State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)

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Does anyone still look for the union label? Apparently not, to gauge historian Nelson Lichtenstein's history of the rise, heyday, and long decline of labor unions in America.

In the Progressive era, Lichtenstein writes, the "labor question" lay at the heart of a whole complex of political ideas governing the social betterment of working people and the development of a more equitable society. These ideas flourished through the course of the early twentieth century, as unions attained more and more influence and as Keynesian notions of organized labor being "essential to boost mass purchasing power and thereby sustain economic growth" became established. After World War II, however, unionism began a slow collapse, helped along by the rise of conservative, antilabor politics. Although ideas of workplace justice and the extension of civil rights into the private sector remain strong, organized labor has not--with the result, Lichtenstein argues, that many American workers are worse off today than they were a quarter of a century ago. Lichtenstein's narrative capably summarizes trends in modern labor history, and it provides much fuel for activists seeking renewed labor-based politics. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

In a fresh and timely reinterpretation, Nelson Lichtenstein examines how trade unionism has waxed and waned in the nation's political and moral imagination, among both devoted partisans and intransigent foes. From the steel foundry to the burger-grill, from Woodrow Wilson to John Sweeney, from Homestead to Pittston, Lichtenstein weaves together a compelling matrix of ideas, stories, strikes, laws, and people in a streamlined narrative of work and labor in the twentieth century.

The "labor question" became a burning issue during the Progressive Era because its solution seemed essential to the survival of American democracy itself. Beginning there, Lichtenstein takes us all the way to the organizing fever of contemporary Los Angeles, where the labor movement stands at the center of the effort to transform millions of new immigrants into alert citizen unionists. He offers an expansive survey of labor's upsurge during the 1930s, when the New Deal put a white, male version of industrial democracy at the heart of U.S. political culture. He debunks the myth of a postwar "management-labor accord" by showing that there was (at most) a limited, unstable truce.

Lichtenstein argues that the ideas that had once sustained solidarity and citizenship in the world of work underwent a radical transformation when the rights-centered social movements of the 1960s and 1970s captured the nation's moral imagination. The labor movement was therefore tragically unprepared for the years of Reagan and Clinton: although technological change and a new era of global economics battered the unions, their real failure was one of ideas and political will. Throughout, Lichtenstein argues that labor's most important function, in theory if not always in practice, has been the vitalization of a democratic ethos, at work and in the larger society. To the extent that the unions fuse their purpose with that impulse, they can once again become central to the fate of the republic. State of the Union is an incisive history that tells the story of one of America's defining aspirations.

Customer Reviews:

The Changing Face of Unions and Society.......2004-11-10

Nelson Lichtenstein's work titled, State of The Union: A Century of American Labor, provides an historical overview of the laws, people, and times in the American labour movement. In producing his research, Lichtenstein contextualizes (with a few glaring omissions) his discussion of the rise and decline of labor unions in the psyche of the American worker and companies alike. By starting his discussion with the period from the Great Depression through World War I, Lichtenstein provides a frame within which to place events, and accompanying mindsets, that developed from both a legal/legislative and social-change perspective. Additionally, in moving through the waxing and waning moments between the end of WWII and the Civil Rights Movement to the current living wage initiative, he presents a respectable work as to the elements that facilitated the decline in significance of unions in post-deindustrialization America; an institution which he strongly and convincingly argues is in need of a rebirth.

I found chapter five particularly engaging due to his treatment of "rights consciousness" and two legal events that were supported by African Americans and the AFL-CIO: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VII. On rights consciousness, he asserts, "this chapter seeks to evaluate how and why a rights-conscious strategy became the most efficacious way to approach the labor question during the 1960's and 1970's. It tries to measure the success and failure of this approach, and suggests why the labor movement reaped so few dividends from what would otherwise have been a most nurturing social-cultural environment" (180). While such movements in other countries "strengthened social-democratic movements and increased trade-union numbers and power . . . in the United States, this was an area of relative union stagnation" (181). While this is a well-supported assertion and was a result, in part, of the period of deindustrialization (late 1970's and early 1980's) of America's cities/manufacturing centers, the legal maneuvering is nonetheless worth noting.

Upon reading of the legal positioning, I began wondering what happened to the levels of consciousness of the 1960's that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title VII? An energized movement that sought to address not only the rights of African Americans and their seemingly intractable marginalization due to their skin color and social stigmatization, but also the rights of poor Anglos/Whites as well, seems to not have served current drives for economic equality. Additionally, I began considering the implications for workers, both African American and American Anglo if the failed Poor People's Campaign scheduled for 19 April 1968 had actually taken place with Dr. King at the helm. I say failed, due to the assassination of Martin Luther King 4 April 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, and the lack of vigor displayed when the event took place.

