A SOLIDARITY WORKING PAPER $1

By Kim Moody
Building a Socialist Movement in the U.S.
SOLIDARITY . www.solidarity-us.orginfo@solidarity ..us.org
Labor Donated
A Solidarity Publication
Originally published in 2000.
Kim Moody is a long-time socialist activist, journalist, educator and a founding
member of Solidarity. Kim Moody co-founded Labor Notes (www.labornotes.org)
in 1979 and until recently taught politics at Brooklyn College and labor studies at
Cornell University. He is the author of An Injury toA" and Workers in a Lean World,
and most recently, U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from
Above, the Promise of Revival from Below. He is currently a research fellow at the
University of Herfordshire, lives in London and is a member of the National Union
of Journalists.
SOLIDARITY is a revolutionary socialist, feminist and anti-racist organization with
branches and members throughout the United States.
If you want to know more about Solidarity and our work in the labor movement,
please email info@solidarity-us.org or call 313-841-0160. You can also visit our
website at www.solidarity-us.org.
Against the Current is an analytic journal for the broad revolutionary left,
sponsored by Solidarity. If you'd like to subscribe to Against the Current, you
can fill out the form on the back of this pamphlet. To browse aricles online, go to
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Labor Donated
THE RANK AND FILE STRATEGY
By Kim Moody
Illtr(cllcti(I :
The Setting: Why the Unions? 3
The Deep Roots of Working Class Self-Activity 5
The Roots of IIComl1on Sense': 7
Accumulation, Class Formation and Consciousness in the U.S 9
The Rise of Bureaucracy and Business Unionism 10
Business Unionism's Defeat of the Socialists 14
The First Experiment in Ranl< and File Strategy 15
The Lesson of Transitional Politics 17
Permeation & The Highjacking of the CIO 18
Modern Business Unionism & The Problem of Consciousness 22
Fragmented Ranl< and File Rebellion 24
The Ranl< & File Perspective: A Contemporary Synthesis 25
The Roots of a New Revolt M..25
Internal Union Dynamics 28
The Tasks of Socialists in Today's Resistance and Rebellion ................... 30
N- (tE! 3:
2
Introduction: The Probl em
Ameri ca, it has been sai d, i s the exception. It i s the
onl y devel oped i ndustri al nati on where no mass
soci al ist movement took root i n the worki ng cl ass i n
the twentieth century. To be sure there have been
ti mes of mass upheaval and even the growth of si zabl e
l eft organizati ons wi th a si gnifi cant worki ng cl ass
membershi p. In the years before Worl d War One and
i n the 1 930s, Soci al ist, Communi st, Trotskyist, and
anarcho-syndi cal ist organizations had some i mpact on
the devel opment of organized l abor and even on U. S.
pol iti cs. But, then, unl i ke thei r European counterparts,
they woul d shri nk to be margi na l ized as pol iti cal rel i cs
or sects.
Some schol ars saw the probl em as one of "Ameri can
excepti onal i sm. " The United States, i t was argued, had
too much upward mobi l ity, too much avai l abl e farm
l and, too regul ar a turnover as ol d ethni c groups worked
thei r way up i nto the "Great Ameri can Mi ddl e Cl ass. "
Whi l e these theories always had l i mi ted powers of
expl anati on, much of the peri od of economi c expansi on
that fol l owed Worl d War Two l ent them credi bi l ity. Not
onl y di d the so-cal l ed mi ddl e cl ass grow and prosper,
but even much of the traditi onal i ndustri al worki ng
cl ass achi eved a l i vi ng standard never before achi eved
by bl ue col l ar or even most white col l ar workers
a nywhere in the worl d. Afri can Ameri cans, Lati nos, and
other peopl e of col or were l argel y excl uded from thi s
u pward march to prosperity, whi ch is one reason why
the enormous movements of Bl ack and Lati no peopl es
expl oded i n the 1 950s and 1 960s. For the maj ori ty of
white worki ng cl ass peopl e and those peopl e of col or
l ucky or forceful enough to break i nto the uni onized
bl ue col l ar workforce i n those years, the "Ameri can
Dream" seemed withi n reach.
Today, t he upwa rd mobi l ity theori es l ok as outmoded
and i rrel evant as a "Di ck and Jane" first grade reader
with its al l -white, tranqui l worl d. Onl y the top twenty
percent of U. S. fami l i es have seen a nythi ng l i ke upward
mobi l ity in terms of i ncome. For the vast majority,
today's forced march is down hi l l al l the way. For Afri can
Ameri cans, Lati nos, and si ngl e women it i s more l i ke a
free fal l . The proporti on of poor peopl e i s on the rise.
The gap between the ri ch a nd the rest has grown to
obscene and hi ghly vi si bl e l evel s. Even the wages of
uni onized workers in the big corporati ons a re l ower i n
real terms than they were i n the 1 970s.
There i s no more "Ameri can excepti on, " no more
"Ameri can Dream. " There i s no more upward mobi l ity
for the vast maj ority. A hi ghly i nternati onal ized
capital i sm i s draggi ng most of us down, here and
abroad. The cri si s of capi tal ist "gl obal i zati on" was
never more evi dent. And al l across the worl d, we
see growi ng resistance to the power of capital and
its neol i beral pol iti cal al l i es. Even i n the U. S., there
are si gns of revital izati on and renewed mi l itancy i n
organized l abor. Thi s i s not j ust a matter of more strikes
l i ke those at UPS ( 1 997), General Motors ( 1 994-98)
and US West ( 1 998), al though, as we shal l see, they
represent somethi ng very i mportant. We al so see more
and more attempts by rank and file uni on members to
make thei r uni ons more democrati c and more effective
in fi ghti ng today's hi ghly aggressive empl oyers and in
organi zi ng the unorganized. At the same ti me we see
the begi nni ngs of cl ass i ndependence i n the pol iti cal
sphere, with the formati on of the Labor Party by several
nati onal and scores of l ocal uni ons in 1 996.
Yet at no ti me si nce the 1 950s has the i sol ati on of
soci al ists from the worki ng cl ass bee n greater.
Soci al ist organizations in the U. S., i ncl udi ng Sol i darity,
remai n smal l and l argel y popul ated by peopl e with an
educated mi ddl e cl ass background. Many soci al i st
groups' connecti on with the worki ng cl ass is l i mi ted to
support work for vari ous stri kes. The gap between the
soci al i st organizati ons and the active secti ons of the
worki ng cl ass who are the organizers of much of the
resi stance to the empl oyers and rebel l i ons withi n the
uni ons is too great. The gap has many fa cets: some
ari se from diferent cl ass ori gi ns, others from the habit
of defeat on the l ef and the procl ivity for symbol i c
acti ons and campai gns that flows from it. Most of
the gap, however, is one of consci ousness. The l eft
with its hi ghl y theori zed, often moral istic pol iti cs, and
the worker activi sts with an un-theori zed pragmati c
outl ook a re often l i ke trai ns passi ng in the ni ght. Thi s
can be true even where l eft groups or i ndivi dual s work
withi n the uni ons.
The Rank and Fi l e Strategy attempts to bri dge that
gap. We cal l thi s the Rank & Fi l e Strategy because it i s
based on the very real growth of rank and fi l e a ctivity
and rebel l i on that occurs in peri ods of i ntensifi ed class
struggl e. The theory behi nd the strategy tel l s us that
the confl i ct i nherent i n capital i st soci al rel ati ons of
producti on becomes more i ntense under conditi ons
of i ncreased competiti on and cri si s. The experi ence
of thi s confl ict, the real ity of i ntensifi ed expl oitati on,
contradi cts ol der i mbedded conservative i deas. The
ol d i deas are not so much a cl ear pro- capital ist i deol ogy
as a mixture of contradi ctory i deas and senti ments hel d
by most peopl e i n our soci ety. Withi n the worki ng cl ass
rudi mentary democrati c and col l ectivist i deas coexist
with and someti mes combat both soci al l y conservative
i deas (from raci sm to cyni ci sm and feel i ngs of
powerl essness) and a general acceptance of thi ngs as
they are.
The task of soci al ists i n thi s situati on i s not si mpl y to
offer an alternative i deol ogy, a tota l expl anati on of
the world, but to draw out the class consci ousness
that makes such bi gger i deas real isti c. The noti on of
a transiti onal set of i deas i s key to thi s strategy. The
soci al ist anal ysis of capital i sm and what ca pital i sm
i s doi ng to workers today rel ates di rectly to the dai l y
experi ences of more and more worki ng cl ass peopl e.
But the fa ctthatthe vast majority of worki ng peopl e l ack
even a consi stently cl ass-consci ous way of l ooki ng at
the worl d makes it di ffi cult for soci alism to get a heari ng.
The gapi ng l ack i n the U. S. at thi s ti me i s the l ack of a
sea of cl ass-consci ous workers for soci al ist i deas and
organi zati ons to swi m i n. How do we hel p create that
sea (with al l due respectto Mother Nature)? Soci al i sts
can bui l d transiti onal organizati ons and struggl es
that hel p to rai se the cl ass-consci ousness of activist
workers, in order to enl arge the l ayer of workers in the
cl ass who are open to soci al i st i deas. The existence of
a strong current of active, cl ass-consci ous workers i s
a preconditi on for the devel opment of a strong current
of soci al i st workers-and a soci al i st party. We need
to be, at the same ti me, bri ngi ng our soci al i st i deas
di rectly to workers who a re al ready ready to hear them,
and al so hel pi ng to create the struggl es that produce
more such workers.
Such struggl es and such organizati ons are expressi ons
of worker sel f-activity and sel f-i nterest. But capital i sm
attempts to demobi l i ze and disempower workers;
our experi ence i s that it often takes peopl e trai ned i n
organi zati on, with a commitment and perspective of
worker organi zati on-that i s, soci al i sts-to take the
l ead in pul l i ng ongoi ng organi zati on together.
Transiti onal organizati ons i ncl ude rank and file reform
movements a nd caucuses rooted in the workpl ace
and the uni ons. The best known exampl e i s Teamsters
for a Democrati c Uni on, but there are many others,
Communi ty based worker organi zati ons, someti mes
cal l ed workers centers, that organi ze on a cl ass basi s
3
usual ly in specifi c raci al or ethni c communi ti es are also
transiti onal worker organizati ons. Some exampl es of
these are The Lati no Workers Center in New York, the
Bl ack Workers For Justi ce i n Norh Carol i na, and the
Xi cano Devel opment Center i n Detroit. At a sl i ghtly
hi gher l evel are organizati ons that cut across uni on,
i ndustry, raci al , and gender l i nes a nd gi ve a cl ass
wi de perspective to the dai ly workpl ace and uni on
experi ence. Thi s i ncl udes organi zati ons a nd projects
l i ke Jobs with Justi ce, Labor Notes, local c ross- uni on
support committees, or more politi cal organi zati ons
such as l ocal l i vi ng wage campai gns or the new Labor
Party.
Thi s pamphl et wi l l expl ai n why such organi zati ons and
r ank and file rebel l i on i n general are the resul t of real
soci al forces. I t i s thi s soci al real ity that makes r ank and
fi l e rebel li on key to a successful strategy for bui ldi ng a
revoluti onary soci al i st workers movement i n the U. S.
Thi s strategy starts with the experi ence, struggl es, and
consci ousness of workers as they a re today, but offers
a bri dge to a deeper cl ass consci ousness and soci al ist
politi cs.
Most of al l , it i s a strategy for endi ng the isolation of
soci al ists and soci al ist organizati ons from the day-to
day struggl es and experi ences ofthe organized secti ons
of the worki ng cl ass. It i s not a panacea, a q ui ck fi x, nor
guaranteed of success . . The strategy does not assume
that soci al i st consci ousness flows a utomati cally from
" economi c" struggl es. If it di d, no strategy woul d be
necessary. Those l ooki ng for a way out of the di l emma
of soci al i sm's i sol ati on from its natural base are urged
to j oi n the di scussi on thi s pamphl et ai ms to provoke.
The Setting: Why the Uni ons?
The Rank and Fi l e Strategy for soci al i sm i n the United
States focuses on the uni ons and the workpl ace.
Thi s i s not because these are the only pl aces where
consci ousness is formed or struggl es conducted.
We are wel l aware of the many community-based
campai gns, organi zati ons, and struggl es by worki ng
cl ass peopl e. I ndeed, some of these pl ay a rol e i n the
Rank and Fi l e Strategy. We al so understand that one's
i dentity or consci ousness i n thi s soci ety i s shaped
by many forces i n many different setti ngs. Cl ass
consci ousness never exi sts al one; i t i s accompani ed by
the consci ousness of other oppressi ons, such as that
of race or gender, or thei r mi rror i mages i n the rel ative
4
a dvantages of "whiteness. "
I ndeed, part of the transiti onal approach i nvol ves
projecti ng a l abor movementthati s more thanthe uni ons.
We see the worki ng cl ass movement as composed of a
vari ety of orga ni zati ons, each with a di sti nct rol e to pl ay
i n creati ng the sort of diverse, cl ass-based movement
that poi nts toward a new soci ety. Soci al i sm, of course,
wi l l not be based pri mari ly on uni on organi zati on, but
on a range of democrati c organizati ons and structures
that bri ng al l the expl oited and oppressed to power.
The movement we bui l d today wi l l in some degree
prefi gure t he goal s of t he future. The uni ons take a
central rol e in our concepti on of a broad worki ng cl ass
movement by virtue of thei r si ze and thei r pl ace at the
h ear of capital i st accumul ati on, a positi on that gives
them great potenti al power, but our vi si on of a l abor
movement i s far broader.
We want to make it cl ear that we do not proceed from
some facel ess, racel ess, neutered i dea of the worki ng
cl ass. We endorse the thoughts of the Cari bbean
revol uti onary Ai me Cesai re who rej ected the crude
Stal i ni st versi on of cl ass "universal ity" hel d by the
French Communist Party when he resi gned i n 1 955.
I n hi s resi gnati on l etter he wrote, "I have a different
i dea of a universal . I t i s a universal ri ch with al l that i s
parti cul ar, ri ch with al l the parti cul ariti es there are, the
deepeni ng of each parti cul ar, the coexistence of them
ai L" Nowhere does di versity shape the particul ariti es
of the worki ng cl ass more than i n the U. S. Nowhere i s
thi s diversity more central to the divi si ons, diversi ons,
and strengths experi enced by worki ng cl ass peopl e i n
different ways. No where do worki ng cl ass peopl e see
themsel ves and one another i n such different, usual l y
di storted, ways. The pri sm of race, i n parti cul ar, i s hi ghl y
di storti ng of cl ass percepti ons, even though in different
ways for different groups-although it i s al so a source
of cl ass strength for many peopl e of col or. I ndeed, the
probl ems and potenti al of diversity is a theme we wi l l
return to agai n and agai n as we address questi ons of
consci ousness and organi zati on.
One reason for focusi ng on the uni ons i s that with some
notabl e excepti ons they are the most soci al ly i ntegrated
organi zati ons in Ameri can l ife. Afri can Ameri cans
compose 1 5% of uni on members compared to 1 1 % ofthe
empl oyed workforce. Lati nos make up 9%, sl i ghtly l ess
than thei r share of the workforce. They are, however,
the fastest growi ng ethni c group in the uni ons. Women,
who were onl y 25% of uni on members i n the 1 970s, now
account for 40% of uni on membershi p, j ust under the
45% ofthe workforce they compose. I n 1 987, two-thi rds
of al l uni on members were white mal es. Today they are
j ust half, al beit due l argel y to the decl i ne of once mal e
domi nated i ndustri es. As Ameri ca and its workforce
changes, so do the uni ons.
An even more basi c reason i s that uni ons bri ng peopl e
together atthe heart ofthe soci al rel ations of producti on.
Thi s is where both cl ass formati on and cl ass confl i ct
begi n. Except on those rare occasi ons when the cl ass
struggl e breaks i nto open pol iti cal warfare, it i s at the
workpl ace thatthe tug of war between l abor and capital
i s sharpest a nd most recurri ng. It i s at the workpl ace
that t he conservative i deas and assumpti ons that bl unt
cl ass consci ousness are most consi stently confronted.
Thi s confrontati on i s typi cal l y soci al i n nature. Not
onl y in the sense of l abor versus capital, but of worki ng
peopl e functi oni ng together. In thi s context peopl e from
different races and backgrounds are most l i kely to j oi n
forces to combat the empl oyer. The educati on received
i n cl ass confl i ct on the j ob or ori gi nati ng i n work i s a
soci al one. Some, of course, wi l l l earn faster, whi l e
some wi l l not care or parti ci pate acti vel y except i n rare
moments of struggl e. But here i s where the activist
l ayer of the uni ons takes shape.
Fi nal ly, the uni ons provide a pol iti cal/organizati onal
setti ng i n whi ch on-goi ng educati on, organi zati on, and
struggl e can be conducted. Whi l e most uni on work i s
done atthe l ocal l evel , the uni on al so provi des a nati onal
or i nternati onal context that cuts across workpl ace
l i nes and these days, with most uni ons recruiti ng i n
many i ndustri es, even across i ndustry l i nes. Uni ons
al so provi de the most concentrated worki ng cl ass
organi zati on for i nterventi on i n community affai rs. The
l ivi ng wage campai gns of recent years are a good
exampl e of uni on organi zed or backed pol i ti cal acti on.
The cross uni on activist organi zati on Jobs with Justi ce
i s another. Uni on backi ng has made t he Labor Party,
founded i n 1 996, a vi abl e proj ect with the potenti al of
creati ng a genui ne cl ass pol iti cs i n the U.S. for the first
ti me in decades.
Uni ons, of course, are far from perfect pol i ti cal
organizati ons. They are bureaucrati c. They often
embody or protect raci st and/or sexist practi ces. Thei r
offi ci al i deol ogy, whi ch we wi l l cal l busi ness uni onism,
i s a mass of contradi cti ons, i ncl udi ng the i dea of l abor
management partnershi ps. Thei r l eaders general ly do
thei r best to straddl e cl ass confl i ct. Yet it is preci sel y
some of these contradi ctions that makes the Rank
and Fi l e Strategy real isti c. Today those contradi cti ons
withi n uni ons are i nteracti ng with the pressures that
come from empl oyers' efforts to remake the workpl ace
and with the i ntensi fi ed competition of worl d capital i sm.
I t i s that i nteraction-between empl oyers' pressure on
workers and uni on l eaders' i nacti on or col l aborati on
that creates rank and fi l e rebel l i on-and potenti al for
the Rank and Fi l e Strategy.
The Deep Roots of Working Class Self-Activity
The roots of worker sel f-activity and self-organizati on
i n oppositi on t o t he empl oyer l i e, i n the first pl a ce, i n the
real ity of expl oitation; i . e. , the wage rel ati onshi p-the
very heart of capital i st accumul ati on, expansi on, and
growth.
Put si mpl y thi s means that workers produce more val ue
or wealth than they make i n the wages and benefits
that make up thei r standard of l ivi ng. So, for exampl e,
in 1 995 manufacturi ng compani es made $5.39 of val ue
added an hour for each $1 .00 i n hourl y wages they paid
producti on workers.
This ratio i s not constant. Whi l e we hear much from the
capi tal ists' about thei r competition for market share,
the fact i s that growth i n profitabil ity (th e rae of profit
or return on i nvestment) actual ly comes from i ncreases
i n thi s rati o. So for each dol l ar ca pital pai d to workers
in the U. S. , capi tal ski mmed $2.47 i n 1 947, $3.23 in 1 967,
S.73 i n 1 977, $4.64 in 1 987, and $5.39 in 1 995. Thi s ri p
off rati o grows i n spite of the fact that hourl y wages
Iso ri se. The reason the ratio ri ses i s that productivity
Increases.
Whi l e thi s neutral soundi ng economi c category seems
harml ess, i t i s not. Over ti me the workers' i ncreased
productivity reduces the amount of ti me they spend
produci ng thei r own wages and benefits and expands
that devoted to prod uci ng the surpl us from whi ch profits
are taken. Thi s mi ght be the resul t of new technol ogy
whi ch el i mi nates workers' j obs or of i ncreased effort by
the workers or, typi cal ly, a combi nati on of both.
New technol ogy is hardly ever i ntroduced without
atempts to i ncrease worker effort as wel l . The
i ntroducti on of l ean producti on methods i n the l ast
twenty years has emphasi zed i ncreased effort al ong
with downsi zi ng and work reorganizati on. To put it
5
si mply, capital does not get these i ncreases without
putti ng enormous pressure on the workers.
More and more workers, faci ng the pressure for more
producti on and al l the rhetori c about competition these
days, understand that i t i s they who create thi s profit.
One UAW member expressed thi s i n an i roni c way
when he wrote to his uni on newspaper, "Bel i eve me,
we know how hard it i s to make a profit-we spend 50
to 60 hours a week at the company worki ng to make a
profit for our empl oyers. "[l]
The struggl e over what workers produce does not
take pl ace onl y at the workpl ace. The government
backs capital with pol i ci es that redistri bute the
surpl us between cl asses, l i mi t the soci al safety net,
i mpose greater market disci pl i ne on workers though
deregul ati on and "free" trade agreements, and l i mi t
uni on acti on. Broad pol iti cal struggl es around these
a nd other soci al i ssues pl ay an i mportant rol e i n the
devel opment of cl ass consci ousness. At criti cal
moments, they can make the difference between
mass mobi l izati on and fragmented struggl es-even
revol uti on or defeat.
