The speed with which the national struggle against the PRTC's sale and governor Rossello's privatization policy fell apart points to an inside job. According to many activists, some spineless union leaders got cold feet in the heat of the fight and de-cided to back off. But the struggle continues. During those days in June and July, thousands of Puerto Ricans got involved in political activism and labor issues for the first time. They got a crash course in neoliber-alism and privatization, as well as grassroots organizing.
Some union leaders are afraid of that.
These obsolete labor bureaucrats know full well that the entrance of a wide array of grassroots organizations into the progressive political scene means that they'll have to share their power, and they fear that. If the PRTC goes through, the company will be swallowed whole by GTE, which was just bought by Bell Atlantic. With its recent strikes against Bell Atlantic and US West, CWA has proved to be a very dynamic union, and it will certainly step up to the challenge of organizing communications workers in Puerto Rico. If that happens, I know few will shed any tears for the phone company unions. But I opt to err on the side of optimism.