The consciousness displayed during the sixties as detailed by Lichtenstein brought forth a new dynamic. He writes, "if a new set of work rights was to be won, the decisive battle would take place, not in the union hall or across the bargaining table, but in the courts and the legislative chambers." This observance is indeed revealing of strategies employed by not only Civil Rights attorneys, but Union officials as well. That notwithstanding, Lichtenstein reminds readers that "a legal/administrative template derived from WWII-era Fair Employment Practice Commission was rolled into the 1964 civil rights law as Title VII," which allowed EEOC to "champion demands for equitable hiring and promotion practices" (192). Later, as Lichtenstein details, Title VII, as backed by AFL-CIO officials, came with "unforeseen" consequences. One such development was the racialization, and later gendering of fair employment "idea." Note: on the question of gender, Lichtenstein says little to nothing as to the feminization of poverty and elects not to discuss current trends in this area, which leads me to a short iteration of the books shortcomings.

Surprisingly, his treatment of women's rights and gender discrimination was relegated to less than ten pages. While he does address the living wage initiative and mentions Wal-Mart, a greater degree of attention is needed, but lacking; given current levels of working poor as detailed in Ehrenreich's work Nickel and Dimed: On (Not, Getting By In America, a discussion of Wal-Mart's machinations for crushing unionization efforts would have been both timely and ideal.

Another irony is that Lichtenstein does not discuss the Vietnam War and its economic and social fallout for America in any significant detail. A few paragraphs regarding economic and life estimates would have further served to contextualize "postwar poverty" (195). On this point, he elected not to note that more than 2.12 million people died in the war with more than fifty-eight thousand Americans contributing to the number of the dead. Additionally, he makes no mention of the estimated $140 billion price tag for America's involvement (Source: April, 2002 BBC Series War and Protest). Such omissions as that of Wal-Mart caused me to wonder about Lichtenstein's lack of in-depth discussion on the need to sincerely discuss the plight of the working poor; as opposed to paying lip-service to their very real needs.

In reading Lichtenstein's work and thinking on themes that coincided with Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, which I recently read, I began wondering several things. First, how does one, in a climate less than friendly toward worker solidarity around a living wage, affordable childcare, quality medical care, and reasonable and safe housing, convince companies that the well-being of workers and their families is, and should be, tethered to their long-term economic viability as a socially responsible company and that these concerns are not mutually exclusive? Additionally, What are some methods that can be employed that allow for workers to be made aware of their rights, thus allowing them to press for reforms both in the workplace and society?

Admittedly, Lichtenstein's work is replete with legal and historical information on labor laws and practices. However, one concern this reviewer holds is the lack of discussion of these issues in an approachable form for general readers, not to mention the aforementioned omissions. While this work is excellent for gaining an understanding of labor laws and their affect both on people and companies, it too is realized that in some circles the discussion to be had will be not unlike verbal self-gratification: producing an outcome with no tangible manifestations.

Do unions have a future?.......2002-08-14

The backdrop for "State of the Union" is the "labor question" that the author finds Progressive Era reformers confronting. They regarded the disproportionate power that corporate capitalism wielded relative to citizens and workers as unjustifiable in a democratic society. Changes in workplaces were most troublesome. Skilled workers were bypassed by work-simplifying machinery, an autocratic foreman system enforced Taylorism, or speed-up, and wages hovered at subsistence levels. But American workers, drawing upon a republican legacy, seized upon the WWI rallying cry of making the world safe for democracy to insist that industrial democracy be established within workplaces. Even President Woodrow Wilson recognized "the right of those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way in every decision which directly affects their welfare." Interestingly, the author does not take note of the fact that Wilson's call for workers' participation did not mention unions. But it is the relationship of unions to this "labor question" and to the notion of industrial democracy that most concerns Lichtenstein.

The lack of a legal and institutional basis for industrial democracy virtually ensured that industrial democracy would fizzle in the post-WWI era. But the major slip-up of American capitalism in the 20th century, that is, the Great Depression, opened the door for a tremendous, pent-up surge of American worker activism. In the Wagner Act, the most significant piece of New Deal legislation, workers were given the right and even encouraged to self-organize or select a representative to bargain with employers. In unionized workplaces, vibrant shop-floor steward systems ensured that workers' concerns received an expeditious hearing. Many labor activists from the Progressive Era were in the forefront of this politicized offensive to push for legalized industrial democracy. In addition, some of the Progressive social-democratic platform such as unemployment insurance, social security, and fair labor standards were part of the New Deal package.

The backlash against this resurgence of worker empowerment began immediately. Conservative justices, hostile corporate managements, racist Southern oligarchs, and anti-statist AFL unions - all opposed state intervention in the private domain of workplaces. But with the onset of WWII, the labor movement was drawn even more tightly into the state web as a participant in peak-level bargaining with the War Labor Board and industry leaders for the purpose of stabilizing industrial relations. For example, to curtail the spontaneous and disruptive strikes that were a part of the self-help tradition on the shop floor, multi-level grievance arbitration systems became standard sections in most bargaining agreements. But that tripartite bargaining did not extend beyond WWII. Some of the agreed to provisions proved to be more debilitating than helpful to trade unions and workers in later years.

With the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, conservatives were finally able to accomplish the dilution of the Wagner Act. Unions suffered major setbacks in that legislation. Communists and radicals were purged from union rolls, "right to work" laws were enacted in some states; employers could now denounce unions in organizing drives; and secondary boycotts were mostly prohibited. The author refers to the exclusion of supervisors and the subsequent exclusion of tens of millions of professional and technical workers in today's workforce as the "ghettoization" of the union movement.