Communiti es, too, are an i mportant site of struggl e.
Nati onal , raci al , or ethni c i dentiti es and nei ghborhoods
often provi de a pl ace to mobi l i ze agai nst oppressi on.
The workers centers menti oned above provi de one
form of resi stance, consci ousness, and organi zati on for
worki ng cl ass peopl e of col or and women-parti cul arly
those not worki ng for wages or outsi de the u ni ons. Li ke
the workpl ace, these are essenti al pi eces of the cl ass
puzzl e.
But i t i s i n the workpl ace, i n the basi c soci al rel ati ons
of producti on, that the fi ght over the extra product of
productivity occurs most sharpl y on a regul ar basi s,
and where even percepti ons of bi gger events can be
shaped in a cl ass perspective. The workpl ace is al so,
of course, where workers have the most power to act
on thei r cl ass consci ousness, whatever its source may
be.
Karl Marx anal yzed these rel ati onshi ps and saw them as
t he basi s of worker self- activity i n resi stance t o al l the
empl oyer attempts to i ncrease the rate of expl oitati on.
Trade uni ons and other worki ng cl ass organizati ons
arose i n the 1 9th century around thi s most basi c
struggl e between l abor and capital over the surpl us.
Trade uni ons are a natural outcome of capital i sm.
These organizati ons expand beyond the workpl ace i nto
6
l abor federati ons and workers' pol iti cal parti es, but it
is the experi ence of expl oitati on and its i ntensifi cati on
that l i es behi nd the great l abor upheaval s of the l ast
century and a half.
Karl Marx and Frederi ck Engel s were the first l eadi ng
soci al ists to see i n the trade uni ons the potenti al for
a growi ng cl ass consci ousness and organizati onal
experi ence that woul d make soci al ist i deas common
currency across the worki ng cl ass. They di dn't thi nk
u ni ons were revol uti onary organi zati ons themsel ves.
They understood wel l , l ong before most economi sts, that
thei r basi c purpose was, as modern l abor economi sts
put it, to "take l abor out of competiti on" in the fi ght to
prevent fal l i ng wages. Engel s noted this early on in hi s
1 845 Conditi ons of the Worki ng Cl ass i n Engl and, when
he wrote:
The active resistance of the Engl i sh worki ngmen has
its effect i n hol di ng t he money-greed of the bourgeoi si e
withi n certai n l i mits, and keepi ng al ive the oppositi on
of the workers to the soci al and pol iti cal omni potence
of t he bourgeoi si e, whi l e it compel s t he admi ssi on that
somethi ng more i s needed than trade unions to break
the power of t he rul i ng cl ass. But what gives these
uni ons and the stri kes ari si ng from them thei r real
i mportance i s thi s, that they ar e the first attempt of th e
workers to abol i sh competition.[2]
This remi nds us of j ust how cl osel y l i nked were the
ori gi ns of trade uni ons and the soci al i st movements
of the ti me i n Europe, North Ameri ca, and el sewhere.
For the abol iti on of competition i s certai nl y a cl assi c
soci al ist goal . The difference, of course, i s that uni ons
only reduce competition among workers, not among
capital s, and l eave i ndustry i n the hands of capital .
Additional ly, however, Marx and Engel s saw the
u ni ons that a rose i n the 1 9th century as "school s" i n
whi ch workers l earned the realiti es of the system fi rst
hand, but al so devel oped the organi zati onal , tacti cal ,
and pol iti cal ski l l s needed to take the struggl e further
t o t he pol i ti cal and revolutionary l evel s. Marx and
Engel s' assessment of just how wel l trade uni ons
performed these tasks waxed a nd waned with the l evel
of struggl e, the ri si ng conservati sm of the craft uni ons,
and, i n Engel s' l ifeti me, the expl osi on of the "New
Uni oni sm" that brought tens of thousands of u nski l l ed
workers i nto more struggl e-ori ented uni ons. But the
noti on that uni ons had a rol e i n ca pital i sm beyond thei r
obvi ous economi c col l ective bargai ni ng functi on, a rol e
i n rai si ng cl ass consci ousness, remai ned basi c to thei r
vi ew of soci ety.
The noti on that uni ons coul d rai se consci ousness and
trai n workers i n vari ous pol i ti cal ski l l s rested, of course,
on the assumpti on that the members and not only the
offi ci al s actual l y pl ayed an active rol e i n the conduct
of uni oni sm-that they are democratic organizati ons.
Most of today's uni ons appear to fal l far short of that
assumption. They are hierarchi cal and bureaucrati c.
At the nati onal l evel they are typi cal l y domi nated byful l
ti me offi ci al s, appoi nted reps, and staffers. The members
tend to be excl uded from the uni on's admi nistration and
deci si on-maki ng. So l ong has thi s been t he norm that
most members j udge the effecti veness of thei r uni on by
how wel l it "servi ces" them, rather than by how wel l
they themsel ves are usi ng i t to pursue thei r goal s.
It shoul d be sai d that some nati onal uni ons a re more
democrati c than others and that the vast majority of
the 50,000 or so l ocal uni ons in the U. S. are rel ati vel y
democrati c orga nizati ons-certai nly i n contrast to the
corporati ons that empl oy thei r members, to the dol l ar
drenched nati onal and l ocal el ecti ons that cl ai m the
name of democracy i n thi s country, or, i ndeed, to most
vol untary organizati ons. But these l ocal unions typi cal l y
functi on i n the context of a nati onal or Internati onal
uni on cul ture that i s top-down by desi gn, pol iti cal ly
dead by habit, and narrowly focused on contract
admi ni strati on by l abor "professi onal s. "
The evol uti on and consequences of thi s sorry situati on
are central to t he Rank and Fi l e Strategy. For thi s
bureau crati c real ity gives the pol i ti cal confl i ct withi n
uni ons a certai n "soci ol ogi cal " character. Ranks versus
Tops to put i t crudely. Whi l e the soci al aspect i s real ,
i t can al so be deceptive. Just as not every l eadershi p
contest i n a uni on has much i n t he way of pol iti cal
content, so not every shop fl oor gri pe or expressi on of
di strust or hatred of the uni on l eadershi p is an i nci pi ent
rank and fi l e rebel l i on. But where oppositi on to the ol d
regi me ari ses i n the grassroots of the uni on, drawi ng
i nto acti on at l east much of t he active membershi p,
and resti ng on the support of the majority, there i s
al most always an authenti c pol iti cal difference over the
di recti on, cul ture, and pol iti cs of the uni on and the way
it fi ghts (or cooperates with) the empl oyers.
It i s here, whether it is a strike movement, prol onged
workpl ace campai gn, or union reform caucus that
the "school " Marx and Engel s saw i n the early u ni ons
.
in Engl and comes ba ck to l ife. It is here that the
i nstituti onal attempt to suppress competiti on among
the workers through contra ct admi nistration turns
i nto l ivi ng sol i da rity. I t i s here that the opportunity for
consci ousness to deepen and grow presents itself
agai n and agai n. I t i s al so here that soci al ists have the
chance to reconnect with soci al i sm's natural base
the active worki ng cl ass.
The Roots of "Common Sense"
The questi on of bureaucracy in workers' organizations is
l i nkedto consciousness as wel l asto materi al , histori cal ,
and cul tural conditions. I ndeed, i t i s i mpossi bl e to pi ck
these el ements apart compl etely. We wi l l begi n with
the questi on of consci ousness and then proceed to the
conditi ons that produced the uneven consciousness of
the Ameri can worki ng cl ass and the phenomenon of
bureaucratic busi ness uni oni sm that is uni que to the
United States and, to a l esser degree, Canada.
Here we stress that whi l e we thi nk consci ousness
is cruci al in bui l di ng a workers and revol uti onary
movement, we are not sayi ng that great upheaval and
even revol uti ons requi re or are l i kel y to depend on a
thorough-goi ng, compl ete revol uti onary consci ousness
across the cl ass. Peopl e act on thei r understandi ng
of the moment, but the l ogi c of struggl e can carry
them farther than that consci ousness. Furthermore,
consci ousness is al ways uneven withi n the cl ass, or
any of its secti ons, even when everyone i s movi ng i n tile
same di recti on. That i n fact, is why understandi ng the
rel ati onshi p of acti on to consci ousness i s so i mportant.
I n many situati ons, i ncl udi ng revol uti onary ones, acti on
may wel l precede tota l consci ousness. The propositi on
that soci al movements or revol uti ons are onl y made by
people with a total understandi ng of soci al real ity or
some compete "pol iti cal correctness" i s not val i dated
by the history of any ofthe great revol uti onary upheaval s
of the l ast two centuri es or more.
Whi l e there are many different Marxist approaches
o the questi on of cl ass consci ousness, we wi l l l ook
criti cal l y at two of the more popul ar expl anati ons
among soci al i sts, those of Leni n and Gramsci .
_eni n's most famous statement about the l i mits of trade
uni on consci ousness was i n What i s to Be Done?
vhere he wrote, "the hi story of al l countries shows that
:18 worki ng cl ass, excl usivel y by i ts own effort, is abl e
:0 devel op onl y trade uni on consci ousness . . . "[3] Trade
7
uni on consci ousness was bourgeoi s consci ous he
argued l ater. Revol uti onary soci al ist consci ousness had
to come from outsi de, from professi onal revol uti onari es
trai ned i n soci al ist theory. Three years l ater i n 1 905 a
trade uni on struggl e grew i nto a mass strike movement
and a revol uti onary confrontati on with Czari sm. Leni n
revised hi s vi ew al l owi ng for the "spontaneous"
devel opment of soci al ist consci ousness. Yet, he knew
that secti ons ofthe worki ng cl ass everywhere remai ned
mi red i n reformi sm.
Leni n was one of the first Marxi sts to expl i citl y draw
the l i nk between reformist consci ousness a n d the
economi c i mpact of capital 's expansi onary i mperative.
I n Imperi al i sm, written in 1 9 1 7, he saw the probl em of
backward a nd uneven consci ousness as a functi on
of the devel opment of a privi l eged l ayer of the cl ass.
Although he di dn't use the term, it has general l y
become known as the "Iabor aristocracy" expl anati on.
(The term was first used by Engel s. l Leni n attributed the
growth of i mperi al expansi on to the economi c surpl us
generated by monopol y profits. Thi s same surpl us,
Leni n arg ued, al l owed capi tal to buy off a privi l eged
secti on of the worki ng cl ass, whi ch became the base
for reformi sm. The economi c analysis, borrowed from
a British l i beral economi st as well as from the Austri an
Marxist Rudol ph Hi lferdi ng, that i mperi al i sm i s the
resul t of a "monopol y" surpl us doesn't accord with the
facts of the ti me. A far more pl ausi bl e expl anati on for
the expansi on of overseas i nvestment and the rush for
col oni es, above al l in Afri ca, that began i n the l ate 1 9th
century was the fal l i ng rate of profit that was at the
roots of the worl d-wi de cri si s of the 1 870s.
Leni n's view can't expl ai n, either, the enormous
empl oyer resistance to craft uni ons of ski l l ed workers
in most countri es throughoutthe enti re peri od he writes
of and after. This was the era of Tayl ori sm ( deski l l i ng) ,
Homestead, and the "Open Shop" drive i n the U. S.
and of ski l l "di l uti on" everywhere. Such a vi ci ous
empl oyer offensive di rected at ski l l ed workers i s
better understood i n the context of the repeated cri ses
and profitabil ity probl ems of the era and contradi cts
the pi cture of the corrupti ng hand of capital passi ng
out rai ses to craftsmen. Additi onal ly, the "Iabor
aristocracy" approach can't expl ai n why these same
ski l l ed workers can become revol uti onary i n outl ook as
they di d i n many countri es duri ng and fol l owi ng the Fi rst
Worl d War. Fi nal ly, it doesn't expl ai n why the mass of
unski l l ed i ndustri al workers can and di d become j ust
as conservative in outl ook in the years fol l owi ng the
8
Second Worl d War.
The probl ems of differi ng ski l l l evel s and the pay
differenti al s i nevitably attached to them are i nherent
i n a capital i st l abor market. They can and typi cal l y do
produce a narrow "job trust" consci ousness among
ski l l ed craftsmen. At the same, however, capital i sm
i s al ways attempti ng to di l ute or el i mi nate these same
ski l l s and repl ace them with cheaper l abor atta ched to
technol ogi es that i ncorporates yesterday's ski l l s. The
attempt to di l ute, el imi nate, and degrade ski l l s can
produce a radi cal consci ousness, as i t di d even under
Leni n's nose. The process of degrading ski l l s i s very
much at work today.
Thi s is not to say that Leni n wasn't ri ght about the
connecti on between capital i sm's col oni al expansi on,
materi al conditi ons, and conservative or reformist
consci ousness. Imperi al i sm, conquest, and conti nental
expansi on are cerai nly maj or factors underlying
the fact that soci al i st i deas have never won over the
majority of Ameri can workers. Leni n's contri buti on
remai ns criti cal because of the confusi on of so many
soci al ists over questi ons of national l i berati on than and
now. The wealth extracted over the decades by these
activiti es as wel l as by sl avery has pl ayed a bi g rol e
i n the accumul ati on of capital i n the United States. In
the peri od fol l owing Worl d War Two, this al l owed U. S.
capital to make extensive concessi ons to a majori ty of
the working cl ass. It i s not monopoly, but the real ity
of capita l i st competiti on, however, that dri ves thi s
process, as wel l as the fi ght over the i l l -goten gai ns of
i mperi al expansi on. We wi l l di scuss the ways in whi ch
thi s worked a nd its i mpact on worker organizati on and
consci ousness shorly, but first we want t o l ook more
cl osel y at consci ousness itself.
The I tal i an Marxi st Antonio Gramsci al so attempted to
analyze the probl ems of worki ng cl ass consci ousness
and reformi sm i n parti cul ar. Hi s emphasi s was on
the abi l ity of the rul i ng capi tal ist cl ass to mai ntai n its
rul e through i deol ogi cal means. Gramsci cal l ed thi s
" hegemony." Many neo-Gramsci ans and "hegemony"
theori sts have turned thi s i nto an absol ute, undi al ecti cal
domi nati on of worki ng cl ass consci ousness by
bourgeoi s i deol ogy. Here we want to employ a more
contradi ctory concept of "hegemony" usi ng Gramsci's
i dea of "common sense. "
By "common sense" Gramsci meant the contradi ctory
accumul ati on of i deas, bel i efs, and ways of viewi ng the
worl d that most peopl e carry around. " Common sense"
i s not some consistent capi tal ist i deol ogy. It was, as
he noted, "fragmentary, i ncoherent. "[4] It i s usual ly a
cl ashi ng col l ecti on of ol d i deas handed down, others
l earned through dai l y experi ence, and sti l l others
generated by the capital i st medi a, educati on system,
rel i gi on, etc. It i s not si mpl y the popul ar i dea of a nati on
tranq ui l i zed by T and weekends i n the mal l . "Common
sense" i s both deeper and more contradi ctory
because it al so embodi es experi ences that go agai nst
the grai n of capital i st i deol ogy. It i s, n everthel ess,
capital i st "common sense" i n that it tends to embody
a n a cceptance of the capi tal ist system as the natural
background of l i fe. Gramsci counterposed to common
sense "phi l osophy," meani ng Marxi sm or soci al ist
consci ousness. Whi l e Gramsci's pri son writings were
necessari l y hi ghl y abstract and aesopi an, hi s answer
to the tra nsiti on from "common sense" to "phi l osophy"
or "understandi ng" appears to l i e in the "feel i ngs" or
"passi ons" of the masses. Here we wi l l interpret thi s
to mean the dri ve to resi stance that comes from the
experi ence of expl oitati on.
Worki ng cl ass l ife, after al l , al so embodi es experi ences
that contradi ct many of the ol d i deas and assumpti ons.
As we have argued, these contradi cti ons tend to be
sharper and more frequent atthe poi nt of producti on, but
they can and do break out in other real ms of l ife as wel l .
The experi ence of expl oitati on and the i ntensifi cati on
and reorgani zati on of work and/or fal l i ng real i ncomes
that i nevitably accompani es i t push workers i nto
col l ective confl i ct with thei r empl oyers. Peopl e wi l l put
up with a l ot when they feel they have to, but soone r
l ater some peopl e begi n to fi ght back, then more Jom
i n. The experi ence of col l ective struggl e agai nst the
boss chal l enges much of the ol d "common sense" even
more di rectly as peopl e begi n to thi nk through the real
power rel ationshi ps they are confronti ng and start to
feel thei r power as a group.
Cl ass consci ousn ess i s a sl i ppery item to i nvesti gate.
Gai ns in consciousness can be gradual or rapi d, pari al
or more or l ess total dependi ng on the magnitude of
the experi ence that shakes up the ol d i deas and the
alternative i deas avai l abl e. But consci ousness can sl i p
back i nto ol d habits as wel l . Whi l e we wi l l tal k about
di fferent l evel s of consci ousness, we do not mean to
i mpl y some stage theory of consci ousness. The means
by whi ch thoughts and percepti ons of the worl d change
withi n an i ndivi dual a re cl early compl ex. We won't try
to deal with thi s "psychol ogi cal " si de of consci ousness
h ere.
Marx made the di sti ncti on between the consci ousness
of bei ng a cl ass "i n itself" and "for itsel f. " The fi rst
i s the si mpl e recogniti on that the worki ng cl ass is a
di sti nct cl ass with i nterests opposed to the capital ist
cl ass. Thi s i s somethi ng l i ke what Leni n saw as trade
u ni on consci ousness. I t i nvol ves a n awareness of
cl ass confl i ct and the need for organi zati on, but a more
or l ess unquesti oned assumpti on that "the system"
i s here to stay and al l that i s to be done i s to make it
better for the workers. The consci ousness of bei ng a
cl ass "for itself" is the awareness that capital ism can
be repl aced a nd that it i s the task of the worki ng cl ass
to emanci pate itsel f by doi ng j ust that. Thi s i s soci al i st
consci ousness.
For Marx a nd most twentieth century Marxist
theoreti ci ans in Europe, cl ass consci ousness "in itsel f"
was assumed to be a natural product of capital i sm and
cl ass confl i ct, at l east among organized workers and
thei r communiti es. The great probl em of the twentieth
century, that whi ch Gramsci addressed, was how
to get from thi s gi ven "i n itself" consci ousness to a
revol uti onary consci ousness of bei ng a cl ass "for
itself" with the hi stori c task of abol i shi ng capital i sm
and establ i shi ng soci al i sm. Vi ewed i n thi s way, as most
European Marxists did, the answers tended to focus on
pol iti cal organization-the tasks of the revol uti onary
party.
I n the United States and i n many other countri es, thi s
consci ousness of bei ng a cl ass "i n itself," however,
cannot be taken as gi ven. Not that it is total l y absent
al l the ti me. There have been ti mes l i ke the 1 930s when
thi s sort of consci ousness rushes to the fore i n the
mi nds of mi l l i ons. It i s, not surpri si ngl y, in such ti mes
that a smal l l ayer of the cl ass moves beyond to soci al ist
consci ousness. I n more " normal " ti mes, however, even
the "i n itself" l evel of consci ousness recedes to a smal l
secti on of the cl ass. I t i s thi s situati on that underl i es
the i sol ati on of soci al ists for the l ast hal f a century.
At l east four major i nterrel ated factors more or l ess
uni que to the United States underl i e the fragi l ity of "i n
itself" cl ass consci ousness withi n the Ameri can worki ng
cl ass. The first i s the abi l ity of Ameri can capital i sm to
conti nue its expansi on over the past century and a half
regardl ess ( or because) of depressi ons, wars, or the
emergence of new competi ng powers. Second i s the
di storti ng effect of racism i n U. S. soci ety and i ts deep
9
roots i n that hi stori cal accumul ati on process. The
thi rd i s the Ameri can "busi ness uni on" i deol ogy that i s
l argel y the result of the course of capi tal accumul ati on
i n the U. S. and whi ch attempts to d eny the i mportance of
cl ass. The fourth, a consequence of al l the precedi ng, is
the l ack of an i ndependent mass worki ng cl ass party to
perpetuate rudi mentary pol iti cal cl ass consci ousness
beyond secti onal trade uni on awareness and busi ness
uni on i deol ogy.
Accumulation, Cl ass Formation & Consci ousness i n
the U.S.
