Underground Nature Doc Nader gesticulates at Seattle rally on August 26. At an August 26 rally at the Labor Temple in Seattle, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader railed against international union officers who have endorsed Democratic candidate Al Gore. Nader is correct that union politics should matter to the American public. Unions are the ideal place for workers to organize for their political interests. Furthermore, when workers can make changes through the democratic process ITAL inside their unions, they are more likely to turn enthusiastically toward conventional politics.
Unions can turn around voter apathy.
In today's labor unions there are no political parties. Without competing political parties, union officers rarely face opposition candidates. International union elections resemble the Mexican elections that have been dominated for 70 years by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Incumbents handpick their successors, and the only real political party is the State. Unions are governed as one-party states.