As the author indicates, Taft-Hartley guaranteed that collective bargaining would be both limited and firm-based. A variety of barriers and penalties now existed to derail broader, classwide mobilizations. Negotiated contracts did not venture outside "mandatory" subjects of wages, hours, and working conditions. The prerogative of management to make virtually all corporate decisions regardless of any impact on workforces was a privileged topic. Industrial democracy received scant consideration as the courts generally held that a grievance clause in a contract overrode the statutory right of workers to strike.

The author takes particular care to debunk the widely held notion that the post-Taft-Hartley industrial relations era through the 1970s was a time of labor-management accord. A companion idea was that collective bargaining represented "industrial pluralism" in action. But classes with opposed interests and distinct ideologies could no longer exist; society now was defined to consist of competing interest groups who engaged in "non-ideological conflict." It was a theory that eschewed the idea that "alert citizen-workers" were the basic political actors of society. Industrial pluralism required that "competing elites bargain, compromise, and govern." Labor unions were only fulfilling their legitimate role when led by unassailable officers of long tenure. In addition, capitalism was now a benign force; it had been transformed into a rational planner for industrial society.

Global economic forces beginning in the 1970s undermined this supposed labor-management accord. Increased global competition, OPEC, inflation, and reduced corporate profits triggered new assaults by businessmen, conservatives, and various pundits on unions, casting them as "self-aggrandizing interest groups." Meanwhile a new rights consciousness, fueled by the civil rights movement, coupled with a loss of credibility and trust for unions persuaded workers to look to state regulatory legislation for workplace protections. But it was a pursuit for protection of individual rights based on gender, race, age, etc and not collective rights to industrial democracy. It was a focus that left unchanged the basic power structures in workplaces. Worker solidarity and workplace democracy no longer resonated with workers.

The author clearly regards the collective bargaining regime of American industrial relations, as it has evolved, to be a "product of defeat, not victory." Obviously material gains were made by many through collective bargaining, but the trade union movement has mostly failed in facilitating the democratic voice for all of the American working class.

What does the author suggest? It is a simple list: militancy, internal union democracy, and politics. There really is no assessment of the feasibility of the labor movement solving the labor question and establishing industrial democracy. Unlike the 1930s, there is no pent-up demand for workplace democracy. Consumerism seems to be the operant ideology of the American working class. This is an important book that leaves little doubt as to the state of unions. One is left wondering about the future of trade unions in the U.S.

A fine study of the crisis of American labor.......2002-07-24

Nelson Lichtenstein's Sate of the Union is a superb study of the current crisis of American labor. If it is not as finely researched or as densely rewarding as his biography of Walter Reuther or Steve Fraser's biography of Sidney Hillman, it is an excellent introduction to the problem and to possible solutions. Lichtenstein demonstrates the vital necessity of trade unions. The average wage of American young families stands at only two-thirds of the their counterparts in 1973, "even though their total working hours were longer and the educational level of the head of th ehousehold higher than a generation before. In the first years of the new century median wages and family incomes were still below their 1989 level." In the decline of civic committment and political life, the untramelled sway of corporate hegemony, the failure to confront health insurance, public transportation, and childcare in the United States and basic civil liberties in much of our brave new globalized world, the decline of American trade unionism truly is an injury to all.

Lichtenstein, notwithstanding his title, starts with the thirties. He tells the story of how mass industrial unionism boomed during that decade. The story he tells is not particularly new, concentrating on the famous struggles, as well as the fatal limitations of the CIO on race and gender. But he also goes on to point out that the partial welfare state, far from creating the dreaded dependence of conservative rhetoric, actually gave millions of workers the opportunity to exert civil rights and real power that they did not under the mythology of a producer's republic. Although he is scathing abou the flaws of the AFL's short sighted and often openly racist stratgey he duly notes that their craft unionism did have some advantages in some places.

The next two-thirds of the book are much more interesting. Lichtenstein denies that there was ever a "Labor-Management Accord," the belief that labour problems were essentially solved held in the sixties by complacent liberals and confused leftists. Lichtenstein points out the exceptional qualities of American management that differed them from their European counterparts and made them less amenable to compromise. He points out the continent wide nature of their businesses, the absence of cartelization and self-regulation, the increased power of big businesses, who were not tained with collaborationism, and the increasing stress placed on smaller companies which made them blame the federal state. He points out the dead weight southern segregation had on trade unionism and other liberal hopes, He notes how Taft-Hartley legalized right to work laws, as well as banning supervisory unioism making the unionization of many service industries like insurance or engineering "virtually impossible."

Lichtenstein goes on to discuss the increasing complacency of the AFL-CIO, under its spectacularly unimaginative leader George Meaney, as well as the calcification of the grievance system, the dissipation of shop-floor pressure, and the strategic disaster of supporting a private welfare state via union contract. This would not stand the ruptures of the eighties and which dissipated efforts to create a national social wage for all. He also reminds us that Kennedy's Keynesianism was the most conservative form on tap, while LBJ's war on poverty failed to confront the structural roots of poverty and thought that if could be fought on the cheap with training programs.

