer (CEO), superiors are managers, subordinates are workers. The oligarchy that appoints the CEO exists for publicly owned corporations: it is the board of directors. The punishment of exile is being fired. The economic system of the modern workplace is communist, because the government— that is, the establishment— owns all the assets,1 and the top of the establishment hierarchy designs the production plan, which subordinates execute. There are no internal markets in the modern workplace. Indeed, the boundary of the firm is defined as the point at which markets end and authoritarian centralized planning and direction begin. Most workers in the United States are governed by communist dictatorships in their work lives.
[End of quote]
If Ms. Anderson’s analysis is correct–why would it be surprising to limit the capacity of children (and their parents’) control over their bodies given the daily lack of control over the bodies of hundreds of millions of workers in the United States and billions worldwide (which the social democrats generally ignore)?
As I pointed out above, social democrats or reformists like to compartmentalize their discussions–a trick that enables them to omit issues that provide a wider context for the more narrow issues. They adopt what could be called a mechanistic philosophy to human society by assuming that human problems can be pigeon-holed into discrete parts. They look at society as if each area is distinct from another part. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, however long ago argued that a hand, to be a hand, must be related to the human body. Social democrats, however, would like to have us believe that hands exists independently of the human body. They then accuse anyone who tries to widen the issue of illegitimately addressing issues that have nothing to do with these narrower issues. Indeed, note the reference to “delusional” by one of the social democrats. They glory in their own narrowmindedness and accuse all who fail to share in their narrowmindedness with delusions.
John Dewey, the philosopher of education, argued that acting intelligently, among other things, involves considering the wider context, or contextualizing the immediate situation that constitutes the immediate problem.
Social democrats or reformists generally refuse to consider the wider context of the class structure and class power of employers. They thereby propose, implicitly, that workers act unintelligently.
The fact that social democrats and radical leftists (such as Sam Gindin) fail to attack persistently the power of employers as a class entails the possibility of the rise of forces outside the workplace (such as the extreme right). After all, does not such right-wing politicians as Doug Ford (premier of Ontario) or Donald Trump glory in the dictatorship of employers? Do they not, like the social-democratic left, ignore such dictatorship? Do they not cover up such a dictatorship through rhetoric, like the social-democratic left?
One final point: Ms. Faibish posted the following on Facebook:
Workers at the Rainforest Cafe in Niagara Falls have been on strike for more than a month. What they’re fighting for proves the need for strong employment-standards legislation — and strong unions.
I made a comment by pointing out that it would have been helpful to give examples of locals that are strong unions. She did not provide any. Social democrats or reformists and trade unionists often use clichés without providing any support for such clichés. When someone questions their clichés, they then engage in–silence. This is not what the labour movement needs.
Rest assured that if you call into question the self-righteous left’s assumptions, they will engage in insults. That is to be expected. They refuse to face up to their own social limitations and the limitations of their own mechanistic methodology.
The Abolitionary 