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Operation Dixie Failed but Pushed Racial Equality Forward

William P. Jones, Benjamin Y. Fong Jacobin
The famous Operation Dixie campaign to unionize the South in the 1940s was mostly unsuccessful. Still, it left a positive mark on American society. It’s even possible that the civil rights movement wouldn't have staged the March on Washington without

labor

Workplace Militancy Isn’t Enough for Labor

Bob Master Jacobin
The uptick in high-profile strikes in recent years has been heartening. But sustaining and expanding the gains won by that militancy will require careful strategizing and deep political engagement that starts with but goes beyond the shop floor.

labor

Militancy—and Beyond

Bob Master Convergence
Millions of non-union workers took notice of the 2023 strike wave. But moving from a year of high-profile strikes to building working class political power, let alone transforming US politics, will not happen automatically.

labor

To Make Unions Resonate Again, Study the CIO’s History

AN INTERVIEW WITH LISA PHILLIPS Jacobin
Declining union density has diminished American workers’ awareness of labor organizing, pride in union status, and sense of belonging to a tradition of collective struggle. The history of the CIO can teach us how to embed unions in the working class

labor

Unions Can’t Be Rebuilt Piecemeal. We Need To Go Big.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIK LOOMIS BY BENJAMIN Y. FONG Jacobin
The 1930s rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations led to millions of people being union members for the first time. The lesson of the CIO is that it’s necessary to harness the collective power of the working class on a grand scale.

US Labor Law at 80: The Enduring Relevance of Class Struggle Unionism

Immanuel Ness Portside
At the center of the liberal democratic system, workers have fiercely resisted exploitation through the development of worker-based organizations rooted in the ideal of paving the road to a classless and democratic society. All those seeking greater labor militancy must recognize that traditional unions are unable to escape the trap set in the 1930s through fidelity to the collective bargaining agreement. [An earlier version was published by CounterPunch.]

books

Where's the Outrage?

Rich Yeselson Dissent Summer 2015 issue
The book under review examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts by workers to resist and the housebreaking of a long-running anti-capitalist ethos from imaginative, frenzied opposition to diffuse, angry, but ultimate accommodation. While a residual 19th century fight-back culture built the CIO and defended the New Deal into the 1960s, it lacked the same emancipatory charge it had earlier, and unions shifted to cautious monitors of the working class

labor

Pete Seeger had profound impact on labor movement

Ross E. Weingarten The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal
Pete Seeger marched and performed at hundreds of rallies for different unions over the years. "Pete has always had an interest in the labor movement and has been associated with unions," said, Henry Foner, who had known Seeger for more than 60 years. "Whenever there was a problem that a union had, Pete was always available."
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