Lichtenstein then goes on to discuss the decline of the union ideal among liberal and leftist thinkers, and notes how even the Warren Court hampered trade unions. Lichtenstein is most helpful in discussing the limits of "rights consciousness." He is unflinching on the complacency and bigotry of many trade unionists that made this necessary. But he quite properly notes that it cannot be a substitute for trade unionism. First off, the legal-regulatory system is not self-supporting and it needs a coherent voice from workers themselves--ie a strong trade union, to support them. Secondly, rights discourse puts the emphasis on regulators as opposed to the workers themsleves, an unhealthy sign. Thirdly, rights consciousness does nothing to change or alter managerial authority. Finally, rights discourse by itself cannot solve the structural crisis that confronts American society. Lichtenstein provides the example of the steel workers where African-Americans challenged and beat Jim Crow, only to end up with fewer steelworkers as the industry collapsed.

Lichtenstein's book is concise and well documented, if largely based on secondary sources, and it contains useful apercus about globalization, the disaster of concession bargaining, the fraud of "quality of life" initiatives, and about the folly of the construction workers. Tthey supported Nixon, beat up anti-war protesters, but were still shafted by him anyway). He also discusses the health insurance debacle, and notes some promising signs of renewal in the last few years, especailly among Hispanic Americans. One might feel he is trying too hard to end on a positive note, but one can only agree when he says that "At Stake is not just an effort to resolve America's labor question but the revitalization of democratic society itself."

solidarity forever.......2002-04-04

Nelson Lichtenstein's new book, "The State of the Union," gives a history of labor unions in the United States by way of arguing for the need to restrengthen them, and I think the case is very persuasive.

Lichtenstein weaves together a number of themes to explain the decline in union membership and power. One is increased reliance on individual rights and legal protections. Federal laws ban all sorts of discrimination, endangerment, and abuse, but the federal government does not do an effective job of protecting workers from retaliation for asserting their rights and almost nothing to maintain other important elements of the workplace, such as wage levels or the prevention of mass layoffs.

We have learned to think of ourselves as individuals protected by laws, rather than brotherhoods and sisterhoods protected by our strength in numbers. We have a long list of rights, including - most notoriously - the "right to work." So called Right to Work laws clearly hurt unions but are not too far afield from modes of thought that labor supporters have engaged in themselves.

Unions are now seen as ways to protect individual jobs and proper grievance procedures following individual wrongs, not as cross-company efforts to lift the wages and benefits of entire industries. If the purpose of a union is simply to protect me from specific injustices, surely I ought also to respect my coworker's right to not be coerced to join, right?

But if the purpose of a union is to change society and improve the lot of all workers, then clearly the "right" of my coworker to be a freeloader and drag us all down is not to be respected.

The case Lichtenstein makes is that in the process of making fantastic gains in the Civil Rights, Feminist, and other movements, leftists unwittingly sacrificed a conception of the labor union that is badly needed today. No doubt, this analysis will annoy some people, but it ought to be taken as encouraging. The right didn't defeat us; we beat ourselves. Therefore, a reconstituted labor left can successfully fight back.

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A History of Organized Labor in the English-Speaking West Indies
Robert J. Alexander
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0275977439

Book Description

This volume deals with the history of organized labor in all of the countries of the English-speaking West Indies. It is the fourth in a series of histories of the organized labor movement in Latin America and the Caribbean. Alexander traces the countries' origins, early struggles, experiences with collective bargaining, and the key roles in the politics of their respective countries, particularly their participation in the struggle for self-government and independence. He also examines the international organizations of trade unions in the West Indian area, and their association with the hemisphere and worldwide labor groups. This work is based on the author's personal contacts with these labor movements and their leaders, as well as on printed material, including collective contracts, histories of some of the labor groups and other similar sources. Scholars and students of labor relations, economic and social development, and those interested in the history of the West Indies and Latin America will enjoy this book.

Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America

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Please, someone make a movie of this book
Well Written and Accessible History Lesson
Interesting history lesson
A very sobering account of the labor battles in early Industrial America
The first labor movement and a sham trial.

Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
James Green
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375422374
Release Date: 2006-03-07

Book Description

On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a Chicago labor rally, wounding dozens of policemen, seven of whom eventually died. Coming in the midst of the largest national strike Americans had ever seen, the bombing created mass hysteria and led to a sensational trial, which culminated in four controversial executions. The trial seized headlines across the country, created the nation’s first red scare and dealt a blow to the labor movement from which it would take decades to recover.

Death in the Haymarket brings these remarkable events to life, re-creating a tempestuous moment in American social history. James Green recounts the rise of the first great labor movement in the wake of the Civil War and brings to life the epic twenty-year battle for the eight-hour workday. He shows how the movement overcame numerous setbacks to orchestrate a series of strikes that swept the country in 1886, positioning the unions for a hard-won victory on the eve of the Haymarket tragedy.

As he captures the frustrations, tensions and heady victories, Green also gives us a rich portrait of Chicago, the Midwestern powerhouse of the Gilded Age. We see the great factories and their wealthy owners, including men such as George Pullman, and we get an intimate view of the communities of immigrant employees who worked for them. Throughout, we are reminded of the increasing power of newspapers as, led by the legendary Chicago Tribune editor Joseph Medill, they stirred up popular fears of the immigrants and radicals who led the unions.