The devel opment of capital i sm in what is now the
United States differed from that of Western Europe
and much of the Western hemi sphere as wel l i n two
major ways. Fi rst, its rul i ng cl ass had to remove and/
or el i mi nate ( not, as in Europe, empl oy) the i ndi genous
popul ati on i n order, by the l ate ni neteenth century,
to gai n uncontested, l ow cost access to the l and to
feed and cl othe the new worki ng cl ass as cheapl y
as possi bl e, to extract the natural resources whi ch
fed and fuel ed i ndustry, and to bui l d the canal s and
rai l roads that ti ed it al l together. [5] Thi s i s not j ust a
matter of conti nental expansi on, per se, whi ch mi ght
have been accompl i shed on a l i ve and l et l ive basi s
as was somewhat more the case i n Canada, but of
the possessi on of the l and and natural resources. The
resi stance of Native Ameri cans to the advanci ng white
popul ati on was as much a barri er to accumul ati on then
as the resi stance of i ndi genous peopl e i n Chi apas i s to
agri busi ness and oi l i nterests in Mexi co today or as the
l and ri ghts of Canada's First Nati ons are to extractive
i ndustri es there. [6] As a resul t of el i mi nati ng these
human barri ers, burgeoni ng U. S. capital i sm had l ittl e
need of expensi ve i mported food or raw materi al s. The
uncal cul ated wealth thi s contributed to accumul ati on
i n the ni neteenth century was certai nl y enormous.
The second equal l y uni que and i nvol untary contributi on
to U.S. capital accumul ati on was Afri can sl ave l abor.
Sl avery i s, of course, the opposite of capital ist wage
l abor. Neverthel ess, the unpai d l abor of mi l l i ons of
Afri cans provi ded the cash crops whi ch suppl i ed
i ndustry and a good deal of the popul ation, but al so
brought i n forei gn exchange through trade. To be sure,
British and French capital i sm got a bi g l eg- up from
sl avery, but thei r sl ave l abor force was housed in the
Western Hemi sphere thousands of mi l es from thei r
white popul ati ons. I n the U. S. , the fact of raci al sl avery
10
withi n the same nati on as the domi nant white settlers
l ai d the basis for a domestic raci al di vi si on of l abor
that has never gone away compl etel y-even though
as Jacquel i ne Jones has shown, that di vi si on of l abor
c hanged shapes and rati onal es from ti me to ti me.[7]
The i deol ogy of modern ra ci sm took root in thi s
hi stori cal l y uni que soci al phenomenon as the sl ave
owners and pol i cy-ma kers sought to j ustify the
i nstituti on and to sel l that j ustifi cati on (raci sm as a
consistent i deol ogy) to the popul ati on as a whol e. It
mattered l ittl e whether or not the white merchants,
farmers, and ari sans of the early U. S. Republ i c absorbed
the whol e pseudo-sci entific rati onal e of ei ghteenth
and ni neteenth century raci sm. It became part of the
"common sense" of the whi te popul ati on and, hence,
of the new worki ng cl ass as it took form. Natural ly, the
conquest of the Native Ameri can nati ons, of Mexi co,
and l ater Puerto Ri co and the Vi rgi n Isl ands al so fed
i nto racism as part of the rati onal e for the "Manifest
Desti ny" of the white settl er nati on's rul i ng cl ass.
I n thi s uni que si tuati on, as Davi d Roedi ger and others
h ave shown, where al most al l wage earners were of
European descent, the soci al construct of "whiteness"
spread fi rst by the sl ave owners and thei r apol ogists
became part of the very defi niti on of "free" wage l abor.
For decades fol l owi ng the Ci vi l War and the abol iti on
of sl avery, thi s attitude went l argel y unchal l enged as
t he vast maj ority of Afri can Ameri cans remai ned ti ed to
the l and in the Ol d South where l arge scal e cheap l abor
was sti l l needed to mass produce cash crops. Whi l e
raci sm was common to al l cl asses, for the worki ng
cl ass of the ni neteenth century the very i dea of cl ass
i dentity was i ntertwi ned with that of race. Each new
wave of European i mmi grants woul d l earn thi s bit of
white Ameri can "common sense. " When competiti on
between Bl ack ( or Asi an or Lati no) and white workers
di d begi n to emerge, raci sm and the ol d cl ass "common
sense" provi ded the rati onal e for the excl usi on of
workers of col or from many jobs and for the segregati on
of soci al i nstituti ons i n much of the country.
The Rise of Bureaucracy and Business Uni onism
There are many theori es that attempt to expl ai n the ri se
of trad e uni on bureaucracy. One-ti me soci al i st turned
fascist admi rer Rober Mi chel s and el itist Fabi ans
Si dney and Beatri ce Webb saw uni on bureaucracy
as the natural outcome of organi zati onal growth and
effi ci ency. Mi chel s' "I ron Law of Ol i garchy" still i nforms
much of the soci ol ogi cal thi nki ng on the topi c. Early
in the twentieth century, the University of Wi sconsi n
spawned two generati ons of i nstituti onal theorists
who conti nued thi s traditi on. I n the 1 950s and 1 960s,
academi c "maturity" theorists reasoned that uni ons
fol l ow a natural pattern of devel opment from earl i er
rebel l i ous behavi or to "mature" col l ective bargai ni ng.
Thi s l atter stage requi res bureaucracy to bui l d stabl e
bargai ni ng rel ati onshi ps.
At best these "theori es" are descri ptive. They are
al l apol ogeti c a nd meant to make the phenomenon
of bureaucracy i n workers' organizati ons of a ny ki nd
seem i nevitabl e-and a democrati c soci al i sm, thereby,
i mpossi bl e. The anti-soci al i st uses of the "Wi sconsi n
School " i n the early part of the 20th century a nd Col d
War conveni ence of the "maturity" theorists shoul d
be cl ear enough. These theori es, however, l ive on
past thei r ori gi nal appl i cati ons i n the mi nds of many
academi cs for whom the i dea of a radi cal , democrati c
worki ng cl ass movement is the rel i c of another era.
And, of course, these i deas j ustify the thi nki ng of many
a hi gh- l evel uni on l eader as wel l . Virtual l y al l of them
assume an i mmutabl e capital i sm, perhaps not free of
probl ems, but i nherently stabl e over the l ong run.
I t i s surpri si ng that neither Marx and Engel s nor the great
Marxist theoreti ci ans of the early twentieth century
atempted anythi ng l i ke a systemati c theori zati on of
trade uni ons. To be sure, Leni n, Luxemburg, Trotsky,
Gramsci , and others had thi ngs to say about uni ons and
certai nl y observed the bureaucrati c and conservative
tendenci es of the l abor bureaucracy of thei r day. As
peopl e deepl y i nvol ved in revol uti onary struggl e, it is
perhaps understandabl e that they were so di smi ssive
of uni ons. But for Marxists i n countri es then and now
where revol uti on was not "around the corner, " such a
l UXUry does not exist.
Bureaucracy and conservatism in the trade uni on
l eadershi p are by no means uni queto the U. S. To a certai n
extent, bureaucracy i s the product of the i ntermedi ate
positi on of ful l -ti me uni on l eaders as negotiators and
medi ators between the members who work for capital
and the capi tal ists or thei r representatives. In ti mes of
economi c growth the temptati on to stabi l i ze bargai ni ng
rel ati onshi ps by i nsul ati ng thi s i ntermedi ate positi on
from the ri si ng expectati ons of the members i s great
i ndeed. If some sort of pol i ti cal "machi ne" al ready
exi sts among the l eaders, as it usual ly does, the
l eaders' abi l ity to i nstituti onal i ze thei r i ndependence
from constant member i nfl uence is i ncreased. If there
i s no counterposed "machi ne" or organizati on i n the
ranks, the path to gradual bureaucratizati on i s fai rly
open. I f thi s i nsul ated and growi ng machi ne can del i ver
the goods to the members, as it di d for many years i n
the U. S. , i t i s l i kel y to go unchal l enged by a majority
of the members, al though it sel dom goes compl etely
unchal l enged.
What i s somewhat uni que to the U. S. i s the extent and
depth of bureaucracy and the expl i citly pro-capital ist
i deol ogy that j ustifi es it among other thi ngs. Whi l e
a general theory may expl ai n the ri se of permanent
u ni on bureaucra cy, it cannot expl ai n the particul ar
d evel opment of either trade uni on i deol ogy or the
domi nant forms of worki ng cl ass "common sense"
that have been i nfluenced by it. For thi s, we must turn
to the hi story of trade uni oni sm i n the formative years
of busi ness uni oni sm and its struggl e first with the
radi cal i sm of the post Ci vi l War era and then with the
expl i citly soci al i st and revol uti onary i deas presented
by the Soci al ist Party and the Industri al Workers of the
Worl d after the turn of the century.
The fi rst two decades fol l owi ng the Ci vi l War were
hard on both the newly freed sl aves of the South, the
remai ni ng Native Ameri can nations, a nd the emergi ng
worki ng cl ass sti l l mostly i n the North, though thei r
experi ences were sti l l separate and di stinct. Afri can
Ameri cans l ost t he fi ght for Radi cal Reconstructi on
and l and and faced the onsl aught of "Ji m Crow." The
"I ndi an Wars" of thi s era saw the fi nal mi l i tary defeat
of these nati ons. Early attempts by workers around
the country to form uni ons general l y fai l ed. A fi nanci al
c ri si s begi nni ng i n 1 873 threw many workers onto the
streets and i nto poverty. From the l ate 1 870s to the
mi d- 1 880s, the growi ng worki ng cl ass turned to vari ous
forms of radi cal ism, i ncl udi ng the radi cal and raci al l y
i ncl usive uni oni sm of the Kni ghts of Labor. Thi s peri od
saw the i nsurrecti onary stri kes of rai l road workers i n
1 877, the fi ght for the ei ght- hour day that cul mi nated i n
the May 1 , 1 886 general strike and Haymarket i nci dent
thatfol l owed, the prol iferation of l abor and farmer-l abor
parti es, and the ri se of soci al i sm withi n the worki ng
cl ass movement.
Looki ng at these devel opments, Engel s was astounded
at the rapi dity with whi ch thi s new worki ng cl ass
radi cal i sm took shape i n the U. S. i n these years. He
wrote, fI no one coul d then ( 1 885) foresee that i n such
a short ti me the movement woul d burst out with such
1 1
i rresistibl e force, woul d spread with a rapidity of a
prai ri e-fi re, woul d shake Ameri can soci ety to the
foundati ons . . . "[8] Thi s story has been wel l tol d by
Jeremy Brecher i n Stri ke ! and won't be repeated here.
[9]
Despite the c ri si s of the 1 870s, thi s peri od was
si multaneousl y very good to capital . In hi s 1 947 work
analyzi ng the rise the busi ness uni oni sm, Si dney
Lens summari zed the i ncredi bl e growth of Ameri can
capital ism from the begi nni ng of the Ci vi l War to the end
of the century wel l when he wrote:
The growth of Ameri can capital i sm was phenomenal .
From 1 859to 1 899, the numberofcapital i stestabl i shments
tri pl ed; the number of wage earners quadrupl ed. The
val ue of its products went up sevenfol d, and the amount
of capital i nvested in i ndustry i ncreased ni nefol d. I n
the same peri od i n Engl and, the val ue of its products
i ncreased by only approxi mately 50 per cent; in France
by approxi matel y 45 per cent; i n Germany, 65 percent.
[ 1 0]
To thi s must be added the dramatic expansi on of the rai l
system, whi ch by 1 900 total ed more mi l es t han those of
al l other nati ons combi ned. To a greater extent tha n
i n Europe, whi c h was engaged i n the race for col oni es
abroad, thi s expansi on took pl ace withi n the nati on's, by
now, conti nental boundari es. Fuel ed by a combi nati on
of the expl oitati on of mi l l i ons of new i mmi gra nt workers,
the surpl us of Southern Bl ack agrari an l abor, and the
l and a nd natural resources taken from Mexi co, Spai n,
and the i ndi genous popul ati on Ameri can capital ism,
though by no means every capital ist, fl ouri shed i ndeed.
Lens, i n one of the few attempts to provi de a materi al
basi s for the ri se of busi ness uni oni sm, sees thi s
expansi on as a suffi ci ent expl anati on. I t i s certai nl y the
background that made the success of the new uni ons
of the 1 880s possi bl e, and al l ows us to understand the
anti-soci al i sm that became central to busi ness uni on
i deol ogy. But it woul d be an enormous oversi ght not
to i ntegrate the i mpact of the pre-existi ng raci sm
that i nformed the whol e strategy of the new busi ness
uni oni sts-the strategy that gave them the upper hand
i n t he fi ght with the radi cal s i n t he l ate ni neteenth
century. As we argued earl i er, thi s racism was part and
parcel of t he process of accumul ati on as i t unfol ded
i n what i s now the United States. Busi ness uni onism,
l argel y a product of the rapi d expansi on that fol l owed
the Ci vi l War, al so i ncorporated the "common sense"
.

1 2
raci sm of the pre-War peri od.
Craft uni oni sm was not uni que to the U. S. I t had existed
in Britai n for some time and woul d evol ve el sewhere
as wel l . But al most everywhere el se it woul d be
accompani ed by some ki nd of cl ass-based pol iti cal
party and soci al ist i deol ogy by the l ate ni neteenth
century. The major alternative in Eu rope and Latin
Ameri ca was Christi an, i . e., Cathol i c, uni oni sm not
busi ness uni onism. Ind eed, even in the U. S. many of the
founders of the new craft uni ons of the 1 880s regarded
themsel ves a soci al ists, and soci al i sm woul d contend
with busi ness uni oni sm and a smal l organi zed Cathol i c
presence as the i deol ogy of these uni ons for some
ti me. The first pol iti cal contest withi n organi zed l abor,
however, was not primari l y that between soci al ists and
busi ness uni onists, but between practi cal l y mi nded
craft uni onists, both "pure and si mpl e" and ( reform
mi nded) soci al i st, a nd the l abor radi cal i sm of the 1 880s.
The a nswer to why busi ness uni oni sm tri umphed,
however, l i es i n the i ntersecti on of Ameri can capital 's
i ncredi bl e expansi on with the way the new craft
uni ons attempted to protect thei r members. The peri od
fol l owi ng Haymarket i n 1 886 was one of growth. Capita l ,
however, di d not see this as a reason to be generous to
the exi sti ng uni ons. In fact, the empl oyers l aunched a
mi ghty anti-uni on offensive that destroyed the Kni ghts
of Labor in short order. This offensive al so destroyed or
drove underground those craft uni ons that had carved
out a pl ace i n i ndustry. I n the earl y 1 890s, great stri kes
that i nvol ved both craft and unski l l ed workers l i ke those
at Homestead and Pul l man were defeated.
The uni ons that survi ved and grew the most i n thi s
peri od were those based i n l ocal l abor markets i n the
new and growi ng l arge and smal l i ndustri al citi es of
the peri od. Pri mary among these were the bui l di ng
trades uni ons of the new Ameri can Federati on of
Labor and vari ous l ocal transport uni ons such as the
Longshoremen and Teamsters. These uni ons deal t
with smal l l ocal empl oyers i n l ocal l abor markets, not
with the emergi ng i ndustri al corporati ons. As i ndustri al
citi es l arge and smal l arose across t he country, these
smal l empl oyers had pl enty of work and pl enty of
i ncome bui l di ng homes, the new offi ce bui l di ngs, and
factori es and i n the growi ng transportati on networks
withi n and a round these citi es.
The craft uni ons regul ated thei r wages by restri cti ng
the suppl y of l abor t o a l i mi ted uni on membershi p,
rather than organi zi ng al l the workers i n a given trade.
Thei r central method was to l i mi t and control the l ocal
l abor market. The strike was used pri mari l y to bri ng
recal citrant empl oyers i nto l i ne. Each craft bargai ned
on its own, but a pi cketl i ne by any uni on woul d usual l y
be honored by al l . They expressed cross-craft and
i ndustry sol i darity through central l abor counci l s
composed of del egates of most l ocal uni ons whether
AFL or not. These CLCs cal l ed stri kes when necessary.
In the earl i est days these new craft uni ons expressed
some of the same egal itari a n i deal s embodi ed i n the
Kni ghts of Labor. Members i niti ated into earl y AFL
uni ons pl edged, "1 promi se never to di scri mi nate
agai nst a fel l ow worker on a ccount of col or, c reed, or
national ity. " There woul d be monumental struggl es i n
whi ch Bl ack and white workers i n AFL unions woul d
fi ght si de by si de, most notably the New Orl eans
general stri ke of 1 892. Some uni ons, notably t he United
Mi ne Workers and Longshoremen, whi l e by no means
free of raci sm, recrui ted Bl ack workers and had Afri can
Ameri can offi cers and organi zers. The state AFL i n
Al abama fought for the i ncl usi on of Bl ack workers.
These were, however, the excepti ons.
Obvi ously, a restricted l abor force i n a growi ng market
characteri zed by smal l , l ocal empl oyers feedi ng off
the enormous expansi on of capital i sm i n the U. S. gave
these bui l di ng trades and other l ocal craft uni ons a
shelter from the bi gger offensi ve of the i ncreasi ngl y
nati onal corporations. It al so gave them the abi l ity to
keep wages up and ri si ng whi l e the empl oyer passed
the cost on to citi es, corporati ons, the wealthy, and the
new mi ddl e cl ass consumers fl ush with money. None
of thi s i s to say that these craft workers were handed
big wages vol untari l y by thei r bosses. Strikes were
frequently necessary. Neverthel ess, the practi ce of
col l ective bargai ni ng woul d change si gnifi cantly for
these uni ons over the next decade or so.
Fi rst of al l , the practi ce of l i miti ng the l abor suppl y of
ski l l ed workers rather than organizi ng al l workers in a
gi ven i ndustry rapi dl y took on a raci al character si nce
most such ski l l ed workers outsi de t he South were white
to begi n with. Thi s was soon codifi ed i n the constituti ons
of several craft uni ons. Given the uni que economi c
context i n whi ch i t a rose, thi s excl usive craft uni oni sm
worked where the radi cal i sm and egalitari ani sm of the
Kni ghts
'
had fai l ed. I f the i deol ogy of the Kni ghts and
of most of the embryoni c l abor parti es of t he 1 880s had
been cl assl ess and often rooted i n monetary a nd l and
reform, the i deol ogy that began to take shape i n the
c raft uni ons was cl ear and wel l in l i ne with much of the
"common sense" of Ameri can ca pital i sm.
Cal l i ng i t "pure and si mpl e" uni oni sm, th e bol der of the
AFL l eaders rejected any grand mi ssi on l i ke soci al i sm
in favor of l i mited col l ective bargai ni ng. The putative
father of busi ness uni oni sm i s not Samuel Gompers,
but hi s fri end Adol ph Strasser, a fel l ow ci gar maker,
and for a whi l e a soci al ist, who in the 1 870s spel l ed
out a practi cal and central ized versi on of uni oni sm
h e thought compati bl e with the pragmati c outl ook of
Ameri can workers. It woul d be over a decade before
h i s i deas coul d be put i nto practi ce. Samuel Gompers,
h owever, di d more to devel op thi s as a sel f- consci ous
" phi l osophy" of l abor and by the economi c cri si s of
1 893, it was wel l d evel oped and wi despread. Its mai n
ri val i n the early years of the new century woul d not
be vague radi cal s but soci al ists of vari ous stri pes, from
reformi sts to revol uti onari es.
Strasser, Gompers, and the other "pure and si mpl e"
uni onists di d not rej ect pol iti cs, but had little chance
to practi ce them at the national l evel unti l the uni ons
began to grow after 1 896 when recovery set i n and
the empl oyers turned nasty. The first maj or entrance
of the AFL i nto nati onal pol iti cs was a l obbyi ng effort
i n 1 895 to wi n l egi sl ati on to l i mit the use of i nj uncti ons
agai nst uni ons and for the ei ght- hour day. [llJ After
thi s it was a short road to the practi ce of hopi ng to
wi n l egi sl ative i nfl uence for l abor by "rewardi ng our
fri ends and puni shi ng our enemi es, " whi ch meant
stayi ng wel l withi n the two-party system that had come
to prevai l after the Ci vi l War. Anti ci pati ng Leni n, the
"pure and si mpl e" uni onists unashamedl y embraced
bourgeoi s pol iti cs as trade uni on pol iti cs i n a uni quely
di rect way. The Briti sh Labor Party mi ght practi ce
bourgeoi s pol iti cs from an i ndependent worki ng cl ass
posi ti on when it e merged at the turn of the century,
but Ameri can busi ness uni oni sts went di rectly to the
bourgeoi s parti es. Thi s fact, of course, l eft an i ndel i bl e
mark on the rudi mentary cl ass consci ousness that
fl ared up from ti me to ti me.
As the AFL grew and a new ki nd of l i beral bourgeoi s
pol iti cs emerged at the end of the century as
"Progressivi sm," the practi cal experi ence of the
l eaders of "pure and si mpl e" uni onism l ed them to
support the "progressives" i n the two maj or parti es
rather than fol l owi ng the mi nority of trade uni onists
i nto the new Soci al i st Party. The rel ative success of
the bui l di ng trades uni ons and other l ocal l y-based
1 3
uni ons i n thi s formative peri od gave them a n d thei r
approach credi bi l ity. They spread thi s i deol ogy and
where appl i cabl e the practi ces to other uni ons through
the city central l abor bodi es and state federati ons of
the AFL.
Raci sm and raci al excl usi on were bui lt i nto thi s i deol ogy.
It is not j ust that the raci sm of the soci ety spi l l ed over
i nto these uni ons as it di d i nto earl y i ndustri al uni ons
l i ke the United Mi ne Workers, or other uni ons that di d
not excl ude Bl acks, i t was i n the constituti ons and
col l ective bargai ni ng agreements of a growi ng number
of craft uni ons. It was i n the publ i cations of the AFL and
most of these craft uni ons.
