The Battle for Power in the Workplace is a Great Educator.

Just a few personal comments about the daily, every minute of every day, struggles in the workplace.

There are two sources of power in the workplace just as there are in society----the bosses and the organized working class. The battles against the landlords if your a renter, against the police if you are a victim of police abuse, if you are a student fighting the administration, or any time one comes up against the forces of the state, these are are important battles. But in my humble opinion (I'm not going to use the acronym) the battle in the workplace is the great educator.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Along with this is the internal struggle between different ideologies and views as to how this battle should be conducted. This is the harder struggle as it is an internal one. Then there are the opportunists, bootlickers, social climbers and so on. They are generally no threat as every worker, given the opportunity, recognizes them. If the rank and file are not present of course, that's different. When the working class moves in to struggle no matter whether it comes first inside or outside of organized labor, the present leadership will be dislodged, like rotten apples on a tree that appear to be stable but fall to the ground in the face of a strong wind.

Richard Mellor