Blending a gripping narrative, outsized characters and a panoramic portrait of a major social movement, Death in the Haymarket is an important addition to the history of American capitalism and a moving story about the class tensions at the heart of Gilded Age America.

Customer Reviews:

Please, someone make a movie of this book.......2007-08-01

It would be hard to find a more clear example of the importance of class conflict in American history than this book. The irony is that those unfamiliar with this concept are unlikely to read Death in the Haymarket, but they ought to. The book's narrative accelerates from the opening mise en scene to a dramatic recounting of the trial and aftermath of the seven men indicted more for their sentiments than their actions. One can almost hear Albert Parson's defiant rejection of a clemency that could have spared him from the gallows. Told in a fluid manner and an eye for detail that will make this the definitive narrative of the Haymarket tragedy.

Well Written and Accessible History Lesson.......2007-06-09

I've lived in and around Chicago my entire life and slowly I've been trying to educate myself about the important events in the city's history. To be honest, the Haymarket has intimidated me as a subject for years because it seemed to involve so many unknowns. But, when I saw this book, I finally decided to take the plunge. While Mr. Green acknowledges the unknowns and the controversies, he offers a coherent narrative, so often missing in works about historical events, that makes the event less daunting than I expected it to be. If anything, I am more curious about this event and the topic of Chicago in the late 1800's than I was before. The issues at hand are clearly stated as events build toward the riot itself and the aftermath, including repercussions to this day, are laid out in detail. It is as if this was a work of well formulated fiction rather than the narrative history of the turning point in labor history.

Interesting history lesson.......2007-03-15

Author James Green is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He grew up outside Chicago.

This book is especially important in light of recent encroachments on the rights of citizens. What happened in Haymaket Square on May 4, 1886? I would wager that many Americans do not know. After striking workers had been killed by private security guards the day before (trying to get an 8-hour work day, at that time most workers worked ten-hour days), a labor rally had included especially outraged speeches by labor leaders August Spies and Albert Parsons, among others.

During a march after the rally, police formed ranks six deep and charged menacingly towards the crowd, when a bomb exploded in the ranks of the police, killing seven, and injuring many more. Shots rang out, and those still left at the rally (it had begun to rain, and only around 500 people were left listening to the last speaker) fled in confusion. Police shot indiscriminately into the crowd, probably wounding some of their own. Hundreds of arrests and searches followed.

The speakers at the rally and well-known labor leaders August Spies and Albert Parsons were tried for murder along with "anarchists" Louis Lingg (the only one who had ever made a bomb, though it could not be proved that one of his bombs was used that night), Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Sam Fielden, Oscar Neebe, and Michael Schwab. After a long and contentious trial and appeals, Governor Oglesby upheld the death sentences of Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel; and commuted the sentences of Fielden and Schwab to life in prison. Louis Lingg had committed suicide while in prison a few hours before.

Was there evidence of a conspiracy? Did these men deserve to die? Or were they killed for simply speaking out against the murder of workers?

This is a well-written account of the events in the years leading up to this rally, with an epilogue outlining the labor movement and the perceptions of the Haymarket martyrs in the years up to the present day. Green brings the characters involved to life, and uses illustrations, maps, writings, and transcripts of speeches to great effect.

Armchair Interviews says: This would be an excellent selection for a book club discussion.

A very sobering account of the labor battles in early Industrial America.......2007-03-10

It is nice to see this book will soon be out in paperback making it available to a broader audience, because it is a much needed account of the early days of the labor movement in America. James Green has done a remarkable job of building the events that surrounded the notorious Haymarket bombing of 1886 by exploring the lives of the eight men who stood accused for inspiring the incident. He starts with the explosive incident, and then digs back into the archive of union organization in Chicago and the attempts to form a national labor union. While most of the figures were foreign born, one figure, Albert Parsons, hailed from Texas and became the most charismatic figure of the Chicago Eight.

Green shows how the media, police and state militia were predominantly held under the influence of the industrialists, who felt it their god-given right to set the rules for the market economy at the time. While economic giants like McCormick and Pullman attempted to create more ameniable workplaces, even they refused to negotiate with unions, preferring instead to hire scabs and use the Pinkerton Agency to break strikes. The early socialist movement preferred to negotiate with the industrialists, knowing it was a long term process to get better pay and working conditions, but the anarchists felt that stronger resistance was necessary and labor leaders like Parsons and Spies became the spokesmen for the growing anarchist movement in America.

The book chronicles the events that led up to the Haymarket bombing, illustrating the many attempts of the industrialists and indeed the city to quash the labor movements. While the mayor of Chicago, Carter Harrison, was sympathetic to the socialists, and relied heavily on their political organization, he was also cognizant of the stronghold the industrialists had on the city. One particular figure, Marshall Field, did more than anyone to harness the forces the city to defeat the unions, but nevertheless the unions flourished thanks in large part to the steady flow of European immigrants.