The tri umph of busi ness uni on i deol ogy was g iven an
additi onal boost by the si multaneous devel opment of
the embryo of bureaucracy and "machi ne" rul e in the
AFL. Whi l e i n most of the theori es menti oned above, the
devel opment of a l abor bureaucracy i s associ ated with
l arge organi zati ons, the devel opment of corporati ons,
and bargai ni ng stabi l ity, the actual roots of Ameri can
l abor burea ucracy were i niti al ly the result of confl i ct i n
l ocal l abor markets.
Fol l owi ng the Haymarket i nci dent, Ameri can capi tal
went on an a nti - uni on rampage. The new craft uni ons
were not spared the rage of capital or even of that of
the smal l empl oyers for whom many of these ski l l ed
workers toi l ed. Uni on members were frequently
di smi ssed out of hand, parti cul arly if they rai sed any
gri evances on the j ob. To protect themsel ves, they
began to sel ect the more vocal mi litants as "wal ki ng
del egates," the first ful l-ti me uni on negoti ators. We
know them today as busi ness agents. Thi s i n itsel f was
hardl y bureaucracy. But as bargai ni ng regul ari zed
itsel f i n the years of growth before 1 893, the del egates
settl ed i nto routi nes and the city-wi de l ocal uni ons
sought to bri ng them under thei r control rather than that
ofthe members who had ori gi nal ly sel ected them. If the
members attempted to repl ace a compl acent busi ness
agent, as they someti mes di d, the busi ness agent and
l ocal offi ci al s coul d turn t o t he empl oyers to get ri d of
the troubl emakers, as they i ncreasi ngly di d.
Thi s peri od al so saw the ri se of the nati onal unions,
whi ch up to now had pl ayed little rol e. These were
the maj or carri ers of busi ness uni on i deol ogy. But on
top of that, l i ke the l ocal l eaders, they saw i n these
new ful l -ti me busi ness agents the possi bi l ity of a
pol iti cal machi ne not unl i ke that of the urban pol i ti cal
14
machi nes they i ncreasi ngly dealt wi th. Al l of thi s
was further i ntensifi ed as the nati onal busi ness uni on
l eaders of the AFL brought the formerly autonomous
central l abor bodi es and state federati ons under thei r
control . Increasi ngly, these practi ces spread to other
AFL uni ons taki ng on the characteristi cs of normal
u ni on practi ce. By today's standards thi s machi nery
was pretty mi nimal , but it di d ai d the entrenchment and
i nsul ati on of busi ness uni on l eaders a nd thei r i deol ogy
from a ra nk and fi l e that woul d become i ncreasi ngly
restive and radi cal as the new century opened.
The AFL and most of its affi l i ated u ni ons had survi ved
and grown through empl oyer repressi on and the
di sastrous depressi on of 1 893-96 where the Kni ghts, the
l abor parti es, and the Popul ists had fai l ed. Refl ecti ng
both thi s real ity and the goal of stabi l ity so i mportant to
busi ness uni oni sm, Gompers coul d say with pri de atthe
1 900 AFL conventi on:
It i s noteworthy, that whi l e i n every other previ ous
i ndustri al cri si s the trade uni ons were l iteral l y mowed
down and swept out of existence, the uni ons now
i n exi stence have manifested not onl y the power of
resi stance, but of stabi lity and permanence. [ 1 2]
Business Unionism's Defeat of the Social ists
When the cri si s of 1 893- 1 896 ended, Ameri can
capital i sm took another l eap forward. I n 1 898, for the
first ti me U. S. productivity surpassed that of its major
commerci al rival Britai n, as wel l as al l other i ndustri al
powers. Despite recessi ons, from 1 870 through 1 91 3
the growth of real per capita Gross Domestic Product
in the U. S. outstri pped that of any i ndustri al nati ons
save its nei ghbor Canada. Uni oni sm, too, grew rapi dly
and the AFL went from 280,000 members in 1 898 to 1 . 6
mi l l i on i n 1 904. Thi s ti me, uni oni sm reached deep i nto
the manufacturi ng i ndustri es. Al ong with the growth of
the craft uni ons came the ri se of new i ndustri al uni ons
such as the United Mi ne Workers, the radi cal Western
Federati on of Mi ners, the soci al ist-ori ented garment
workers uni ons, and the revol uti onary syndi cal i st
Industri al Workers of the Worl d. On the rai l roads,
the craft uni ons turned from mutual assistance and
i nsurance to col l ective bargai ni ng.
The return of economi c growth, the vast merger
movement of ca pital , and t he growth of uni onism
brought a qui ck response from the empl oyers i n the form
of a nati onal "Open Shop" drive led by the new Nati onal
Associ ati on of Manufacturers. The years after the turn
of the century through Worl d War One saw i ntense
cl ass confl i ct, new forms of cross-craft organizati on i n
i ndustry, and the growth of regi onal bargai ni ng.
I n the wake of thi s new cl ass-based radi cal ism came
the growth of the Soci al ist Party of Eugene V. Debs.
Unl i ke i n Europe where both uni ons a nd parti es shared
a soci al ist outl ook, however, the maj or trade uni on
federati on, the AFL, was i deol ogi cal l y hosti l e to the SP.
I nsi de the uni ons and the AFL, Soci al i st Party members
fought busi ness uni onists for control or at l east
i nfl uence. Workpl ace-based rank and fi l e rebel l i ons in
this peri od typi cal l y took on a more pol i ti cal character as
SPers chal l enged the "pure and si mpl e" uni oni sts who
were i ncreasi ngl y al i gned with the "progressives" of
the Democratic and even Republ i can parti es. By 1 91 2,
Soci al i st typographers' l eader Max Hayes won a thi rd
of the votes i n a contest with Gompers for l eadershi p of
the AFL.
Debs, hi msel f a former uni on l eader, an advocate of
i ndustri al uni onism, and l eader of the Pul l man strike,
hel d the conservative craft uni on l eaders in contempt.
He noted thei r separati on from the ranks, thei r change
i n dress, habits, and associ ati ons-notably with
empl oyers and pol iti ci ans. Debs remai ned a supporter
of the IWW. The Soci al ist Party, however, had no trade
uni on pol i cy. It made no demands and put no pressure
on members who became hi gh l evel uni on offi ci al s
other than that they support the SP el ectoral ly. It was
a si mpl e matter for these Soci al i st uni on l eaders to
separate the runni ng of the uni on from thei r pol iti cs, to
become busi ness uni onists i n practi ce whi l e retai ni ng
thei r "Soci al ist" membershi p and i dentity. Whi l e some
Soci al ists hel d on to l eadershi p of AFL a nd i ndependent
uni ons such as those in garment and texti l e, the Soci al i st
Party itself spl it, faced the general repressi on agai nst
al l radi cal s, and then shrank after the First Worl d War.
The tri umph of the busi ness uni onists was, however,
guaranteed more than anythi ng by the i mpact of the
Fi rst Worl d War. As one l abor hi stori an put it:
Worl d War I, in fact, hel ped make the Ameri can
Federati on of Labor a permanent and l asti ng organization
by givi ng it the strength to survive the 1 920s. [ 1 3]
It di d so in three ways. Fi rst was si mply the growth i n
number of members caused by war production, to 5
mi l l ion by 1 920. Second were the wage gai ns that came
with the swel l i ng of war orders after 1 91 4. These secured
the l oya lty to i nc umbent l eaders in many cases. Thi rd
was the government's pol i cy of favori ng AFL uni ons
i n wa r i nd ustri es, whi l e at the same ti me conducti ng
vi ol ent repressi on agai nst the IWWand SP. A corol l ary
of thi s rel ati onshi p with the government was the further
bureaucrati zati on as war-ti me deci si on-maki ng moved
up the hi erarchy i nto vari ous tri partite bodi es and as
attempts were made to regul ari ze gri evance handl i ng.
Busi ness uni on l eaders, practi ces, and i deol ogy were
now deepl y entrenched, whi l e the radi cal s were on the
defensive and thei r organizati ons severel y weakened.
The First Experiment i n Rank and Fil e Strategy
The l ast years of the war and those i mmedi atel y
fol l owi ng saw sharp cl ass confl i ct and i ndustri al up
h eaval i n the United States as i n much of the devel oped
capital i st worl d. I n 1 91 8, i t l ooked as though German
workers woul d fol l ow the exampl e set i n Russi a a year
earl i er as workers counci l s spread across the country
and revol uti on seemed an accompl i shed fact-though
i n fact the l eaders of the Soci al Democratic Party woul d
soon derai l the revol uti on.
Across the i ndustri al worl d, new forms of rank and
fi l e-based worker organizati on sprang up to deal with
the massive changes in i ndustry and work the war
had brought on. The Shop Stewards and Workers
Committee Movement in Britai n, the Revol uti onary
Shop Stewards in Germany, factory committees i n
Italy, and si mi l ar organizati ons i n Fra nce exempl ifi ed
the workers' effort to take on i ssues the ol d l eaders,
even so- cal l ed soci al i sts, shrank from. I ndeed, by 1 920
the newl y formed Communist I nternati onal based its
strategy for revol uti on on these rank and fi l e upsurges
that swept across i ndustry i n the devel oped nati ons.
As one study of thi s peri od put it, " . . . i n the Communist
I nternati onal 's own j udgement-whi ch we share-it i s
pri mari l y i n the i ndustri al struggl e that the opportuniti es
for i nterventi on by revol uti onari es are to be sought,
and it is a party's performance in rel ati on to these
opportuniti es on whi ch it i s pri mari l y to be j udged. "[ 1 4]
The U. S. , too, saw i ntense cl ass struggl e. An attempt
to organi ze the steel i ndustry in 1 9 1 9 with a coal iti on of
c raft uni ons l ed to a strike of 365,000 workers. Soon a
strike of 400,000 coal mi ners fol l owed. A genera l strike
in Seattle l ed to a near "Sovi et" situati on as the uni ons
took charge of the city. I n 1 920-21 600,000 coal mi ners
struck l eadi ng to a vi rtual civi l war in West Virgi ni a
and central I l l i noi s. I n 1 921 the Typographers waged
15
a year- l ong stri ke, whi l e 1 00,000 texti l e workers i n New
Engl and hit the bri cks. I n 1 922, 400,000 rai l shop craft
workers struck.
Thi s expl osi on was made possi bl e in part by the
enormous growth of the uni ons and the rapi d economi c
expansi on associ ated with the war. But i t was al so a
response to the i ndustri al speed-up that had underl ai n
the entire peri od of growth from the end of the Ci vi l War
through Worl d War One and the carnage it produced.
I ndustri al death rates i n the U. S. were estimated at
two to three times those i n Europe. On the rai l roads
some 75,000 workers peri shed from the Ci vi l War to
the begi nni ng of the First Worl d War. In constructi on
the i ndustry itsel f sai d that each story of the new
skyscrapers cost a worker's l ife. The Tri angl e Shi rtwai st
fi re of 1 91 1 underscored thi s reckl ess di sregard of l ife.
Al ongsi de of thi s and partly responsi bl e for it were the
constant and deep cha nges i n work associ ated with
Tayl ori sm, ski l l di l uti on, and work i ntensifi cati on that
drove workers to resistance.
Altogether, from 1 91 9 through 1 923 over 8 mi l l i on
workers struck. Al most al l of the stri kes, however,
were defeated. I n the wake of these defeats, uni on
membershi p pl unged from its 5 mi l l i on hi ghpoi nt to 3. 6
mi l l i on i n 1 923, stabi l i zi ng at around 3. 4 mi l l i on l ater i n
the decade. Al l the i ssues that had l ed to i ndustri al
rebel l i on remai ned unresol ved, the pol i ti cal positi on
of l abor weaker, t he uni ons l ess and l ess a bl e t o resi st
whi l e rel yi ng on the conventi onal methods of busi ness
uni oni sm and of craft uni oni sm i n parti cul ar.
The pol iti cal state of busi ness uni oni sm was a ptly
summari zed by A. Phi l i p Randol ph and Chandl er Owen i n
the Afri can Ameri can soci al ist weekly, The Messenger,
where they descri bed the 1 921 AFL conventi on:
The recent conventi on of the Ameri can Federati on of
Labor hel d i n Denver, Col orado, was col orl ess except
for the fi ght for the presi dency between Gompers
and John L. Lewis, presi dent of the United Mi ne
Workers. The conventi on opposed trade with Russi a;
refused to condemn the unspeakabl e Ku Kl ux Kl an;
ratifi ed Gompers' withdrawal from the Amsterdam
Labor I nternati onal ; cl osed t he door i n t he faces of
Negroes and women; reel ected its archai c pi l ots; then
adj ourned . . . [1 5]
Whi l e the tri umph of the busi ness uni onists and thei r
i deol ogy had not real l y been i n doubt, it i s natural that
thousands of uni on activists shoul d questi on these
1 6
l eaders a n d thei r methods, i ncl udi ng craft uni oni sm
itself. At the same ti me, thi s was the fi rst ti me that
c apital had i nfl i cted such a massive defeat on l abor
without destroyi ng the uni ons. Despite the setbacks,
uni on membershi p remai ned wel l above its pre-war
l evel , al l owi ng for the growth of oppositi on withi n the
uni ons. A symbol of thi s new mood was the rebel l i on i n
Gompers' home l ocal of the Ci gar Makers that bl ocked
hi s el ecti on as a d el egate to the 1 920 AFL conventi on.
Oppositi on groups grew i n several uni ons, notabl e the
I nternati onal Ladi es Garment Workers Uni on, the Fur
Workers, the Machi nists, the Carpenters, the I ron and
Steel Workers, and the United Mi ne Workers. Though
they were often l ed by radi cal s, they tended to take on a
broad, rather than parti san I SP, IWW) character.
I n 1 91 9 in the mi dst of the i ndustri al upheaval , fol l owi ng
a l ong and destructive fi ght i n the Soci al i st Party, the
former SP Left Wi ng formed the Communi st Party Itwo
of them at first). After the defeat of tll e 1 9 1 9 steel strike,
its organizer Wi l l i am Z. Foster, and other l i ke-mi nded
veterans of the steel and other struggl es, organi zed
the Trade Union Educati onal League i n 1 920 to do
revol uti onary syndi cal i st work withi n the AFL. After a
coupl e of years of i nfi ghti ng and underground existence,
the new Communi st Party I cal l ed the Workers Party
for a whi l e) recognized the potenti al of the TUEL for
establ i shi ng and expandi ng the party's roots i n the
organi zed worki ng cl ass.
By 1 921 , when Foster l i ke many syndi cal ists a round
the worl d, j oi ned the CP and abandoned hi s anti -party
positi on, the program of the TUEL took shape. It stood,
a bove al l , for i ndustri al uni oni sm and a l abor party-two
i deas that made enormous sense as the craft uni ons
fa ced one defeat after another. The TUEL al so stood for
the end of al l raci al barri ers to uni on membershi p, equal
status withi n the uni ons for Afri can Ameri cans, and for
uni on democracy. At the same time, it supported the
young Russi an Sovi et republ i c, as di d many trade uni on
mi l itants i n its earl i est years. I t was endorsed by a
broad cross-secti on of mi l itants and offi ci al s, i ncl udi ng
Debs.
La bor hi stori an James Barrett summari zed the
ori entati on of the TUEL aptly as fol l ows:
The TUEL mobi l i zed in more tha n a dozen i ndustri es
but bui lt its strongest and most durabl e movements i n
the needl e trades and coal mi ni ng. I n each i ndustry
economi c probl ems and competiti on l ed to dramati c
confrontati ons wi th empl oyers, whi l e conservative
uni on pol i ci es preci pitated ran k- and-fi l e oppositi on
movements. League mi l itants bui lt united fronts with
these groups by addressi ng genui ne i ndustri al probl ems
and confronti ng unpopul ar l eaders. [ 1 6]
There were no dues. Membershi p was establ i shed
by subscri bi ng to i s nati onal paper, The Labor Heral d.
The TUEL had both i ndustri al and l ocal geographi cal
organizati ons. I ts major campai gn was for i ndustri al
uni oni sm through the amal gamati on of craft uni ons
or thei r i ndustry divi si ons, such as rai l . Resol uti ons
favori ng amal gamati on passed i n thousands of l ocal
uni ons, seventeen state federati ons, and twenty
i nternational uni ons. These same mi l itants broughtthei r
l ocal uni ons i nto the new movement for a l abor party,
where TUEL al so worked with progressi ve offi ci al s l i ke
John Fitzpatri ck of the Chi cago Federati on of Labor.
TUEL activists, however, di dn't j ust bui l d the TUEL or its
campai gns. They got i nvol ved i n the i ssues confronti ng
each i ndustry, someti mes l ed stri kes, a nd pari ci pated
i n or led the vari ous rank and fi l e movements of the
ti me. Several of the TUEL i nd ustry groups were based
on existi ng rank and fi l e movements and on the new
shop del egates and shop stewards movements. These
i ncl uded rank and fi l e oppositi ons i n the I LGWU, the
Fur Workers, the Carpenters, the Ma chi nists, the
Amal gamated I ron and Steel Workers, and the United
Mi ne Workers, al l of whi ch had consi derabl e success.
The TUEL demonstrated the power of ra nk and fi l e
rebel l i on and the abi l ity to organize beyond those
al ready l oyal to the l ef. Thei r day-to-day work
focused on workpl ace i ssues and uni on democracy
as wel l as i ndustri al uni oni sm, a l abor party, and, l ess
consi stently, raci al equal ity. [ 1 7] The combi nati on of
thi s very basi c program and the activiti es of the TUEL
moved tens of thousands of workers to acti on and many
more to vote for r'esol uti ons and candidates backed by
TUEL activists. It al so l i nked the vari ous rank and fi l e
opposi ti on movements i nto a broad progressi ve current
across the l abor movement gi vi ng these efforts a cl ass
wi de framework, a shared vi si on of what uni oni sm
coul d be, and a common basi c program.
By 1 924, however, the TUEL cl ass-wi de experi ment l ay i n
shambl es, with the Communists i sol ated from the mass
of a ctivi sts they had hel ped to motivate and organize.
Probabl y the major reason was the vi ci ous counter
mobi l i zati on of the busi ness uni on bureaucracy across
the AFL. TUEL and CP activists were expel l ed ri ght and
l eft with no means of recourse. Despite bi g votes for
oppositi on candi dates i n several uni ons and strong
bases i n many l oca ls, the entrenched AFL l eaders
mai ntai ned control over the expanded machi nery of
thei r uni ons. For the expel l ed rebel s there was no
pl ace to turn.
At the same ti me, the reacti on of the bureaucracy
was made al l too easy by the pol i ci es of the CP and
the wea knesses of the TUEL. One weakness was the
resol uti onary nature of its central campai gn, that for
amal gamati on. Whi l e TUEL activi sts had great success
i getti ng resol uti ons i n favor of amal gamati on passed
across the l abor movement, they had al most no success
i n actual ly forci ng or carryi ng through amal gamati on
:oward i ndustri al uni oni sm. Resol utions can not be
a substitute for organi zati on and the abi l ity to fol l ow
:1rough on a goal . There i sn't much doubt that most of
:1e activists, i ncl udi ng party members, who parti ci pated
i n the TUEL campai gns wanted such organizati on and
i nfl uence, but the way i n whi ch the CP "ran" the TUEL
made thi s di ffi cult.
The greatest weakness of the TUEL was that it
was control l ed top-down by the CP. It never real l y
devel oped a democrati c structure of its own, nor an
i n dependent rank and fi l e l eadershi p to combat the
growi ng sectari ani sm and errati c behavi or of the
CP. The TUEls l ack of i ndependence was si gnal ed
a ong other thi ngs by its affi l i ati on with the Moscow
control l ed Red I nternati onal of Labor Uni ons. More
' mporta ntly, vi rtual l y al l the l eaders of the vari ous TUEL
bodi es were CP members. Both of these real iti es l eft
TUEL without a self-organi zed base and unnecessari l y
open to red baiti ng.
e probl em of party control was compounded by the
s ecari an di recti on that came from the party's central
eadershi p i n New York. Far from the dai ly course of
c ass struggl e and preoccupi ed wi th i nternal facti onal
matters and Russi an pol i cy requi rements, these l eaders
attempted to push thei r l i ne on the CP l eaders of the
EL Thi s was parti cul arly sharp i n the case of Foster's
'1ork i n the l abor party movement. There, the CP
eaders pushed for a premature l aunchi ng of a farmer
l abor party, whi ch l ed to a break with non-Communist
eaders and the col l apse of the whol e proj ect. In 1 924,
e CP l eadershi p guaranteed the end of the TUEL as
a broad rank and fi l e-based movement when i t took
the absurd ste p of mergi ng the TUEls paper, the Labor
1 7
Heral d, with two other CP control l ed papers, the Sovi et
Russi a Pi ctori al publ ished by the Fri ends of the Sovi et
Uni on and The Li berator, the CP's offi ci al paper, i nto the
Workers Monthly, whi ch was supposed to serve as the
offi ci al publ i cati on of both the TUEL and the CPo
It must al so be sai d that Foster hi mself was part of the
probl em as wel l as the i niti ator of the sol uti on. He had
real ized that t he onl y way the new CP coul d overcome
its i sol ati on was to work i n the AFL bui l di ng rank and fi l e
movements t o repl ace busi ness uni onism with a cl ass
struggl e brand of uni oni sm. Unl i ke most other top CP
l eaders, he understood thi s to be a l ong process. At
the same ti me, he had a certai n el itist view of thi s work
as wel l as a tendency to mai ntai n personal control of
the operati on. In 1 922, he wrote that most rank and
fi l e workers were "i gnorant and sl uggi sh. " I n 1 924, he
tol d t he soci al i st Scott Neari ng, "Revol uti ons are n ot
brought about by the sort of far-si ghted revol uti onari es
you have i n mi nd, but by stupi d masses . . . goaded to
desperate revol t by the pressure of soci al conditi ons . . .
l ed by strai ght-thi nki ng revol uti onari es who are abl e to
di rect the storm i ntel l i gentl y agai nst capital ism. "[ 1 8]
Thi s i s far from Marx's i dea of trade uni on struggl e as
a school i n whi ch t he masses l earn pol iti cal ski l l s and
come t o a cl earer cl ass consci ousness-though not
so far from the Stal i nism Foster and the CP woul d soon
adopt. I n the end, the combi nati on of CP control and
el itist outl ook ki l l ed thi s first experi ment i n consci ous
rank and fi l e rebel l i on.
