God, I wish my mother wasn’t so disinclined to hook up with a computer and the internet. She, who worked for 30 years with AFSCME and bleeds union blood, would pump her fist in the air over this (a la To Hot for TNR). But she also said that some of the worst bigots she ever had to deal with were in her union. His argument is indeed rousing, but I know there are some of his brothers and sisters he just will not convince.

wow. just wow!

That’s a guy who I’d luv to see as Sec’y of Labor in an Obama administration. Or maybe we need to merge Commerce and Labor into a Dept of National Economy, with a labor guy heading the department.

It’s time to fight. We are so out of balance that the pendulum has been stuck on the right side of US history for decades, and it’s well past the time to swing it left as far and as fast as we can push it.

You’re right. He won’t convince everyone. The most severe bigot I’ve ever encountered was my grandmother, a union worker for her entire life. But it’s inspiring and important that Trumka stepped up and refused to let racism — in the labor movement and outside of it — go unchallenged.