Green connects the labor movement in America to that in Europe and how the two fed off each other, noting the strong influence of Marx and Bakunin on American labor leaders. It was this fear of foreign influence that the media used to help sway public opinion in favor of the industrialists, despite their well noted abuses of power.

Whether you agree with the tactics of the anarchists or not, you will be enlightened by the depth of understanding that James Green demonstrates in this book. Most important is how Green links the events of 1886 with the ongoing labor struggle in the new age of globalization as industrialists take advantage of cheap labor much in the way they did 120 years ago, using every hook and crook to break labor organizations. He shows how the Chicago Eight became iconic figures in the international labor movement as a result of a bogus trial. Four were executed and one died in jail, who also faced execution. It is a very sobering account of the labor battles in early industrial America.

The first labor movement and a sham trial........2007-01-25

After having lived in Chicago for the better part of twenty years, it is amazing that little is known of the Haymarket here. It is also a shame. Of those put on tial for the murder of the three policeman, perhaps one was guilty. The rest spoke out about the grave injustices of the industrial system. What they got as a reward was the hangman's noose. What the judicial system proved was that people who spoke out but did not engage in violence were met with a violent end by a judicial system that defended the status quo.

Green does a great job of detailing the beginnings of the industrial system here in Chicago. He is perhaps a little lengthy in this respect but he shows the growth of this vibrant city. He also shows the underlying decay and how it affected the city's less affluent. On top of this system were the fat cats led by the McCormick brothers and Pullman. They were also defended by the Chicago Tribune. Below this social status were immigrant communities being exploited for their labor. When a German immigrant named Spies and a Texan named Parsons spoke out on this system, they became targets of the upper class. When the tragedy of the Haymarket happened, the judicial system blamed the speakers and not the bomb thrower. The system engaged in judicial murder.

This is a fine book. The only issue I have on it is the lengthy introduction to the cast of characters. However, the author puts alot of detail in his writing. The reader will understand why the Haymarket tragedy came about.

A Short History of the U.S. Working Class: From Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century (Revolutionary Studies)

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Can working class solidarity reemerge?
Too short, but great bibliography

A Short History of the U.S. Working Class: From Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century (Revolutionary Studies)
Paul Le Blanc
Manufacturer: Humanity Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1573926647

Customer Reviews:

Can working class solidarity reemerge?.......2000-09-23

For the author the working class for its own wellbeing must be unified against the predations and exploitations of employers. The book focuses on the historical existence and effectiveness of worker solidarity as primarily exercised through unions.

The need for working class solidarity arose as formerly independent craftsmen were forced into a factory system producing for an expansive capitalistic market and in the process lost control of their economic lives. Worker organizations such as the Knights of Labor, the Wobblies, and craft-based unions attempted to address this transformation and the accompanying brutal working conditions. Le Blanc clearly outlines their struggles: the extreme cyclic nature of late 19th century capitalism undercut worker militancy; racial, ethnic, religious, gender and skill differences undermined solidarity; employers mounted intense and often violent opposition with state support.

A main theme of the book is the effect on worker solidarity when union bureaucrats seek accommodation with business or rely on the state for survival. Gompers, first president of the AFL, eschewed worker militance in cooperating with the National Civic Federation and then the Wilson administration during WWI. Later, New Deal labor legislation as elaborated and implemented by the War Labor Board of WWII essentially prohibited workers from any exercise of power on shop-floors. Union leaders demonstrated a willingness to purge dissidents, pandering to red-scare mania, and to enforce contracts that traded economic gains for union members in exchange for unchallenged management control of workplaces - an unspoken social compact that has been shredded in the era of globalization.

The author points to some recent developments within and outside the labor movement as a result of the recognition of the poverty of post-WWII labor leadership. But a weakness of the book, since it purports to discuss the working class, is any real feel for the general citizenry's views on the need for worker activism. What have been the effects of consumerism and of the stunted and stilted information provided by media giants on the American public? Overall the book is a reasonably good introduction as to how the working class has fared over the last 150 years. Though not a fault of the author, the future of the working class emerges from this book as a very precarious project.

Too short, but great bibliography.......2000-04-12

As a grad student in American History, I hoped this book would give me a brief but useful overview of the role of labor in history. While this is definitely a "short" work, it highlights late 19th and early 20th century labor movements at the expense of early material. Indeed, he only devotes 20 pages for the colonial period, Revolution, and all pre-Civil War developments! How stingy!

My disappointment is partially a measure of my interest in Revolutionary history and the shift from artisans to wage laborers. This early material is both fascinating and relevant for all sorts of later trends. If you share my interests, I recommend you run an Amazon search on authors such as Bruce Laurie, Merritt Roe Smith (a bit later but really interesting), Charles Dew, and Gordon Wood, to name a few. If you are interested in post-Civil War developments, this book may be just right for you: it is concise and easy to read, in spite of more than a few small errors. This is no more than an introduction and survey, but it can bring you up to speed on basic concepts very quickly.

Book Description

In this her second book, Jane Addams moves beyond humanitarian appeals to sensibility and prudence, advancing a more aggressive, positive idea of peace as a dynamic social process emerging out of the poorer quarters of cosmopolitan cities. Her deep analysis of relations among diverse groups in U.S. society, exemplified by inter-ethnic and labor relations in Chicago, draws widely useful lessons for both domestic and global peace, in an early formulation of today’s "globalization from below."

