Vietnam Protest and the Unions

Vietnam Protest and the Unions

Among participants in the recent demonstrations for peace, especially the younger activists, dismay over the position of the unions on the Vietnam war has a way, at times, of spilling over into impatience, even hostility, toward the whole idea of unionism. I share their unhappiness at the way the trade unions have fallen into line behind Johnson’s foreign policy; I agree that there is a real and very difficult problem here for those of us who want to create a widely-based protest against the Vietnam war; yet I want to argue against the tendency to disparage the unions.

It seems strange to have to write a defense of unionism, of justifying collaboration with the union movement. If anything, the shoe ought to be on the other f...


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