NEW RADICALISM
203
puters pose a new and basic threat. In the case of East and GuH
Coast longshoremen, this led to a rank-and-file revolt against the
leadership.
Thirdly, there are recent developments in union organization-the
brilliant success of the American Federation of Teachers, the militant
strike of the New York social workers are two instances--which open
up new perspectives. Both the teachers and the social workers have
insisted not simply on bettering their own wages and hours, but on
improving the quality of the social service which they offer. And
since the labor market
is
shifting more employment into these pro–
fessions-education accounted for 194,800 new jobs between 1962 and
1963, production work for 70,OOO--they are taking on a much greater
social weight.
Fourthly, there is a curiously conservative and static assumption in
this
rejection of the labor movement: that it is a homogeneous and
fixed force in society. The manpower revolution in which we find
ourselves might still make it possible for many unions to accept
ttthnological firings and retrench on the basis of a smaller, but better
paid, membership (the John
L.
Lewis tack). But
is
it so plain that
this is
an eternal option? Or, to put it another way,
is
there not
reason to expect dynamic and change within the unions as well as
everywhere else?
Finally, the unions have the beginnings of a program to deal with
the
current situation. They are for national economic planning, for
mamve social spending to generate jobs, for upgrading various social
benefits,
etc. In terms of specific proposals, then, those of the labor
movement are broader than any other institution in this society.
Still, the civil rights movement
is
clearly much more dynamic,
appealing and moral. It is raising basic issues in action rather than in
resolutions. And in this context, labor could become either a natural
enemy of the Negro-or his most decisive ally. The sad thing is that
in
recent years the negative possibilities have been allowed too much
pay.
Under conditions of chronic, high unemployment, the Negro
demand for jobs will be seen by many working whites as a threat to
their livelihood. There is no reason to expect that their sense of
'-ory or of morality
will
prevail over their economic interests. And
tis
"functional" fear of the Negro
is,
of course, reinforced by the
