Ultimately, this comparison problematizes the assumption that radicalization is inherently destructive and incompatible with American party politics. Hegemonic parties with robust resources can nurture radicals and substantively integrate their ideas, avoiding the process of dilution that is characteristic of the Democrats’ listless interest-group configuration.
It is not, therefore, straightforwardly advantageous for a union, such as the IWGB, to identify as one of their shorter term goals recognising their members as ‘workers’ entitled to rely on, and gain access to, the various rights, protections, and institutions, that form part of this legal framework, and which shape the pursuit, by traditional trade unions, of their objectives. While doing so may well help insulate their members from the various legal risks attendant on organisation and industrial action, it does so at the direct expense of exposing them to the very compulsions and incentives that have historically helped to de-radicalise trade unions over time.