By the second hal f of the 1 920s, the bureaucraci es
of t he AFL, its affi l i ates, and t he i ndependent uni ons
i n garment and r ai l were safel y entrenched. The
pri ce pai d for the fai l ure of the TUEL was high. The
uni ons l ost more members, real wages sl umped, they
adopted l abor-management cooperati on schemes,
and the number of uni ons excl udi ng workers of col or
constituti onal l y or by ritual actual l y rose from 1 1 i n 1 920
to 24 by the end of the decade.
The Lesson of Transitional Politics
I n hi s assessment of the probl em of CP control and the
fai l ure of the TUEL Si dney Lens wrote:
By permitti ng this state of affai rs the TUEL obvi ated
the ori gi nal purpose for whi ch it was establ i shed, to
become a bri dge between the Communist party and the
trade unions, to ofer an i nstrument that coul d neither
be accused of "dual uni oni sm" nor of bei ng a radi cal
1 8
force outsi de the uni ons. I t was to be a cl ass-struggl e
l eft wi ng, rather than a revol uti onary dual uni on. I t
was to advocate mi l itant stri ke ta ctics, democracy
withi n the existi ng uni ons, amal gamati on i nto i ndustri al
forms, a pol i cy of spreadi ng stri kes t o make them more
effective, no faith i n government arbitrati on machi nery,
and other such uni on strategi es based on the theorem
of "cl ass agai nst cl ass. " I t was not to be the i nstrument
of the revol uti on itself, as was the concepti on of the
I .W.W. by Vi ncent St. John and his successors. It was
to avoi d the recurri ng diffi cul ty of havi ng new members
endorse the i dea of revol uti on. The TUEL in l ife itself,
however, was so i ndisti ngui shabl e from the Communist
party that it i sol ated itsel f from al l but party members or
the cl osest of sympathi zers. [ 1 9]
I n other words, the TUEL coul d not serve as a bri dge
between the basi c cl ass consci ousness of most workers
and the cl ass "for itsel f" pol iti cs ofthe revol uti onari es if
it was itself sol el y the revol uti onari es' possessi on. That
i t showed so much promi se i n doi ng j ust thi s for the first
three years of its bri ef l ife i s testi mony to the vi abi lity of
thi s strategy. Yet, the l eaders of the earl y CP, sti l l heady
with the model of the Russi an revol uti on and obsessed
with i nternal party matters, bombed thei r own bri dge to
the activist l ayer of the cl ass.
The noti on of a bri dge between rudi mentary cl ass
consci ousness or trade uni on mi l itancy and soci al i st
consci ousness is the corner stone of transitional
pol iti cs and the Rank and Fi l e Strategy. The noti on
of a transiti onal program and pol iti cs was meant to
repl ace the ol d i dea of the mi ni mum and maxi mum
programs of cl assi c soci al democracy, where the
mi ni mum program became the real practi ce and
the maxi mum ( revol uti onary) program a ceremoni al
artifact. Someti mes empl oyed by the early Communist
I nternati onal before its corrupti on i nto Sta l i ni sm, it
was resurrected in the l ate 1 930s by Leon Trotsky
who i ncorporated it i nto the foundi ng document of the
Fourth I nternati onal i n 1 938. Formul ati ng it pri maril y as
a program of demands, Trotsky wrote:
It i s necessary to hel p the masses in the process of dai ly
struggl e to fi nd a bri dge between present demands and
the soci al ist program of the revol uti on. Thi s bri dge
shoul d i ncl ude a system of transiti onal demands,
stemmi ng from today's consci ousness to wi de l ayers of
the worki ng cl ass and unalterabl y l eadi ng to one fi nal
concl usi on: the conquest of power by the prol etari at.
[20]
For Trotsky in 1 938 capital i sm was in its i nescapabl e
"death agony," and the revol uti on bl ocked pri mari l y by
the degenerati on of worki ng cl ass l eadershi p i n th e form
of soci al democracy and Stal i ni sm. Capital i sm's obituary
proved premature in the extreme and the reducti on of
the probl ems of the worki ng cl ass movement to one
of mi sl eadershi p i nsufi ci ent. We can al so questi on
whether any system of demands can by itsel f l ead
"unalterabl y" to revol uti onary consci ousness.
I t i s i mportantto l ocate the purpose of such a transitional
program. Trotsy's program was desi gned for a si tuati on
i n whi ch revol uti on seemed i mmi nent i f only effective
l eadershi p were i n pl ace. The 1 938 transiti onal program
was meant to provi de di recti on for a new revol uti onary
l eadershi p. The fa r more l i mited program of the TUEL
had a more modest purpose, to rai se the general cl ass
consci ousness of the activist l ayer of the uni ons and
to br i ng the revol uti onari es i nto a common organizati on
and movement with these mi l itant, but sti l l l argel y trade
u ni on-mi nded worker activi sts.
The i dea of a transiti onal pol iti cs and program that can
serve to bri dge the gap we descri bed i n the begi nni ng
of thi s pamphl et, between today's "common sense"
and genui ne cl ass consci ousness i s an i mportant tool
i n overcomi ng both the i sol ati on of soci al i sts from the
cl ass and the l i mits of l eadershi p withi n the cl ass. Such
a program for today i s not so much a l i st of demands as
a combi nati on of demands, goal s, and acti ons.
Before devel opi ng the i dea of a transitional politi cs
for today's l abor movement, we want to l ook at the
maj or competi ng l eft wi ng strategy for work i n the
uni ons, permeati on or the attempt to gai n i nfl uence by
si dl i ng up to the i ncumbent bureaucracy or its al l eged
progressi ve wi ng. Thi s was, above, al l the strategy of
the Communi st Party i n the new CI O uni ons of the 1 930s.
Permeation & The Highjacking of the CIO
The outl i nes of the story of the i ndustri al upsurge that
l ed to the formati on of the CI O are wel l -known. Most
of the craft uni on l eaders of the AFL has l earned
nothi ng from the experi ence of the 1 920s. I n the face of
growi ng rank and fi l e outburst i n the unorgani zed basi c
i ndustri es, they offered patch work ai d and sol uti ons
when they offered anythi ng. The fi rst wave of strikes
from 1 933 through 1 935 were mostly exampl es of rank
and fi l e self-orga nizati on. Some of these workers
sei zed on mori bund l ocal uni ons to create new mass
organizati ons, other got temporary charters as AFL
"federal l ocal uni ons, " whi l e others si mpl y created
thei r own uni ons. The massive 1 934 stri kes i n Tol edo,
Mi nneapol i s, San Fra nci sco, and in the texti l e pl ants
parti cul arl y in the South were l ed by men and women
with no more than a l ocal title, l ittl e i n the way of money,
and even l ess in terms of staff or "l abor professi onal s. "
Many of them were radi ca l s who saw the need for
i ndustri al unioni sm as a pri ority and a trai ni ng ground
for a new generati on of uni on l eaders and activi sts
a nd revol uti onari es.
The radi cal s, however, were not the onl y ones to read
t he hand writi ng on the wal l . A handful of AFL l eaders
fol l owi ng the l ead of John L. Lewi s of the Mi ners began
to push for i ndustri al uni onism. Lewis was no radi cal .
I n fa ct, he had been a l ife l ong Republ i can and as
dedi cated a busi ness uni onist as Gompers or anyone
el se. But hi s u ni on was organi zed al ong i ndustri al ,
n ot craft l i nes. He had al so l earned a few thi ngs i n
hi s l ong fi ght agai nst the TUEL-supported oppositi on
movements of the 1 920s. So, he, Si dney Hi l l man of
the Amal gamated Cl othi ng Workers, and a handful of
other top l eaders formed the Committee for I ndustri al
Organizati on to push t he AFL toward organizi ng the
mass producti on i ndustri es al ong i ndustri al l i nes. They
got no where and l eft to form the new Congress of
I ndustri al Organizati ons in 1 936.
The men who l aunched the CI O as a new federati on
were not out to make the revol uti on. Rather, the new
CI O l eaders presented themsel ves as an alternative not
onl y to the mori bund AFL, but al so to the rank and fi l e
l eadershi p al ready i n formati on throughout i ndustry.
They di d not have to do much organizi ng, as we thi nk
of that today, for workers were a l ready pouri ng i nto or
creati ng uni ons on thei r own or with the hel p of radi cal s
and thei r organizati ons. I ndeed, as i ndustri al struggl e
grew and became more confrontati onal t he new uni ons
became school s of cl ass consci ousness and l eadershi p
devel opment. The 1 934 strikes i n Tol edo, San Franci sco,
and Mi nneapol i s had al l been l ed by soci al i sts of one
ki nd or another.
It woul d be overl y si mpl e to say that Lewis and the new
CI O parachuted i nto thi s situati on to save the day for
capital i sm. No doubt many of these l eaders, l i ke many
i n the ranks, sawthe chance for a change i n the bal ance
of cl ass forces withi n Ameri can capital i sm through the
organizati on of the mass producti on i ndustri es. Some,
l i ke erstwhi l e soci al ist Si dney Hi l l man, even brought the
19
el ements of a new l abor i deol ogy that woul d disti ngui sh
the CI O from the pure and si mpl e busi ness uni onists
of the AFL for many years-soci al uni onism. Yet, thi s
meant that from day one, the CI O was a contradi ctory
movement with a sel f-organi zi ng rank and fi l e in its new
uni ons, but a ful l -bl own bureaucracy at the federati on
l evel , and withi n those ol d uni ons that j oi ned, that di d al l
i n its power to keep thi s movement withi n the channel s
of capital i sm, orderl y col l ective bargai ni ng, and the
Democrati c Party.
It woul d take al most two decades to turn the CI O with its
soci al uni onist outl ook i nto a modern busi ness uni onism
si mi l ar enough to the AFL uni ons, some of whi ch now
had a more i ndustri al character themsel ves, to make
possi bl e the 1 955 merger that gave us the AFL- CI O.
There were too many radi cal s and radi cal ized workers
entrenched in the l ocal s of the new uni ons, with too
much support in the ranks, and too good a track record
i n the mi dst of the bi g struggl es of the second half of the
1 930s to make thei r tami ng easy. Furthermore, most of
the new uni ons were too democrati c, with pl enty of open
pol iti cal debate and competition, to easi l y succumb to
the bureaucratic norms of the Mi ne Workers or the CI O
itself.
Al most al l of the l eft organi zati ons of the ti me pl ayed a
si gnifi cant rol e at one ti me or another: the Trotskyists
in the Mi nneapol i s Teamsters' stri ke, A. J. Muste's
Ameri can Workers Party in the Tol edo Auto-Lite strike,
the Communi sts in San Francisco's general stri ke, the
l ocal Soci al ist Party i n the Fl i nt Sit- Down, and so on.
Had al l these organi zati ons worked together, as they
often di d i n specifi c struggl es l i ke the Fl i nt Sit- Down,
i n an autonomous TUEL-type ra nk and fi l e proj ect the
hi story of U. S. l abor mi ght have been very different.
I ndeed, the potenti al of radi cal l ed rank and fi l e
mobi l izati ons to create a cl ass consci ous l abor
movement was evi dent not onl y i n t he new CI O uni ons,
but even in the ol d AFL uni ons, as the exampl e of the
Mi nneapol i s Teamsters showed. Here, a smal l group
of Trotskyists transformed a mori bund craft uni on of
truck dri vers and hel pers i nto a n i ndustri al uni on i n
the l ocal and eventual l y regi onal frei ght and l ocal
cartage i ndustri es. When the process began, the enti re
Teamster Joi nt Counci l i n Mi nneapol i s-St. Paul had onl y
one ful l-ti me offi ci al and l ess than a thousand members.
Each step i n thi s process of transformati on i nvol ved
accel erated ra nk and fi l e mobi l i zati on, not onl y of the
members of Teamsters Local 574 but eventual l y of the
20
enti re l abor movement in Mi nneapol is in the dramati c
1 934 stri ke. The approach used by the Trotskyists i s
spel l ed out i n Farrel l Dobbs' book Teamster Rebel l i on
and represents a cl assi c case of the appl i cati on of the
rank and fi l e strategy to the conditi ons of that ti me and
pl ace.
Dobbs notes that, "Workers were radi cal i zi ng under
the goad of economi c depressi on. To mobi l i ze them for
a cti on it was necessary to start from thei r existi ng l evel
of understandi ng. I n the course of battl e a majority
coul d be convi nced ofthe correctness ofthe Communi st
League's trade uni on pol i cy. " ( "Communist League"
was the name of the Trotskyist organizati on at that
ti me, l ater the Soci al i st Workers Party. ) He poi nted to
the contradi cti ons of the uni on bureaucracy, but made
the i mportant poi nt that the di recti on of the struggl e i n
these ci rcumstances was agai nst the empl oyers. I n al l
l i kel i hood, the bureaucracy, parti cul arly i n the persons
of Dani el Tobi n General Presi dent of the Teamsters
and Cl iff Hal l of the Mi nneapol i s Central Labor Counci l ,
woul d get i n the way. As Dobbs put it, "Thus, the
i ndi cated tacti c was to ai m the workers' fi re strai ght at
the empl oyers and catch the uni on bureaucrats i n the
mi ddl e. "[21 ]
Usi ng thi s approach, Dobbs and the Mi nneapol i s
Trotskyists went on to l ead a massi ve organi zi ng drive
fol l owed by three mass stri kes. These strikes were
model s of rank and fi l e mobi l i zati on, i nnovative tacti cs
such as "crui si ng pi ckets," and al l i ances with other
uni ons and farmers organizati ons. I n the face of massi ve
pol i ce and vi gi l ante vi ol ence, the stri kers mounted thei r
own escal ati ons with ral l i es rea chi ng 40,000 peopl e.
I n effect, the Trotskyist Teamsters, worki ng with other
mi l itants, had turned a mere organizi ng drive i nto a
maj or pol i ti cal confrontati on with al l the powers-that
be.
The 1 934 strike vi ctory di d not end the probl ems faced
by workers i n t he Mi nneapol is trucki ng i ndustry. Local
574 was sti l l burdened with conservative offi cers. The
rol e of the Trotskyists i n the stri ke movement, however,
made them recogni zed l eaders i n practi ce. Dobbs and
t he other went about organi zi ng a broad rank and fi l e
caucus with the object of bri ng i n a consi stentl y mi l itant
l eadershi p. But they di dn't si mpl y run for offi ce. Once
a gai n, Dobbs expl ai ns what i s sti l l an i mportant l esson
for rank and fi l e rebel s:
From the outset the bui l di ng of a broad l eft wing i n the
l ocal was rooted i nthe programmati c concepts essenti al
to a pol i cy of mi l itant struggl e agai nst the empl oyers.
Although thi s perspective entai l ed an ultimate cl ash
with conservative uni on offi ci al s, thei r remova l from
offi ce was not proj ected at the sta rt as an i mmedi ate
ai m. That coul d have given the mistaken i mpressi on
that the Trotskyist mi l itants were i nterested pri mari l y i n
wi nni ng uni on posts. To avoi d such a mi sconcepti on
a fl anki ng tacti c was devel oped. I nstead of cal l i ng for
a qui ck formal change i n the l ocal 's l eadershi p, the
i ncumbent offi ci al s were pressed to alter thei r pol i ci es
to meet the workers needs. [22]
Dobbs and the other soci al ists al l i ed themsel ves with
non-soci al ists who had supported thei r strike strategy
and eventual l y changed the l eadershi p of the l ocal .
Thei r rank a nd fi l e approach di dn't stop there, however.
They real i zed that most of the trucki ng i ndustry was
sti l l nonuni on and that they woul d have a hard ti me
hol di ng on to wages and conditi ons if thi s remai ned the
case. Dobbs devel oped a strategy for organizi ng the
over-the- road truckers and the frei ght workers i n other
towns i n t he regi on. I n effect, Dobbs di d what more a nd
more uni ons are fi nal l y doi ng today. He recognized that
the best organizers are not necessaril y professi onal
staffers, but committed members. So, each trucker
became a n de facto organizer. The campai gn to
organize the central states ( Mi dwest) trucki ng i ndustry
is tol d i n Dobb's book, Teamster Power. It was no easy
matter. The rank and fi l e Teamster organi zers met with
vi ol ence from the empl oyers, pol i ce, and governments.
The presi dent of the I nternati onal Uni on, Dani el Tobi n,
opposed them al l the way. Thei r fi ght was, of necessity,
al most always a dual one agai nst the empl oyers and
conservative uni on bureaucrats. The mai n enemy was
al ways capital , but the busi ness uni oni sts were al ways
in the way.
Although the mi l itant l eaders of Local 574 woul d
eventual l y face enormous repressi on, t he vi ctory of
Local 574 in Mi nneapol i s a nd the organizi ng strategy
that fol l owed, were a cl ear demonstrati on of the
power of rank and fi l e uni oni sm under the l eadershi p
of revol uti onari es who understood both transiti onal
pol iti cs and the potenti al of a mobi l ized and i nformed
rank and fi l e. It was an alternative ki nd of uni oni sm
to the top-down brand favored by Lewis, Hi l l man, a nd
other CI O l eaders. I n embryo form it existed across the
l abor movement of the ti me. But thi s potenti al woul d
be si detracked by the abandonment of a rank and fi l e
ori entati on by much of the l eft i n the second hal f of the
1 930s.
By fa r the l argest l eft orga ni zati on was the Communist
Pa rty. Whi l e it is cl ear that the CP of the 1 930s was a
thoroughl y Sta l i nized, bureaucratic party, it was al so a
contra di ctory movement. On the one hand, the CP and
its thousands of worker members pl ayed a major rol e i n
bui l di ng the new CI O uni ons from the bottom up. They
and the uni ons they came to l ead were usual l y wel l
a head of other l eft groups on matters of raci sm. And
whi l e some C P-I ed uni ons showed the same top- down
te ndenci es as those l ead by l i beral soci al uni onists,
others were or woul d become more democrati c than
most.
Neverthel ess, the Popul ar Front pol i cy adopted around
1 936, j ust asthe bi g struggl es were heati ng up, precl uded
a ny real united front with the other l eft parti es, much l ess
a ra nk and fi l e strategy l i ke the TUEL. The Popul ar Front
meant bui l di ng al l i ances with the l eaders of the new
CI O wherever possi bl e and supporti ng the Roosevelt
Ad mi nistrati on in the name of fi ghti ng fascism. Thi s
meant abandoni ng the i dea of a l abor party i n practi ce
and ori enti ng more and more toward the Democrats.
Such al l i ances i nevitabl y l ed to attempts to permeate
the hi ghest l evel s of both government, whi ch were not
very successful , and the bureaucra cy of the CI O and a
number of its uni ons, whi ch were more so.
The most famous case of the CP's permeati oni st pol i cy
was that of Lee Pressman and Len De Caux who
became, as the joke went, "l eft hand men" to "The
Three" as the CI O's top l eaders, John L. Lewis, Si dney
Hi l l man, and Phi l i p Murray, were known. Pressman
was general counci l for the CI O, whi l e De Caux was its
publ i city di rector. Pressman may have dropped formal
membershi p i n the party afer 1 935, but he conti nued
to have those pol iti cs for a decade or so. Whi l e onl y a
few coul d i nsi nuate themsel ves at the top of the l abor
movement i n thi s manner, many more Communi sts
became staffers hel pi ng to bui l d the apparatus of the
CI O and some of its affi l i ates.
The vast majority of CP members, of course, had no hope
of permeati ng thei r uni on's l eadershi p or staff. They
either ra n for offi ce, ofen successful ly, or remai ned
ra nk and fi l ers. But the Popul ar Front al l i ances and
the permeationi st ori entation that fl owed from i t meant
that the l argest group on the l eft had checked out of
a ny fi ght agai nst the growth of bureaucracy in the new
uni ons and i n some pl aces contri buted to it. Rank and
21
fi l e CPers mi ght sti l l be mi l itants i n thei r workpl ace, and
mi ght even resist authoritari an moves by the l eadershi p
when those l eaders weren't CPers themselves, but
thei r party had its si ghts set hi gher on the bi g al l i ance
with Roosevelt, Lewis, et al .