In an unprecedented, revolutionary critique of the pervasive militarization of society, Addams applies her scathing pen to traditional advocates and philosophers of ânegativeâ peace, founders of the U.S. constitution, militarists, bigots, imperialists, and theories of âdemocratic peaceâ and liberal capitalism. Instead she sees a slow, powerful emergence of forces from below--the poor, the despised, workers, women, ethnic and racial communities, oppressed groups at home and abroad--that would invent moral substitutes for war and gradually shape a just, peaceful, and varied social order. An extensive, in-depth introduction by Berenice Carroll and Clinton Fink provides historical context, analysis, and a reassessment of the theoretical and practical significance of Newer Ideals of Peace today.

Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City

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Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City
John Lear
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803279973

Book Description

Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens examines the mobilization of workers and the urban poor in Mexico City from the eve of the 1910 revolution through the early 1920s, producing for the first time a nuanced illumination of groups that have long been discounted by historians. John Lear addresses a basic paradox: During one of the great social upheavals of the twentieth century, urban workers and masses had a limited military role, yet they emerged from the revolution with considerable combativeness and a new significance in the power structure.

Lear identifies a significant and largely underestimated tradition of resistance and independent organization among working people that resulted in part from the changes in the structure of class and community in Mexico City during the last decades of Porfirio Diaz's rule (1876–1910). This tradition of resistance helped to join skilled workers and the urban poor as they embraced organizational opportunities and faced crises in wages and access to food and housing as the revolution escalated. Emblematic of these ties was the role of women in political agitation, street mobilizations, strikes, and riots. Lear suggests that the prominence of labor after the revolution was neither a product of opportunism nor one of revolutionary consciousness, but rather the result of the ongoing organizational efforts and cultural transformations of working people that coincided with the revolution.

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Highly recomended!.......2001-11-01

Beginning in the mid-Nineteenth Century, Mexico City became a primary destination for the multitudes of country folk who were in search of better economic opportunities. The depravity of life for many of the countryside?s population, along with those from nearby villages and towns proved to be a compelling force in the urbanization of growing metropolitan surrounding Mexico's Federal District. The economic opportunities were a direct result of the burgeoning industrialization of the region, which had been aided, in no small measure, by foreign investors whom had held the welfare of the Mexican laborers in pitiful regard. Though the indigenous industrialists, artisans and corrupt politicos were predominantly of the same ilk. As the population swelled, the physical dynamics of the city were transformed. Advances in transportation technology permitted the steady growth of suburbs, while simultaneously feeding into a distinct stratification of economic classes along geographical lines. As the numbers of workers, skilled and unskilled continued to escalate through the early part of the Twentieth Century, a series of national political revolutions changed forever their relationship in the political power balance in Mexico.
John Lear's Workers, Neighbors and Citizens explores the relationship between the physical growth patterns of Mexico City during its forty year period of continued industrial growth, 1880's-1920's, and the formation of skilled and unskilled laborers as a nearly unified class of workers. Lear's argument is one of multi-causation. Some of the elements that force the reaction of the workers fed into the revolutionary zeal of the age. The preponderance of foreign capital and foreign industrialists which poured into Mexico during this period, certainly allowed this Latin American nation to move forward in the global economy, however, the cultural indignation that the workers suffered, both men and women, at the hands of the paternalistic elite was not unnoticed, nor easily forgiven. As the Revolution swept through the countryside, the workers repeatedly made attempts at labor reform through political and economic pressures, both of which were new elements within Mexican society, and both aided the working class in achieving some tangible reforms, such as a reduction of hours and minimal wage increases.
The book is divided into three sections. The first discusses the physical geographical developments of Mexico City along both social and economic lines during the industrial expansion. Within this context the divergent paths of the elite and workers are very neatly laid out; the reader yearns with great anticipation of the inevitably of extreme conflict and unification by the close of the second chapter, a reoccurring phenomenon throughout the entire book. The following section, "Political Cultures and Mobilization" is of sufficient scholarly merit to stand alone as an individual work. The sense of class formation amongst the ranks of labor, along with the impact of the populist political rhetoric and unionism in the solidification of this configuration is not just analyzed succinctly; Lear's suggestive, detailed narrative encapsulates a great array of factors in an economy of words. Of particular note is his treatment of the mutual (and moral) aid societies, his astute handling of the three great vices and enemies of the family: alcohol, tobacco and explicit sexualisms, and the overtly paternalistic and sexist manner of the foreign business owners and how the laborers, especially the women react to these unacceptable societal components within Mexico City. The final section wraps up the author's overarching theme, which connects the workers with the national revolution. Absolute consensus does not occur as factions of support develop along the lines that support no political involvement, the Constitutionalists, and the impact of the foreigners, especially in the formation of unions, though strangely absent is any real treatment of the influence of the Communist party.
"Workers" is a study in depth that confronts the role of the social reform movements in Mexico City that greatly parallel the Progressive era reform movements in cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit. The common elements that all of the reformers addressed were the number of hours that folk labored, the consumption or over-consumption of alcohol (cheap whiskey in the United States, pulque in Mexico), "proper" familial order - a reduction or eradication of spousal abuse, and a real voice in politics. Where Lear truly adds to the great library is within his attention to role of women within this climate of change, though it could be argued that until the third section of his tractate the mention of women and their roles is at best cursory, with a few notable exceptions, which could be attributed to the lack of women within the industrial workers ranks before the Revolution. The image of the woman in the framework of an identifiable class formation that enveloped the laborers is represented both in text and image in other words - decisive. This book is essential for any that might have interest in urban history, labor history or Revolutionary Mexico history. Lear is an adept writer; his literary devices make this work a pleasure to read.

Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (Transitions--Asia and Asian America)

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Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (Transitions--Asia and Asian America)
Elizabeth Perry , and Xun Li
Manufacturer: Westview Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813321654

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This pathbreaking book offers the first in-depth study of Chinese labor activism during the momentous upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. Arguing that labor was working at cross purposes, the authors explore three distinctive and different forms of working-class protest: rebellion, conservatism, and economism. Drawing upon a wealth of heretofore inaccessible archival sources, the authors probe the divergent political, psychocultural, and socioeconomic strains within the Shanghai labor movement, convincingly illustrating the complexity of working-class politics in contemporary China.

Working Class USA: The Power and the Movement

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Working Class USA: The Power and the Movement
Gus Hall
Manufacturer: International Publishers
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0717806596

Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America

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This book is great
A Tired Prescription For Social Justice

Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America

Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0395866820

Book Description

The labor movement-reviled, held in contempt, or ignored for a generation-is making itself heard again. How can a newly aroused and combative labor movement restore social justice and economic security to postmodern America? This collection of essays by intellectuals and labor activists does nothing less than challenge the corporate domination of American life. An original Mariner paperback

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This book is great.......1999-01-14

This is an absolutely Fantastic Review of the Columbia labor teach-in. This volume brings together some of America's top labor-left leaders and intellectuals.... a definite must.

A Tired Prescription For Social Justice.......1998-05-24

The sub-title of this collection of articles is somewhat misleading. Not only does the book contain more than a hand full of bias-laden pieces but many of the same are written by people who fall well outside the parameters of "intellectuals" and maintain thier living from the labor movement. But my main disapointment with this book is that it is weighted down with the same tired polemics and solutions for accomplishing "social justice" (whatever that might be as the year 2000 approaches) as we have seen over and over for the past several decades. Also readers should note that this volume appeared before the recent troubles the AFL-CIO encountered with the Democratic fundraising scandals. Those troubles have done much to reveal AFL chief John Sweeney and Take-the-Fifth Trumpka and their "shining promise" for change as little more than a slick public relations coup. If organized labor had a real program for change and economic democracy then it would not be necessary for it to attempt to buy its way into the mainstream of a corrupt process that could care less about the American working person. Lane Kirkland might have been preoccupied with having dinners in Europe but Sweeney needs to understand that dinners on Capitol Hill are no less useless. What is needed is an objective book that poses and addresses the crucial question of whether or not unions in their current incarnation have not outlived their usefulness. Reading this book and comparing its contents to the present turmoil within the labor movement only underscores the fact that what labor lacks is a serious intellectual base, the mystique and vehicle for moving any kind of social change agenda in America, and most of all, the will to move forward.

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A History of Organized Labor in Cuba
Robert J. Alexander
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 027597703X

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Starting with the organization of tobacco workers and a few other groups in the last years of Spanish colonial rule, Robert J. Alexander traces the growth of the labor movement during the early decades of the republic, noting particularly the influence of three political tendencies: anarchosyndicalists, Marxists, and "independents." He examines the generally unfavorable attitudes of early republican governments to the labor movement, and he discusses the first central labor body, the CNOC, which was at first under anarchist influence, and soon captured by the Communists. The role of the CNOC vis-a-vis the Machado dictatorship, including the "deal" with Machado in 1933 is also discussed. Alexander then looks at the unions during the short Grau San Martine "nationalist" regime of 1933 and the near-destruction of organized labor by the Batista dictatorship of 1934-1937; the revival of the labor movement after the 1937 "deal" of the Communists with Batista and the establishment of the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba, as well as the struggles for power within it, resulting in a split in the CTC in 1947, with the dominance of the Autentico-party controlled group. During this period regular collective bargaining became more or less the rule. He then describes the deterioration of the Confederacion of Trabajadores de Cuba under the Batista dictatorship of 1952-1959. Alexander ends with a description of organized labor during the Castro regime: the early attempt of revolutionary trade unionists to establish an independent labor movement, followed by the Castro government's seizure of control of the CTC and its unions, and the conversion of the Cuban labor movement into one patterned after the Stalinist model of a movement designed to stimulate production and productivity--under government control--instead of defending the rights and interests of the unions' members. Based on an extensive review of Cuban materials as well as Alexander's numerous interviews, correspondence, and conversations with key figures from the late 1940s onward, this is the most comprehensive English-language examination of organized labor in Cuba ever written. Essential reading for all scholars and students of Cuban and Latin American labor and economic affairs as well as important to political scientists and historians of the region.

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