One of the reasons I was so fortunate to have been able to attend Take Back America was that I got the opportunity to hear the perspectives of a number of people in the organized labor movement. Despite my fairly progressive upbringing, this was a constituency that I rarely heard from. I didn't grow up in a union household, nor did I know anyone who did. In fact, I daresay the sizable majority of my generation had little familial exposure to the labor movement.

Some of the reasons why this came to be were presented at TBA. Union membership in the U.S. has declined precipitously in the last few decades, and indeed the U.S. has a lower rate of union-organized employees than even newly emerging democracies like Brazil. It trails other developed nations significantly.

The labor movement is a very important historical constituency for the Democratic party and for the progressive movement in general. It's unfortunate to hear and see it become less of a relevant force in American politics. The accomplishment of the labor movement are manifold and have been mostly been bestowed on non-unionized sectors (like the non-profit world, for example) as well -- the establishment of the 40-hour work week, paid and family leave, pensions...

Still, when I talk to my ostensibly progressive peers about the state of the labor movement, even they have adopted numerous right-wing canards. Unions can become very bureaucratic, they might say, and ultimately take dues out of their rank-and-file's paychecks to pay big-shot lawyers to play politics. Union shops have too many rules and regulations and it's a damper on productivity. Not everyone wants to be in the union, so why should they?

It is quite ironic. The big corporations that unions were created to play the foil too are somehow not more guilty by severalfold of these things? It's the same argument right-wingers use to argue against single-payer health care, as though big health insurance aren't bureaucratic and abusive.

I know most of the progressive movement insiders are in on this, but we who are not part of "big labor" all would do well to keep in mind that they are on our team, and they always have been. They can be critical partners in the struggle for the environment, for the sanity of the courts, and certainly for economic justice for the working people they represent.

As the fallout from the sub-prime crisis and the other abusive practices of the financial industry slowly come to light, more and stronger voices for working people (a definition into which I include myself and a host of other young people struggling to make it in one of the most difficult economic climates in decades in this country) are sorely needed. Solidarity, my friends.