The Second Worl d War accel erated the process of
bureaucratization and the formati on of a moderni zed
busi ness uni oni sm, much as the First World War had. A
seri es of government l abor boards set the precedents
and patterns of bureaucrati c l abor rel ati ons that shaped
the whol e post-Worl d War Two era. Hi stori an Nel son
Lichtenstei n summed up the i mpact of these boards
when he wrote:
For the next four years, these boards were i nstrumental
in setti ng for the first ti me i ndustry-wi de wage patterns,
fixi ng a system of "i ndustri al j uri sprudence" on the
shop fl oor, and i nfl uenci ng the i nternal structure of the
new i ndustri al uni ons. They were a powerful force i n
nati onal izi ng a concepti on of routi ne and bureaucrati c
i ndustri al rel ati ons that had been pi oneered in the
garment trades but that the Wagner Act and the NLRB
had thus far fai l ed to i mpl ement ful ly.[23]
The CP, by war ti me far and away the l argest l eft
organizati on, saw the war not as an i mperi al ist war,
but as an anti-fascist war for democra cy. Its vigi l ance
i n supporti ng the war effort and war producti on
surpassed that of ordi nary anti-fascists or Ameri can
j i ngoi sts to i ncl ude oppositi on to a ny a nd al l di srupti ons
of production. I ndeed, when Lewis broke with Murray
and Hi l l man ( and Roosevelt) fi rst rej ecti ng government
medi ati on i nthe mi ners contract i n 1 941 and then l eadi ng
four mi ners' stri kes i n 1 943, the CP si ded with Hi l l man
and Murray. They ful l y supported the CI O l eadershi p's
no strike agreement. And when stri kes agai nst the
i nhuman pace of work or other i ssues began to spread
i n 1 943 they opposed those.
The CP's el ite al l i ance al so hurt the Afri can Ameri can
l i berati on struggl es i n whi ch they had previ ousl y pl ayed
a major rol e i n communi ti es l i ke Harl em. With the comi ng
of the war, however, they pl ayed down raci al struggl es.
They di dn't support A. Phi l i p Randol ph's proposed
marc h on Washi ngton to demand j obs for Afri can
Ameri cans i n the burgeoni ng defense i ndustri es. Nor
di d they support the Doubl e-V campai gn for vi ctory over
fasci sm abroad and raci sm and segregati on at home.
With the entrance of the U. S. into the war, the number
of workers i nvol ved i n strikes dropped dramati cal ly
22
from 2.4 mi l l i on in 1 941 , the hi ghpoi nt of the pre-war
years, to 840,000 i n 1 942. I n 1 943, however, the number
shot up again to nearly 2 mi l l i on workers and kept ri si ng
u nti l 4. 6 mi l l i on workers j oi ned the huge 1 946 strike
wave. Except for the coal mi ners strikes, the stri kes
from 1 943 through 1 945 were al most al ways rank and
fi l e acti ons, frequently l ed by stewards wi l l i ng to buck
the i ncreasi ngly entrenched CI O bureaucracy and the
government. These were the greatest counterwei ght
to the bureaucrati c trend accel erated by the war ti me
i nstituti ons. Yet, the l argest l eft party opposed them
al though it is l i kel y that many rank and fi l e CPers
parti ci pated.
I roni cal ly, one of the pithiest descri pti ons of what came
n ext comes from Len De Caux's memoi rs:
Once the CI O won al l that capital i sm woul d al l ow
it. . . sitdowns a nd mass struggl e gave way to union
admi nistrati on, dues col l ecti on, l abor board bri efs,
d etai l ed negotiati ons. The swivel - chai r tri be began
its own l ong-l asti ng sitdown i n uni on offi ce. Thi s tri be
rode t o offi ce on the broad shoul ders of Lewi s and the
backs ofthe agitators, the mi l itants, the reds. Once they
arri ved they turned-dutiful ly, patrioti cal ly, devoutly
to ki ck in the face those on whom and over whom they
had scrambl ed.[24]
The Popul ar Front, permeati on, and war ti me patriotism
were repai d with Cold War purges of the Communi sts
and then othe r l eftists as wel l . When the al l i ances at
the top shattered, the l ack of an i ndependent rank and
fi l e base l eft the radi cal s i sol ated. The Communi sts
faced the additi onal probl em of havi ng l ost a l ot of
credi bi l ity for thei r war ti me col l aborati on. For the CI O
as a whol e, the swivel -chai r crowd rapi dly compl eted
thei r i nsul ati on from the ranks i n most uni ons and
establ i shed the norms of modern busi ness uni oni sm
that are sti l l domi nant. To be sure there was pl enty of
rank and fi l e resi sta nce to the l oss of democracy, the
i ncreased l ength of uni on contracts, the i ncreasi ngl y
i nfrequent and ritual ized conventi ons, a nd the cozy and
stabl e rel ati ons with empl oyers that more and more
l eaders sought. But the resisters fought al one with
few experi enced pol iti cal l eaders among them and l ittle
or no contact with the opposi ti oni sts in other uni ons.
The marvel ous fi ghti ng democracy that had been the
uni ons of the early thi rti es and then the CI O had been
hi ghj acked by l eaders who soon made thei r peace
with capital and i nstituti onal ized l abor rel ati ons as the
property of a l ayer of professi onal l abor l eaders and
staffers to a degree few had ever dreamed possi bl e.
Modern Business Uni onism & The Problem of
Consciousness
The stabi l i zati on of col l ective bargai ni ng and the
i nstituti onal izati on of modern busi ness uni oni sm were
ai ded by another peri od of economi c growth and
expansi on for Ameri can capital-thi s ti me asthe worl d's
l eadi ng economi c a nd mi l itary power. Thi s al l owed a
l abor movement that now covered over ni ne mi l l i on
workers, as De Caux put it, to wi n "al l that capital i sm
woul d al l ow it," whi ch i n thi s peri od was more than most
workers anywhere had ever seen. Thi s, in itself, partly
expl ai ns the uni quely conservative consci ousness that
swept most uni ons and thei r members. The Col d War
repressi on and a pol iti cal atmosphere that equated any
form of l eftism with the Stal i ni st regi me of the Sovi et
Uni on was another bi g factor i n del egiti mati zi ng any
brand of soci al i st pol iti cs. On top of thi s setti ng, the
practi ces of modern busi ness uni oni sm contri buted
many of the specifi cs to the new post-war worki ng
cl ass "common sense. "
The knot between the new ci a and the Democrati c
Party had been ti ed by 1 936. Neverthel ess, l abor party
senti ment reemerged duri ng the war. I n 1 943, Hi l l man
and Murray set up the ci a Pol iti cal Acti on Committee
( PAC) specifi cal ly to combat l ocal and state l abor party
i nitiatives and to mobi l ize the uni on ranks ri ght down
to the preci nct l evel for Roosevelt and the Democrati c
Party i n the 1 944 el ecti ons. Thus, the new uni ons
entered the post-war era with a pol iti cal practi ce
vi rtual l y i denti cal , though far more organi zed, to that
of the AFL, with its own La bor's Non- Parti san League.
Thi s, no doubt, eased the way to the 1 955 merger with
the AFL. Any i dea of cl ass pol iti cs was abandoned or
squel ched, a fact that woul d shape and l i mit worki ng
cl ass consci ousness enormousl y for decades.
By the end of the 1 940s, the ci a had surrendered its
pol iti cal program of ful l empl oyment, nati onal health
care, generous soci a l security, ci vi l ri ghts for Afri can
Ameri cans, and publ i c housi ng for al l who needed
it, when i t became cl ear thei r Democrati c "al l i es"
had no i nterest i n such reforms. Thi s pol i ti cal choi ce
meant that the l i beral soci al uni onist i deol ogy of the
CI O turned away from the pol iti cal arena and toward
the narrower fi el d of col l ective bargai ni ng. The new
benefits bargai ni ng for pensions, health care, and othe r
items previ ousl y seen as part of a n expanded welfare
state l i ke those in Europe, created what some have
cal l ed a "private welfa re state" ti ed to the empl oyers.
Thi s had at l east two l ong term affects. The fi rst
was to i ncrease the professi onal izati on and hence
t he bureaucratization of col l ective bargai ni ng as
contra cts became i ncredi bly compl ex and thei r
admi nistrati on more expert-heavy. The number of ful l
ti me " I nternati onal Reps" grew and thei r power over
contra ct admi ni strati on i ncreased. The noti on and
practi ce of t he uni on as a servi ce agency took root.
Al ong with this came the erosi on of basi c democracy
as conventi ons, once a nnual affai rs, became every
three or even five years i n many uni ons.
The second was the fragmenti ng affect thi s "private
welfare state" had on the consci ousness of uni on
members, al ong with the growi ng separati on of thei r
l i vi ng standards from workers i n weaker uni ons or
i n no uni ons. With benefits flowi ng from company
coffers, the i dea that the wel l -bei ng of the company is a
u ni on goal was given a previ ousl y unknown economi c
underpi nni ng. At the same ti me, j ust as any i dea of a
di sti nct cl ass pol iti cs had been squel ched, so too had
the i dea of the l abor movement as a cl ass movement
been l ai d to rest. I t was now a bureaucrati c agency
dependent on empl oyer wel l -bei ng ( i . e. , productivity
dragged out of the workforce) to d el i ver servi ces to
it members and them only. Narrow "i nterest group"
consci ousness was certai n at most ti mes to beat
cl ass consci ousness as a contender for thi s peri od's
common sense. "
The repl acement of soci al uni oni sm, i n al l but
conventi on-ti me rhetori c, by a top-down servi ce
model and fragmenti ng "private wel fare state"
was accompani ed and someti mes preceded by the
a bandonment ofthe CI O's commitment to raci al equal ity.
Whi l e thi s commitment had al ways been l i mited and
sel dom carri ed i nto white basti ons l i ke t he ski l l ed
trades, the a l l i ance with the progressive organi zati ons
of the Afri can Ameri can community had contri buted
to a raci al egal itari ani sm l argel y absent i n the ol der
busi ness uni oni sm of the AFL. But, when organi zi ng,
stri ki ng, and mobi l i zi ng were repl aced by orderl y
professi onal bargai ni ng i n the context of economi c
growth, there was l ittl e need for such active al l i ances.
When Afri can Ameri can l abor l eader A. Phi l i p Randol ph
proposed that the merged AFL- CI O ban raci al excl usi on
by any uni on at the 1 955 merger conventi on, not one
white CI O l eader voted with hi m. I t was not that they
23
bel i eved i n excl usi on, but that they val ued the al l i ance
with thei r new conservative col l eagues more tha n that
with the Bl ack community.
Al l of these features of modern busi ness uni oni sm and
t he economi c context i n whi ch i t sol i difi ed combi ned to
bury, if not compl etel y obl iterate, the ki nd of basi c cl ass
consci ousness that arose i n the 1 930s and l asted wel l
i nto the 1 940s. The fragmented consci ousness was
rei nforced by the ri se i n real wages and, at l east for a
l arge mi nority, the new benefits that brought a mi ddl e
cl ass l ife styl e to mi l l i ons. Average real hourly earni ngs
i n manufacturi ng rose by 50% from 1 950 through 1 965.
The new benefits, furhermore, meant that more ofthese
growi ng wages were avai l abl e for di rect consumpti on
tha n had ever been the case before. Al l thi s was made
possi bl e by t he conti nued growth of the economy. From
1 947 through 1 967, i ndustri al producti on more than
doubl ed, whi l e productivity grew by over 50%.
Whi l e many on the l eft l i ke to tal k of thi s peri od as
one of a "soci al compact" i n whi ch capital wi l l i ngly
handed over wage and benefit i ncreases i n exchange
for i ncreased producti on, the fact i s that even i n thi s
peri od it took a hi gh l evel of strike acti on to wi n thi s new
standard of l i vi ng. There were more stri kes and more
workers on strike in the first hal f of the 1 950s, whi l e
the new standards of col l ective bargai ni ng were bei ng
carved out, than duri ng the years 1 935-1 939.
There was, however, a big difference. The stri kes of
the 1 930s had been enormous battl es seen by mi l l i ons
as part of a bi gger cl ass struggl e. By the 1 950s, stri kes
tended to be orderly affai rs wi th token pi cketi ng. With
some notabl e excepti ons, strikes became as routi ne
as col l ective bargai ni ng itself. Furthermore, the
sol i dari sti c movement-wi de pattern bargai ni ng of 1 945-
1 946 had gi ven way to a much l ooser system i n whi ch
each union was on its own. Most studi es showed that
even by the earl y 1 950s the affect of major patterns set
by the UAW or the Steel workers was fadi ng. The i dea
of sol i darity was reduced to one's own uni on and one's
own "private wel fare state. "
Al l of thi s produced the ki nd of consci ousness, the
"common sense, " thought to be the natural state of mi nd
of workers and uni on members i n the U. S. Neither cl ass
as an active concept nor any vi si on above the l evel of
col l ective bargai ni ng was a part of thi s consci ousness
for the vast maj ority. But the conditi ons that u nderl ay
the stabi l ity of thi s whol e arrangement were begi nni ng
24
to ch ange by the mi d- 1 960s.
Fragmented Ranl< and File Rebel l ion
By most accounts U. S. capital i sm's rate of profit began to
fa l l ( or fal l more rapi dl y) around the mi ddl e of the 1 960s.
Producti on actual l y accel erated at fi rst due l argely to
the War i n Vi etnam. Whereas i ndustri al producti on
had ri sen by about 50% from 1 953 through 1 963, from
1 963 through 1 973 it rose by 68%. Neverthel ess, the
fal l i ng rate of profit that corporati ons were begi nni ng
to experi ence more severel y brought on both i nfl ati on
and a push for i ncreased productivity across much of
i ndustry. I nfl ati on a nd speed-up, i n turn, brought forth
a new peri od of i ncreased resi stance and rebel l i on
withi n i ndustry.
Whi l e we tend to thi nk of the 1 960s and earl y 1 970s
as the era of the mass anti -war and "new" soci al
movements, it was al so one of consi derabl e l abor
unrest. Mi l l i ons of publ i c sector workers poured i nto
uni ons and for a moment, on the eve of Marti n Luther
Ki ng's assassi nati on, it l ooked as though the la bor
and civi l ri ghts movement mi ght converge. The new
Bl ack Power consci ousness of the l ate 1 960's found
expressi on i n auto assembl y pl ants and steel foundri es
as wel l as i n rebel l i ous communiti es.
At the same ti me, the number of workers i nvol ved i n
stri kes rose steadi l y from j ust under a mi l l i on i n 1 965 to
2. 5 mi l l i on i n 1 971 . A growi ng number of these stri kes
were wi l dcat stri kes i n vi ol ati on of the contracts and
agai nst the wi l l of the now entrenched and routi ni zed
l eadershi ps. The stri kes were typi cal ly agai nst speed
up a nd other management practi ces, but j ust as Dobbs
had poi nted out i n the 1 930s, the uni on bureaucracy
now a much bi gger target-stood i n the l i ne of fi re.
Once agai n, rank and fi l e re bel l i on was on the agenda.
I n the wake of these stri kes came several rank and fi l e
based organizati ons such as the Teamsters United Rank
& Fi l e, Mi ners for Democracy, a nd the United Nati onal
Caucus i n the UAW. I n additi on, Bl ack caucuses spread
across t he auto a nd steel i ndustri es, of whi ch t he most
famous is the Dodge Revol uti onary Uni on Movement
( DRUM). The connecti on of DRUM and some other
Bl ack caucuses with both Marxi sm a nd revol uti onary
n ati onal i sm was di rect, but the excepti on. Whi l e
l eftists pl ayed a rol e i n many of these new rank and fi l e
movements, there was no si gnifi cant organized l eft i n
the uni ons i n thi s peri od.
The organi zed l eft of thi s peri od was l argely student
based and focused on the anti -war a nd soci al
movements. Whi l e these movements al so had an
i mpact on the worki ng cl ass i n vari ous ways, the
soci al i st l eft, except for Bl ack radi cal groups l i ke the
Detroit-based League of Revol uti onary Bl ack Workers,
pai d l ittle attention to this ri si ng ti de of rank and fi l e
rebel l i on. Yet, the rebel l i on became hi ghl y vi si bl e as
stri kes swept the coal fi el ds i n the l ate 1 960s, when
nati onal wi l dcats broke out among posta l workers
and Teamsters in 1 970, when the Lordstown GM pl ant
became the focus of national attenti on for the mi l itancy
of its young workforce, when 40,000 tel ephone workers
i n New York State struck agai nst Nixon's wage freeze
for seven months i n 1 97 1 -72; and when the Mi ners
For Democracy overturned a corrupt and murderous
l eadershi p i n 1 972 and reshaped the United Mi ne
Workers.[25]
The absence of a wel l -organized soci al ist lef i n
most of these movements meant that the fragmented
consci ousness i nherited from the modern busi ness
uni on practi ces of the post Worl d War Two years,
though chal l enged by acti on, was not di spl aced with a
broader cl ass consci ousness or si gnifi cant movement
toward i ndependent worki ng cl ass pol iti cs. Even
the more vi si bl e rank and fi l e organi zati ons had l ittl e
contact with one a nother. They fought thei r battl es
with thei r empl oyers l argel y withi n the spheres of
thei r own "private welfare states. " Furthermore, they
fought from a positi on of assumed job security, whi l e
the new mi l itancy kept real wages ahead of i nfl ati on
for most groups. As noted above, the economy was
growi ng fast and the i mpact of fal l i ng profit rates on
the economy as yet margi nal . The "common sense" of
the peri od had been chal l enged by the acti ons taken
by mi l l i ons of workers, as wel l as by the anti-war and
soci al movements. But there was no soci al i st l eft withi n
the worki ng cl ass, nor even a l eft focused on workers'
struggl es, that was bi g enough to bri ng these strands
together. [26]
The 1 974-75 recessi on, the deepest si nce the Great
Depressi on, brought the mi l itancy to an end and
wi l dcat stri kes vi rtual ly di sappeared. Some rank and
fi l e movements l asted past thi s turni ng point and the
Teamsters for a Democratic Uni on was actual l y born
in 1 976, but the mi lita ncy and sense of confidence that
made thi s peri od of ran k and fi l e rebel l i on possi bl e
and gave i t its parti cul ar character was swept away
as a new era of economi c turbul ence took shape. The
fragmented consci ousness encouraged by modern
busi ness uni oni sm not onl y survived, but was now
rei nforced by a sense of economi c i nsecurity across
the cl ass that al l owed the bureaucracy to re-i mpose
its authority a nd to open a new peri od of retreat and
concessi ons bargai ni ng i n the 1 980s.
The Rank & Fi l e Perspective: A Contemporary Synthesis
I f the fact of a nd the real ity and i mportance of rank and
fi l e movements and rebel l i ons i s cl ear, t he rel ati onshi p
of soci al i sts to these i s sti l l not cl ear. There have been
thr ee di fferent probl ems rank and fi l e movements of
the 20th century confronted. The fi rst was a party
control l ed atempt to provi de a program and cl ass
wi de framework i n the early 1 920s through the TUEL.
Thi s had a promi si ng start but came to gri ef l argel y as
a result of the CP's control , on the one hand, a nd its
errati c pol iti cs, on the other. Party control meant that
no i ndependent, growi ng l eadershi p was devel oped
that woul d give the movement the strength to repl ace
the busi ness uni on l eadershi p.
The second was the i ndustri al upheaval of the 1 930s.
Here the major l eft organizati on, the CP, pushed an
al l i ance with the ci a bureaucracy, or what they
i magi ned to be its "progressi ve" wi ng, as wel l as with
the Roosevel t Admi nistrati on. This meant permeati on
where possi bl e, but al so a certai n passivity toward the
bureaucracy by rank and fi l e CPers. Thi s cri ppl ed the
possi bi lity of i ndependent ra n k and fi l e organizati on
i n most ci a uni ons, and meant the substituti on of the
party for an i ntermedi ate or transiti onal cross- uni on
organi zati on. Under these ci rcumstances, the ci a
bureaucracy and those of its affi l i ates were abl e t o gai n
or mai ntai n control , cl ose down the rough and tumbl e
democracy of the fi rst decade or so of the Ci a, and then
expel thei r Communi st al l i es.
The thi rd was the rank and fi l e rebel l i on of the l ate 1 960s
and earl y 1 970s. The many acti ons and organizati ons of
this peri od had very littl e contact with one another, l et
a l one cross-union organizati on or a shared vi ew of the
changes needed to beat the speed-up and i nfl ati on of
the peri od. Thi s rebel l i on, whi l e exempl ary of the self
activity and power of the worki ng cl ass in many ways,
was hurt by the al most total absence of a pol iti cal l eft
or soci a l i st wi ng withi n the movement. It remai ned
the captive of the narrow consci ousness of modern
busi ness uni onism.
