This book provides a critical analysis of the labor movement in the United States in the 20th and early 21st century. It explores ideological trends within the labor movement and its conflicts with capital and the state. It identifies class-collaborationism between the conservative labor bureaucracy and the capitalist class as the primary source of U.S. labor’s precariousness and fragility. It argues that the U.S. labor movement at its most radical and militant stage was an effective force for change against the power structure in the early 20th century. At the opposite end, it also argues that today’s institutionalized labor movement led by the AFL-CIO hinders labor’s historic struggle against capital and aids in the maintenance of the existing capitalist order. The book concludes by assessing the prospects for the future development of militant working-class activism and identifies essential components of an emerging radical labor movement that is capable of effectively challenging the capitalist system in the period ahead.
Author(s): Adam Barrington
Series: Social Movements and Transformation
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 01
City: London
Preface and Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
References
Chapter 2: What Happened to the U.S. Labor Movement?
After WWII
Labor and Politics
Exclusive Representation and Systemic Restraints
Solidarity and Direct Action
Violence Against Labor
The Cold War and Institutionalization
References
Chapter 3: The Early U.S. Labor Movement
Beginning
A House Divided
World War and Class War
The Rise of the CIO: Organizing the Unorganized
One Industrial Union Grand
No More Reds in the Union
Red Unionism: An Autopsy
U.S. Labor and Anticommunism
The Graveyard of Social Movements
References
Chapter 4: The U.S. Labor Movement Since 1955
Labor and the Democrats: A Parasitic Relationship
The AFL-CIO and the CIA
AIFLD
Guatemala
Brazil
Chile
El Salvador
Mexico
Corporate Globalization: U.S. Labor’s Reward for Cold War Loyalty
Worker Militancy After 1955
The Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968
DRUM and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers
Postal Workers’ Strike of 1970
ILWU and UE: Continuing the Legacy of Progressive Labor
Labor After Janus Versus AFSCME
The 2018–19 Teacher Strikes and the Return of the Wildcat
The Amazon Labor Union
Starbucks Workers United
The Great Resignation and Striketober
Reckoning with the Past and Organizing in the Present
References
Chapter 5: Filling the Void: The Reactionary Response to Neoliberalism and Its Crises
Pseudo-Populism: Exploiting Discontent
Ethno-Nationalism: Identity Politics of the Right
Authoritarianism/Fascism
The Need for a New Labor Movement
References
Chapter 6: Rebuilding the Labor Movement and Prospects for the Future
Putting Workers Back at the Helm
What Will a New Labor Movement Look Like?
The Wobblies: Radical Solidarity
TUUL: Organizing the Unorganized and Unemployed
New Labor, New Politics
Labor Organizing Is Political Organizing
Building a Labor Party
References
Chapter 7: Conclusion: A World to Win
Bibliography
Index
