Though some contemporary unions are ineffective, they still contain the potential for working-class power. To denounce unions without attention to the intentional manner in which they have become compromised by capitalist actors only empowers capitalists and management.

At this stage, many existing unions need more rank-and-file organization that can push against institutionalization and bureaucratization from within. We need to erode the no-strike clause, do away with the ban on political strikes, and sustain rank-and-file organization.

Denouncing unions "from the left" does none of this. Rather, it cedes territory to the forces of reaction by retreating from the hard-won concessions that were violently taken by militants of the past.

Retreating from our unions will not empower us to fight against militarization of public education by campus police forces. Rather, more thorough and active rank-and-file organization is needed within and around our unions to make this fight happen.

Ceding the territory of unionization to management will deter us from fighting against austerity, privatization and the structural racism that's embedded in the university's business plan. Workers organized across all the facets of the university site can effectively fight back.

Liberalism demands that we disembed our politics from our structural location in society. But we need to do exactly the opposite; if organized from where we are at, we can mount a serious attack against university management and begin to build the force needed for transformation.