25
Drawi ng on the l essons of these major peri ods of
cl ass activity a nd rank and fi l e rebel l i on, we need a
synthesi s i n whi ch soci al i sts pl ay a l eadi ng rol e i n these
rebel l i ons without subj ecti ng them to the control of a ny
"party" or soci al ist organizati on. At its most basi c,
thi s l eadershi p means confronti ng the bureaucracy
withi n the uni ons and its pol i ci es by focusi ng on the
fi ght with the empl oyers over real conditi ons on the
j ob and i n soci ety. Thi s l eadershi p rol e al so draws on
the concept of transiti onal politi cs to provi de a bri dge
from today's consci ousness to deeper and wi der
forms of cl ass consci ousness and organizati on. Thi s
requi res some i nstitutional or organizati onal means of
bri ngi ng a cl ass-wi de perspective to the vari ous rank
and fi l e groups i n order to transcend the fragmented
consci ousness encouraged by the "private welfare
states" and the i ntensifi ed competiti on that i ncreased
i nternati onal economi c i ntegration has brought. Thi s
woul d i ncl ude cross- uni on formati ons, community
based worker organizati ons such as workers centers,
and steps toward active cl ass pol iti cs.
Whi l e the pressures of capi tal on worki ng cl ass l ife are
always present, there are obvi ousl y time.s when such a
perspective offers greater possi bi l iti es. The rest of the
pamphl et wi l l argue that today's unfol di ng conditi ons do
offer sLi ch possi bi l iti es, that rank and fi l e rebel l i ons are
a common contemporary response to the real iti es of
changi ng conditi ons and bureaucrati c i nerti a, and that
there are specifi c thi ngs that soci al i sts and soci al ist
organizati ons can do to maxi mi ze the potenti al of the
peri od and to mi ni mi ze the gap between convi nced
soci al ists and t he maj ority of worker activists.
The Roots of a New Revolt
The cl osi ng of the twentieth century seemed to bri ng a
resurgent hegemony to North Ameri can capital in the
post-Col d War worl d economy. Every cri si s appeared
as an opportunity for the United States and its l eadi ng
transnati onal corporati ons to break down barri ers to its
accumul ati on goal s and i mpose new pol iti cal/economi c
structures and rel ati ons that enforced its new advances.
From the passage of the North Ameri can Free Trad e
Agreement to the new Worl d Trade Organizati on,
from the "Drug War" on Lati n Ameri ca to the c ri mi nal
bombi ng of I raq and Yugosl avi a, no force seemed
abl e to counter U. S. power. The recurrent economi c
cri ses of Lati n Ameri ca, the fi nanci al col l apse i n East
Asi a, and the overal l meltdown of Russi a al l provi ded
26
opportuniti es for North Ameri can ca pi tal to extend
its al ready massive gl obal reach. Despite the ci rcus
a round Bi l l Cl i nton's scandal ized presi dency, bi g
busi ness coul d rest assured that the same center-ri ght
pol i ti cal consensus that had rul ed in Washi ngton for
years was i ntact no matter the Presi dent's fate or whi ch
maj or party sat i n Congress or the White House.
But the 1 990s' apparent deepeni ng of U. S. economi c
and pol iti cal hegemony was not a reru n of its post
Worl d War Two rise to domi nance. Two maj or changes
i n the worl d made thi s renewed surge of U. S. power
far more fragi l e than the peri od of growth experi enced
by the United States and other maj or i ndustri al nati ons
i n the quarter of a century after the end of Worl d War
Two. The fi rst was that neol i beral i sm, the pol i cy of most
of the worl d's governments, stopped worki ng, both as
a pol iti cal phenomenon and as a stabi l izi ng force for
capital i sm. ' The economi c turmoi l i n East Asia and,
a bove al l , the prol onged and seemi ngly i rreversi bl e
stagnati on of Japan's formerly powerhouse economy
were the certai n si gns that a ny hope for gl obal stabi l ity
was fadi ng as fast as the century itself.
The symbol of neol i beral ism's cri si s as a pol iti cal
movement was the return, i n the l ast few years, of
si gnifi cant oppositi on, pri mari l y from the worki ng cl ass
and prol etari anized peasa ntry across much of the
worl d. Mass stri kes i n oppositi on to neol i beral pol i ci es
and thei r consequences erupted across the gl obe. The
si mi l arity of these mass a cti ons i n such diverse setti ngs
as Zi mbabwe, Col ombi a, France, Greece, Russi a, South
Korea, Canada, and many more remi nds us that whi l e
a maj ority of those who toi l i n capital 's uneven gl obal
system remai n outsi de the formal rel ati ons of wage
l abor, t he worki ng cl ass has conti nued to grow on a
worl d scal e. I ndeed, even by the narrowest measure,
that of i ndustri al workers, the i ndustri al ized DECO
countri es, where i ndustri al decl i ne and downsizi ng
was wi despread, saw a sl i ght growth from 1 1 2
mi l l i on i n 1 973 to 1 1 5 mi l l i on i n 1 994. I n the economi c
South, i ncl udi ng the former Communist countri es, the
i ndustri al workforce has ri sen from 285 mi l l i on i n 1 980
to 407 mi l l i on in 1 994. Organized l abor movements that
were repressed i n the 1 960s and 1 970s, a rose agai n or
for the fi rst ti me i n much of the Thi rd Worl d, as wel l as
southern Europe. Fasci sm was overthrown i n Greece,
Portugal , and Spai n and uni ons emerged and were
l egal ized agai n. By the l ate 1 990s. these movements,
n ew and ol d, were expressi ng thei r opposi ti on to the
crushi ng i mpact of nearl y two decades of neol i beral ism.
The second di fference i n North Ameri can capi tal i sm's
fi n de si ecl e resurgence is that, unl i ke the post-World
War Two boom where Ameri can l ivi ng standards rose
on average, this expansi on of U.S. corporate power
has seen the l ivi ng standards of the vast majority si nk
for twenty years. I ndeed, Wal l Street i nsi der Stephen
Roach cal l s the U. S. economi c expansi on of the 1 990s a
"I abor crunch recovery. " I n 1 998, for exampl e, the real
wages of those who work for wages and sa l ari es i n the
U. S. remai ned 1 2% bel ow thei r 1 979 l evel . Thi s general
decl i ne has been accompani ed by a sharp divi si on
between the bottom three- quarters of the popul ati on
whose i ncomes have fal l en and the top quarter whose
i ncomes have ri sen. The hi gher one goes, furhermore,
the greater the i ncrease in i ncome and wea lth. I ncome
measures, however, only scratch the surface of what
the maj ority of the worki ng cl ass has experi enced i n the
l ast two decades. Whi l e there have been no mass or
general strikes i n the U. S. i n recent years, the return
of hi gh profi l e cl ass struggl e i s now apparent and the
reasons for it cl ear. Far from provi di ng the materi al basi s
for the conti nued l oyalty and i deol ogi cal submi ssi on of
the worki ng cl ass maj ority, the new power of North
Ameri can capital is purchased in part by the i ncreased
degradati on i n worki ng and l i vi ng conditions of the vast
maj ority withi n the U. S.
One aspect of thi s change was the profound workpl ace
and l abor market reorgani zati on associ ated with "I ean
producti on. " The promi sed brave new co-managed
workpl ace of the future turned i nto a top-down, we"
l it Satani c mi l l . Whether you worked i n a hospital or
an auto pl ant, a post offi ce or post-i ndustri al techno
offi ce, more than l i kely your j ob was worse than it
was a decade ago-if you were l ucky to have one
that l ong. Whether or not i t i s decorated with the
tri mmi ng of empl oyee parti ci pati on, TQM, or the l i ke,
it was certai nly more stressful, probabl y harder, a nd
defi nitel y more dangerous by the 1 990s. U. S. i nj ury a nd
i l l ness rates in the fi rst half of the 1 990s were runni ng
anywhere from 9% to 1 00% hi gher than i n the first half
of the 1 980s measured by the number of cases reported.
Contri buti ng to thi s ri se i n occupati onal i l l ness a nd
i nj ury a re changi ng work ti me patterns. Fu"-ti me
manufacturi ng workers were putti ng i n more overti me,
whi l e mi l l i ons were becomi ng part of the precari ous
workforce that fi l l s the country's growi ng number of
part-ti me, temporary, or casual jobs.
The monthl y fi gures publ i shed by the Bureau of La bor
Statisti cs put the number of "part-ti mers" (those
worki ng l ess than 35 hours a week) at 21 mi l l i on i n
mi d-1 997, or about 1 8.4% of the workforce, up from
1 6.6% i n 1 975. But i ncl udi ng those i n the 35-40- hour
range, over 38 mi l l i on peopl e actual l y work l ess than
40 hours a week, whi l e an uncounted number of "part
ti mers" earni ng part-ti me pay work 40 or more hours
week-i n and week-out. More startl i ng is the growth of
temporary workers. Those who work out of "personnel
suppl y agenci es" have grown from 640,000 i n 1 987 to
over 3 mi l l i on in mi d- 1 999. An undocumented additi onal
number of temps work di rectly for a growi ng vari ety of
fi rms. A recent study by the Economi c Pol i cy I nstitute
puts the total proporti on of "nonstandard" j obs at 29.4%
of the workforce, 34.4% for women workers-fi gures
that adj ust for the overl ap of part-ti me, temporary,
and contract work. With the arri val of "modul ar"
producti on at the end of the 1 990s, whi ch emphasi zes
outsourci ng and sub contracti ng even more than its
"I ean" predecessor, sti l l more ful l-ti me and wel l pai d
j obs wi l l be turned i n for temporary and/or l ower wage
j obs.
Al l of thi s has not gone unnoti ced by the majority
that compose both the shri nki ng mi ddl e-i ncome and
growi ng l ower- i ncome worki ng cl ass-and they are
angry. Whatever gl ow may have accompani ed the earl y
days of l abor-management partnershi p or workpl ace
parti ci pati on faded rapi dl y for many workers, as thei r
j obs were cut and/or i ntensifi ed to boost profits, stock
pri ces, and top sal ari es. Contesti ng with thi s anger
and di si l l usi onment, however, i s f ear of j ob l oss by the
same forces: downsi zi ng, outsourci ng, faci l ity cl osures,
or scab herdi ng. As a Multi nati onal Monitor editori al
put it recently, "A ruthl ess empl oyer cl ass bl ends these
multi pl e sources of j ob i nsecurity i nto a whol e greater
than the parts. "
The other si de of the downsi zed coi n, however, i s
work i ntensifi cati on. I f no one with power l i stened
to the workers who compl ai ned about thi s, at l east a
few ears perked up when Wal l Street i nsi der Stephen
Roach wrote i n the Wal l Street Journal , "the so-cal l ed
productivity resurgence of recent years has been on
t he back of sl ash-and-burn restructuri ng strategi es that
have put extraordi nary pressures on the workforce. "
Roach predi cted a "worker backl ash, "
There comes a poi nt, after al l , when the pressures
and i nevitabl e i ndi gniti es of i ntensifi ed expl oitati on
outwei gh the fear of j ob l oss, as i t di d i n t he Great
Depressi on. As Marta Oj eda, di rector of the U. S. -
27
Mexi co-border-based Committee for Justi ce i n the
Maqui l adora's put it el oquentl y at the 1 997 Labor Notes
conference i n Detroit, "The hunger i s stronger tha n the
fear-hunger for j usti ce, not onl y for food. " First one
group, then another tests the waters and open confl i ct
returns to l a bor rel ati ons-despite the tri mmi ngs of
company uni onism or l abor-management cooperation
schemes. That i s the meani ng of t he bitter stri kes ofthe
l ast few years i n the U. S. Some l ose, as at Caterpi l l ar
and A.E. Stal ey. Some are more or l ess draws, l i ke that
at Wheel i ng- Pittsburgh. Others wi n somethi ng, as at
UPS in 1 997, at several tel ecommuni cati ons compani es
i n 1 998, i n the seventeen l ocal GM strikes ofthe l ast two
and-a-half years, the brief strike at Dunl op, the 69-day
Boei ng stri ke, the week-l ong general stri ke of Oregon
state empl oyees, the on- agai n-off- agai n strike at Yal e
University, and the 54-day confrontati onal struggl e at
WCI Steel in Warren, Ohi o.
Then there are the massive stri kes of i mmi grant and
Lati no workers on the West Coast: j anitors, dry-wal l ers,
and carpenters in Los Angel es; waterfronttruckers in LA
and Seattl e; and i n the l ast days ofthe twentieth century
casual i zed waterfront workers in Southern Cal iforni a.
To these shoul d be added the struggl e to organize 20,000
strawberry pi ckers in Cal iforni a, the smal l er number of
appl e pi ckers and processors i n Washi ngton state, and
those harvesti ng cucumbers i n North Carol i na, These
and si mi l ar struggl es of i mmi grant and Lati no workers
around the country al so poi nt to somethi ng new-the
ri se of Lati nos not only i n the workforce, but i n the
uni ons. Whi l e uni on membershi p overal l conti nued to
decl i ne from 1 992 through 1 996, the number of Lati no
uni on members grew by 1 2%.
Thus, i n the l ong economi c expansi on of the 1 990s
mi l itancy returned to many secti ons of the U. S. worki ng
cl ass. What a rose, however, was not t he ol d rhythm
of U. S. col l ective bargai ni ng, with a l arge number of
rel atively short, conventi onal stri kes ai med at wi nni ng
wage and benefit i mprovements. The strikes and
struggl es of the 1 990s were l argely defensive i n nature,
often very l ong and bitter, mostly focused on workpl ace
and l abor market c hanges, and i ncreasi ngly "pol iti cal ,"
i n the sense that they made demands that al l workers
coul d i dentify with ( someti mes del i beratel y), and thus
struck a sympathetic chord i n the worki ng cl ass publ i c
and often appeal ed di rectly for broader support. The
Stal ey, Detroit Newspapers, and UPS stri kes al l di d thi s,
and the 1 998 GM and tel ecommuni cati ons stri kes al so
garnered majority publ i c sympathy.
28
The stri kes of the l ast few years reveal ed the
contradi cti ons of busi ness uni oni sm and i ts l i mitati ons
i n today's worl d economy. They al so often showed the
n ew power that many orga ni zed workers have. Strikes
at Stal ey, Caterpi l l ar, and the Detroit Newspapers were
l ost partly because l ocal or national l eaders pul l ed
thei r punches or even hel ped derai l the stri ke. Ot i s
i mpressive that the struggl e agai nst the newspapers
c onti nued despite thi s, with an i mpressi ve core of
a ctivist resi sters. ) At General Motors in 1 998, where
it was cl ear that the uni on had enormous power to
shut the company down, nati onal l eaders refused to
use the strike to make seri ous gai ns at the nati onal or
even l ocal l evel s. I nstead, they settl ed for smal l , often
reversi bl e, gai ns that di dn't resolve the bi gger probl ems
of outsourci ng and downsizi ng. Where some i mportant
thi ngs were won, as i n tel ecommuni cati ons, i t was
l a rgel y because newtacti cs, member mobi l izati on, and
publ i c outreach were depl oyed.
I n 1 995 a si gnifi cant change occurred i n the l eadershi p
of the AFL- CI O. Throughout the 1 990s, rank and fi l e
rebel l i ons occurred i n many uni ons, and took power
for a ti me i n the 1 .4 mi l l i on-member Teamsters. There
woul d be major setbacks to these gai ns, but it was cl ear
that uni on pol iti cs were changi ng as the new century
a pproached.
Internal Union Dynamics
Most of this new consci ousness and mi l itancy comes
from the activist l ayer of the uni ons. These are workers,
workpl ace representatives, and l ocal l evel uni on offi ci al s
who keep U. S. uni ons goi ng from day to day. They work
between the upper l ayer of career offi ci al s and staffers,
on the one hand, and the maj ority of members on the
other. Some are ful l -ti me, pai d offi ci al s, many a re not.
They are forced to confront the real ity of the workpl ace,
as opposed to its i deol ogy, whether or not they a ccept
thi s current partnershi p i deol ogy in whol e or part. A
si gnifi cant mi nority of thi s l ayer, however, rejects the
l abor-management ethos that comes from empl oyers
and career uni on offi ci al s al i ke. I t i s i n thi s l ayer that
the return of resi stance has gathered the greatest force
a nd, now and then, breaks through the passivity of the
members and the backwa rd-l ooki ng i mmobi l ity of the
top offi c i al s.
The activi sts and the top l eaders are often at odds over
how to respond to the changi ng workpl ace and l abor
market. Unl i ke i n some European countri es and at past
ti mes i n the U. S. there is only one l abor federati on. There
is no divisi on by pol iti cal l oyalty: soci al ist, Communi st,
Christi an. Differences i n di recti on or pol iti cal outl ook
must be expressed withi n a uni on that has sol e
representati on ri ghts i n its bargai ni ng unit. I n additi on,
most uni ons i n the U. S. have devel oped bureaucrati c
structures beyond the reach of l abor l eaders i n much of
the worl d. So, pol iti cal confl i ct tends to take an al most
soci ol ogi cal character: ranks versus bureaucrats. The
forms of thi s cl ash may be many. Pressure from the
activist l ayer to act i s one, a maj or factor i n the GM
and Boei ng stri kes. Another i s turnover at the top. The
Associ ati on for Uni on Democracy (AUD) esti mated
that about a dozen uni on presi dents were ousted i n
contested el ecti ons from the l ate 1 980s through the
1 991 vi ctory of Ron Carey.
The ferment conti nued i nto the 1 990s. Labor democracy
attorney Paul Levy summari zed i t i n a speech to the
Nati onal Lawyers Gui l d i n the Fal l of 1 996 when he sai d:
There i s extensive i ntra- uni on activity i n a l arge number
of nati onal uni ons, much more t han ever before. I n
servi ce uni ons such a s the Food and Commerci al
Workers, the Servi ce Empl oyees and the Hotel Workers,
constructi on uni ons such as the I BEW ( El ectri ci ans) or
the Bri ckl ayers and the Carpenters and the Laborers,
government uni ons l i ke the Letter Carriers, the AFGE
( Federal Empl oyees) and the Treasury Empl oyees,
i ndustri al uni ons l i ke the Machi nists and the Auto
Workers.
To thi s l i st of chal l enges in national uni ons can be added
si mi l ar movements i n l arge l ocal uni ons such as the
New Di recti ons caucus i n the 30,000-member Transport
Workers Uni on Local 1 00 in New York's transit system,
the Caucus for a Democrati c Uni on i n the Cal iforni a
State Empl oyees/SEI U Local 1 000 that has twi ce won
control of thi s 40,000 member uni on, the successful
rebel l i on i n Atl anta's transit uni on, or the reform group
i n the si mi l arl y l arge uni on of New York City j anitors and
doormen, SEI U Local 32J/32B-John Sweeney's home
l ocal . Even t he famous Justi ce for Janitors l ocal uni on,
SEI U 399 i n Los Angl es, saw a massive oppositi on
movement of Lati no and Afri can Ameri can workers,
cal l ed the Multi raci al Al l i ance, repl ace the ol d guard
executive committee-onl y to be pl aced in trusteeshi p
by John Sweeney who was sti l l SEI U presi dent at
that time. The spl i t of the mi l itant Cal iforni a Nurses
Associ ati on from the mor e conservative Ameri can
Nurses Associ ati on i n 1 996 represents another form of
rebel l i on from below. Recently formed l ocal oppositi on
caucuses, as opposed to traditi onal caucuses of the
"i n" and the "out" opportuni st uni on pol iti ci ans, have
a ppeared i n uni ons as diverse as the Auto Workers,
Steel workers, Teachers, Hotel Empl oyees, Carpenters,
and the I BEW.
Nowhere was the chal l enge from bel ow more
successful or the process of uni on reform deeper than
i n th e Teamsters. I t seemed as i f t he reel ecti on of Ron
Carey over Ji mmy Hoffa "Juni or" i n 1 996 not onl y spel l ed
the end of the corrupt ol d guard, but it opened a new
phase of transformati on. As Ken Paff of the Teamsters
for a Democratic Uni on (TDU) expl ai ned, "We won the
pol iti cal battl e over the val ue of a cl ean, democrati c
u ni on. Hoffa had to adopt our program and promise to
do even better at it. But we have not yet won the battle
over the need for a new kind of uni on that deri ves its
power from a mobi l i zed and i nvol ved membershi p. "
The dynami cs of the Teamster revol uti on, as many
TDUers cal l it, had brought TDU a l ong way from 1 5
years i n the wi l derness as a cl ear- cut oppositi on to five
years on the front l i nes defendi ng the reform regi me
and defeati ng the ol d guard. Now the most diffi cult
questi on of al l was posed: howto go beyond the norms
of "cl ean" Ameri can busi ness uni oni sm? For most
a ctivists, the key to a nythi ng new was a n i nformed,
a ctivated membershi p. Whether speaki ng of wi nni ng
a strike at UPS, organi zi ng the unorgani zed, or bui l di ng
broader coal itions for bi gger soci al goal s, success
woul d depend on mobi l i zi ng the tens of thousands of
workers on whom the real power of the uni on rests.
Thi s dynami c suffered a seri ous setback when
outsi de consultants hi red by the 1 996 Carey campai gn
organi zati on al ong with the uni on's pol iti cal di rector
were caught i n a i l l egal scam to di rect uni on money
i nto the campai gn coffers. Carey was di squal ifi ed from
the el ecti on and eventual l y expel l ed even though it
was never proven that he was di rectly i nvol ved. I n the '
wake of thi s turn of events, the uni on reform coal iti on
a round Carey fel l a part. It took months for the TDU
backed uni on reform movement to pul l itself together.
The sl ate that it ra n i n the 1 998 el ecti on rerun refl ected
the thi nki ng of those prepared to go wel l beyond "cl ean
busi ness uni oni sm. " But its presi denti al candi date, Tom
Leedham, was not wel l known and had onl y si x months
to campai gn. Furthermore, the uni on members were
made cyni cal by the al l egati ons agai nst Carey; voter
turnout, at 28%, was no hi gher than in the Teamsters'
29
fi rst el ecti on, in 1 991 . The ol d guard candi date, Ji mmy
Hoffa, son of the famous Teamster l eader of the 1 960s,
had campai gned for four years and had the best known
name in the uni on. He won by 54%.
The central rol e of TDU i n both the reform movement
and the UPS strike was no fl uke. It survi ves the Hoffa
vi ctory. It expl oded in 1 999 in the strike by 1 ,000
i mmi grant meatpacki ng workers at I BP's pl ant i n
Pasco, Washi ngton. Here, TDU l eader Mari a Marti nez
was el ected chi ef shop steward. Opposed by the ol d
guard white l eadershi p, the TDU-I ed coal iti on fought
the i ntol erabl e worki ng conditions i n the pl ant and
eventual l y forced a stri ke. The spi rit of rebel l i on coul d
al so be seen at Anheuser- Busch, where members
repeatedly rej ected deal s pushed on them by ol d guard
l eaders and the Hoffa-l ed I nternati onal .
Whi l e the TDU-backed rank and fi l e movement wi l l have
to fi ght to regai n l eadershi p over the uni on, the questi on
that faces the Teamster reformers i s essenti al l y the
same question that faces the enti re l abor movement:
what ki nd of uni ons, what ki nd of movement can be
bui lt that i s adequate to the chal l enges of corporate
power, i nternati onal competiti on, and the domi nance of
conservative pol iti cs.
Many of today's struggl es have taken a certai n pol iti cal
character. As we noted, t he UPS strike captured the
attenti on and support of the worki ng cl ass publ i c.
Many of the struggl es menti oned above, brought the
state i nto acti on on the si de of the empl oyers-a fact
that politi ci zed many uni on activists. The struggl e of
members of the Transpor Workers Uni on Local 1 00 i n
New York Ci ty's transit system i l l ustrates another way i n
whi ch "si mpl e" uni on-empl oyer confl i ct turns pol iti cal .
The fi ght for a new contra ct i n l ate 1 999 bec ame a four
way confl i ct. The si mpl e negotiati ng process between
he uni on and the Transit Authority woul d never
have taken center stage in New York as the hol i days
a pproached if it had not been for the New Di recti ons
caucus i n Local 1 00.
New Di recti ons began back in the 1 980s as a smal l
di ssi dent newsl etter cal l ed Hel l on Wheel s. By the
l ate 1 990s, it was a powerful movement that control l ed
about 40% of the executive boa rd of thi s 35,000-member
l ocal uni on and domi nated the subway di visi on. I t's
candi date for presi dent of the l ocal had come withi n a
few hundred votes of wi nni ng in 1 998. As duri ng past
contra cts it conducted its own contract campai gn.
30
The si ze and i nfl uence of the organi zati on by thi s ti me,
however, meant i t pl ayed a si gnifi cant rol e i n the now
compl ex negotiati ons. Reacti ng to the fear that New
Di recti ons woul d push the uni on i nto a cri ppl i ng strike i n
l ate December, Mayor Rudol ph Gi ul i ani entered the fray
by getti ng a court i nj unction not onl y agai nst a stri ke,
whi ch was i l l egal i n any case, but agai nst the use of
the word strike by a ny uni on member. The dai l y press
i n New York carri ed endl ess stori es hi ghl i ghti ng both
Gi ul i ani and New Di recti ons l eader Tim Schermerhorn.
New Di recti ons had become more than a powerful ran k
a n d fi l e movement, it was the center of city pol iti cs for
a ti me. The mai n reason was that the transit contract
was the fi rst i n a seri es of l abor contracts for the city's
tens of thousands of empl oyees. For these uni on city
workers, New Di rections pl ayed the rol e that the UPS
stri ke had for the country. I ndeed, rank and fi l e caucus
a ctivists from several of t he city's publ i c sector uni ons
had formed a coal iti on and met together for some ti me.
Gi ul i ani, who actual ly has no part i n the negotiati on with
the Transit Authority, pani cked at the i dea of a seri es
of struggl e i n whi ch the outcome was an accel erati ng
city payrol l-not t o menti on a re- energi zed l abor
movement. A genui ne cl ass aga i nst cl ass confl i ct was
taki ng shape.
The Tasks of Social ists in
Today's Resistance and Rebel lion
Thi nki ng about the tasks of soci al i sts i n today's United
States can be overwhel mi ng. From Reagan through
Cl i nton, the U. S. government has been abl e to l aunch
a n endl ess seri es of hi gh-speed wars that deny us t he
ti me t o organi ze effective oppositi on. The racist pol iti cs
of pri sons and puni shment have reached such ti dal
proporti ons they, too, seem t o l augh at opponents. The
growth of poverty, the servitude of workfare; the threat
of ecol ogi cal di saster; and the seemi ngly unstoppabl e
drift of mai nstream pol iti cs to the ri ght al l taunt the l eft
and tempt it to do everythi ng at once.
To be sure, there a re good si gns as wel l . Not onl y
rebel l i on in the workpl ace and uni ons, but a prol iferati on
of community- based worker organi zati ons, the ri se of
cross- uni on campai gns and organi zati ons, and a new
generati on of student and youth activists taki ng on
sweatshops, "free trade, " and many other i mportant
i ssues. Al l of these and more came together i n Seattl e
at the end of November 1 999 to stake out thei r pl ace
i n t he gl obal pol iti cal l andscape. Here and there,
there are vi ctori es. But the basi c probl em remai ns
one of power. The multi nati onal corporati ons and the
pol iti ci ans they so generously fund ( and, of course, the
state and multi l ateral i nstituti ons they di rect) have a l ot
of it and we don't.
Thi s bri ngs us ri ght back to where we started, ri ght
back to Karl Marx and the worki ng cl ass. Marx di dn't
l ook to the worki ng cl ass because of some supposed
moral superi ority, the cl arity of thei r i deas at any
parti cul ar moment, or the i nfi nite effectiveness of
thei r trade uni ons. We have al ready a rgued that these
thi ngs can be as absent among workers as i ndivi dual s
as among members of any other cl ass. No, Marx
l ooked to thi s cl ass because in capital i st soci ety they
were the onl y other cl ass, besi des the bourgeoi si e,
who had the potenti al power to change thi ngs. Thei r
power flowed from thei r positi on i n the economy and
from thei r numbers. "Ye are many, they a re few," as the
poet Shel l ey put it. More than that, thi s cl ass has the
power to create soci ety's wealth and, acti ng as a cl ass,
to bri ng soci ety and its producti on to a halt. "Without
our brai n and muscl e not a si ngl e wheel woul d turn, "
the Wob bl i es sang. We mi ght add: "not an i nch of fi ber
opti c cabl e l ai d, no j ust-i n-ti me del ivery made, not a
whol e bal l season pl ayed. " You get the pi cture.
The probl em has al ways been organizi ng that power and
givi ng i t consci ous expressi on for a common purpose.
What i s bei ng argued here i s that there i s al ready a
starti ng poi nt i n the form of the rank and fi l e resi stance
and rebel l i ons, community-based organizati ons,
and transiti onal formati ons discussed above. Whi l e
soci al ists can and do pl ay a n i mportant rol e i n
bui l di ng and provi di ng di recti on for such movement,
they don't have to i nvent them. The existence of the
organizati ons, networks, proj ects a nd activists that
make up thi s rebel l i on and resi stance, of course, do
not sol ve the probl ems of power, or rather the l eft's l ack
of it, i mmedi ately. Thi s i s a l ong range, multi-faceted
strategy. I t i s a perspective that requi res a di vi si on of
l abor, for whi ch reason it i s most effectively conducted
by organized soci al ists even though there i s pl enty for
i ndi vi dual s to do. It i s a strategy that focused pri maril y,
though not excl usi vely, on the uni ons, so it fol l ows that
most of those carryi ng i t out wi l l be uni on members,
although there are rol es for those not i n uni ons.
I n summary, the tasks of soci al i sts i n the l abor movement
i ncl ude:
1 . Bui l di ng the rank and fi l e movements and
organizati ons that are fi ghti ng for a more effective,
democrati c, a nd i ncl usi ve uni on in the context of
the mai n fi ght with the bosses-the Farrel l Dobbs
approach of l etti ng the bureaucrati c ol d guard get
caught in the cross fi re. Real isti cal l y, however,
the bureaucracy is far more omni present and
i n t he way these days tha n i n t he earl y 1 930s, so
that there i s no hope of avoi di ng i nternal uni on
confl i ct i f any progress i s to be made. Peopl e are
compel l ed i nto struggl e by real conditi ons and
these a re mostly shaped by capi tal and its endl ess
attempt to regai n or i mprove profitabi l ity. These
efforts to i ncrease expl oitati on i mpact i n al l a reas
of worki ng life i ncl udi ng the different posi ti on of
white and Bl ack, men and women in the workforce
and the uni on. We bui l d these rank and fi l e groups,
acts of resi stance, and movements on thei r own
terms, but offer an anal ysi s of the roots of the
probl em a nd a bi gger vi si on of how to address them
when appropri ate. We cal l thi s soci al movement
uni oni sm: a u ni oni sm that is democrati c, acts l i ke a
movement and not j ust an i nstitution, and reaches
out to other worki ng cl ass and oppressed peopl e to
bui l d a mass movement for change.
2. Bui l di ng the growi ng number of cross-uni on,
hence by i mpl i cati on cl ass-wi de, transi ti onal
organizati ons, publ i cati ons, and projects that hel p
provi de a broader cl ass vi si on for the work withi n
t he uni ons and di rect l i nks between a ctivists i n
different uni ons a nd i ndustri es. These i ncl ude both
uni on-backed and expl i citly oppositi onal groups.
Among them are Labor Notes, Associ ati on for
Uni on Democracy, Jobs wi th Justi ce, stri ke support
campai gns, and si ngl e and soci al i ssue campai gns
where rel evant. The on- goi ng organi zati ons a nd
projects, i n parti cul ar, provi de opportuniti es to rai se
transiti onal i deas l i ke shorter work ti me as wel l as a
l i vi ng demonstrati on of aspects of soci al movement
uni oni sm.
3. Bui l di ng and al lyi ng with community-based worki ng
cl ass organizations. We have menti oned workers
center as i mportant, but others l i kethe envi ronmental
j usti ce movement based mai nl y in communiti es of
col or are al so i mportant. The si gnifi cance of these
organizati ons i f both that they bri ng to the overal l
movement secti ons of the worki ng cl ass, mostly
peopl e of col or, not in u ni ons. Like rank and fi l e
31
movements, these organizati ons a nd campai gns
trai n worki ng cl ass l eaders and a ctivi sts needed
to enhance the power of al l worki ng peopl e and to
deepen the reach of the broader l abor movement
we seek.
4. Bui l di ng a ctive i nternati onal workers' sol i darity.
There are a growi ng number of opportuniti es to
bui l d di rect l i nks between workers in different
countri es as wel l as engage i n sol i darity acti ons at
home. The Transnati onal s I nformati on Exchange,
the Coal i ti on for Justi ce i n the Maqui l adoras, Labor
Notes, the U. S'; Labor Educati on i n the Ameri cas
Project, and other groups make worker-to-worker
contacts to foster i nternati onal i sm.
5. Bui l di ng al ternative cl ass-based pol iti cs. Thi s woul d
i ncl ude worki ng i n and bui l di ng the Labor Party,
l ocal i ndependent campai gns with a worki ng cl ass
base a nd pol iti cs, and efforts l i ke the l i vi ng wage
campai gns that promote transiti onal cl ass pol iti cs.
Through these efforts transiti onal i deas such as
nati onal health care gai n l egi ti macy and can be
brought back i nto our dai l y work i n appropri ate
ways.
6. Bui l di ng soci al ist organi zati on that rel ates to al l
of these l evel s of worki ng cl ass activity as wel l as
promoti ng and acti ng on a broader soci al ist pol iti cs
coveri ng the entire range of soci al , economi c, and
pol iti cal i ssues. To the degree that a si g nifi cant
porti on of the members of the soci al ist organizati on
are i nvol ved i n one or more of the fi rst four areas of
activity, the organizati on wi l l have the roots i n the
l i fe of the activist l ayer of the organized worki ng
cl ass that l ay t he basi s for bi gger devel opments
as events unfol d. To the extent that others of its
members a re i nvol ved i n the whol e range of i ssues
and pol iti cs, they can enri ch the vi si on and analysi s
of the l abor activists. Overal l , soci al i storgani zati on
al so makes possi bl e the coordi nated divi si on of
l abor of its activists that is essenti al to the rank a nd
fi l e strategy. It is al so the organi zati on that carri es
the transiti onal i deas to thei r soci al ist concl usi ons;
the organi zati on that makes and trai ns soci al i sts.
Each of these poi nts begi ns with the word "bui l di ng"
because the ki nd of soci al ist pol iti cs we are tal ki ng
about i nvol ves bui l di ng movements, struggl es, a nd
organi zati ons that can make a difference. Expl i citly
32
soci al i st educati on and pol iti cal work must be done i n
connecti on with such work i n the worl d of the worki ng
cl ass. It must be done i n a nonsecta ri an manner i n
whi ch soci al i sts from different grou ps work together
where they agree, al ong with uni on and community
a ctivi sts who haven't yet drawn soci al i st concl usi ons.
Sol i darity, as a revol uti onary soci al i st organi zati on,
attempts to fol l ow these prescripti ons i n its l abor work
as wel l as i n other a reas of pol iti cal a ctivity. We are a
multi-tendency organizati on with a wi de range of vi ews
on many questi ons, i ncl udi ng the rank and fi l e strategy.
We are a "work in progress" that recogni zes that the
road to the type of mass democrati c revol uti onary
soci al i st party ( or parti es) needed to end the di sastrous
rul e of capital and usher i n the rul e of the worki ng cl ass
i s sti l l a l ong one. Whi l e we don't cl ai m to have the
road map, we do cl ai m to have a compass. I t poi nts to
the worki ng cl ass and the means to expand and deepen
cl ass consciousness and organizati on i n such a way as
to make soci al ist i deas credi bl e i n Ameri can soci ety.
Thi s route l eads first to the acti ve rank and fi l e of the
uni ons and the struggl es they are engaged i n. I f we
c arry out thi s rank and fi l e strategy i ntel l i gentl y, if we
can wi n l arge numbers of l eftists and uni on activi sts to
thi s strategy, and if soci al ism becomes the outl ook of
more and more of these activists, we can put soci al i sm
back on the pol iti cal agenda i n the United States.
Notes
1 . Sol i darity, December 1 996, United Automobi l e
Workers, p. 5.
2. Frederi ck Engel s, The Conditi on of the Worki ng
Cl ass i n Engl and, quoted i n Hal Draper, Karl Marx's
Theory of Revol uti on, Vol ume I I : The Pol iti cs of
Soci al Cl asses, Monthly Revi ew Press, New York,
1 978, pp 91 -92.
3. quoted in Tony Cl iff, Leni n, Vol ume I: Bui l di ng the
Party, Pl uto Press, 1 975, pp. 79-80.
4. Antoni o Gramsci , Sel ections from the Pri son
Notebooks, I nternational Publ i shers, New York,
1 971 , p. 41 9.
5. The parti cul arl y rapaci ous nature of U. S. capital ism
stems i n part from its ori gi ns i n Engl ish capital i sm.
As El l en Wood argues i n The Ori gi ns of Capital i sm
( Monthl y Revi ew, 1 999) i n the 1 7th and 1 8th century
Engl and was sti l l the only country with a trul y
i ntegrated nati onal market based on competiti on
and accumul ati on. I ts trade and col oni al systems,
unl i ke those of France and Spai n, ran on capital ist
pri nci pl es of expa nsi on, economi c compul si on,
and agrari an "i mprovement," i . e. , productivity. I t
was John Locke who, i n the 1 7th century, provi ded
the capital i st rati onal e for expropri ati ng Native
Ameri can l ands in the name of "i mprovement,"
basi cal ly the same as that for the l and encl osures
withi n Engl and. The di stinctly un- Engl i sh rough
and tumbl e culture of the U. S. flows i n part from
the deci dedly "Engl ish" nature of its conti nental
expansi on from the 1 7th century through the 1 9th,
unmiti gated by the di rect rul e of Engl and's hi ghl y
central i zed state even in col oni al ti mes.
6. For thi s poi nt I am i ndebted to Debora h Si mmons,
whose "After Chi apas: Abori gi nal Land and
Resi stance i n the New Norh Ameri ca, " brought
thi s poi nt home to me.
7. Jacqual i ne Jones, Ameri can Work.
8. Frederi ck Engel s, "Preface to the Ameri can editi on
of The Conditi on of the Worj ki ng Cl ass i n Engl and,
January 26, 1 887, i n Kenneth Lapi des ( ed. ) , Marx and
Engel s on the Trade Uni ons, I nternati onal Publ i shers,
New York, 1 990, p. 1 41 .
9 . Jeremey Brecher, Stri ke ! , South End Press, Boston,
1 997, passi m.
1 0. Si dney Lens, Left, Ri ght, and Center: Confl i cti ng
Forces i n Ameri can Labor, Henry Regnery Company,
Hi nsdal e, I l l i noi s, 1 947, p. 33.
1 1 . Labor's fi rst maj or pol iti cal effort i n the 1 870s and
1 880s was the di sgraceful campai gn for state a nd
nati onal l egi sl ation excl udi ng Asi an workers from
the U. S. This occurred pri or to the formul ation of
the AFL, but was supported by most of the uni ons
that woul d j oi n it and by the otherwi se egal itari an
Kni ghts of Labor.
1 2. Thomas R. Brooks, Toi l and Troubl e: A Hi story of
Ameri can Labor, Delta Books, 1 965, p. 97.
1 3. Brooks, i bi d., p. 1 33.
1 4. James Hi nton and Ri chard Hyman, Trade Uni ons
and Revol uti on: The I ndustri al Politi cs of the Early
Briti sh Communist Party, Pl uto Press, London, 1 975,
pp. 1 0, 23.
1 5. Phi l i p S. Foner, The History of the Labor Movement
i n the United States, Vol . 9, I nternati onal Publ i shers,
New York, 1 991 , p. 323.
1 6. James R. Barrett, "Bori ng fromm Withi n and
Without," i n Eri c Arnesen, Jul i e Greene, and Bruce
Lauri e ( eds. ) , Labor Hi stori es: Cl ass, Pol iti cs, and
the Worki ng Cl ass Experi ence, University of I l l i nois
Press, Urbana and Chi cago, 1 998, pp. 31 5-31 6.
1 7. Thei r success i n the amal gamati on campai gn and
the l abor party movement contrasted, accordi ng to
the hi stori an Phi l i p Foner, with thei r general fai l ure
in the fi ght for raci al i ncl usi on and equal ity. Foner,
op. cit., p. 338.
1 8. Barrett, op. cit., p. 31 2.
1 9. Lens, op. cit., p. 1 80.
20. Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capital i sm a nd
the Tasks of the Fourth I nternati onal , Pi oneer
Publ i shers, New York, 1 964, p. 9.
21 . Farrel l Dobbs, Teamster Rebel l i on, Monad Press,
New York, 1 972, pp. 41 -43.
22. Farrel l Dobbs, Teamster Power, Monad Press, New
York, 1 973, p. 24.
23. Nel son Li chtenstei n, Labor's War at Home,
Cambri dge University Press, Cambri dge and New
York, 1 982, p. 5 1 .
24. quoted i n Roger Horowitz, Negro a n d White
Unite: A Soci al History of I ndustri al Uni onism
i n Meatpacki ng, 1 930-1 990, University of I l l i noi s
Press, Urbana and Chi cago, 1 997, p. 1 43.
25. An account of thi s peri od can be found in Ki m
Moody, An I nj ury to Al l : The Decl i ne of Ameri can
Uni oni sm, Verso, London and New York, 1 998.
For a somehwat different view of this peri od see
33
Gl enn Perusek and Kent Worcester, Trade U ni on
Pol iti cs: Ameri can Uni ons and Economi c Change,
1 960s-1 990s, Humaniti es Press, New J ersey, 1 995.
26. An excepti on was the I ndependent Soci al ist Cl ubs,
whi ch became the I nternati onal Soci al i sts ( I S) i n
1 970, whose members chroni cl ed the events of
that peri od and pl ayed a rol e i n some rank and fi l e
movements. The I S was one of the groups, al ong
with Workers Power and Soci al ist Uni ty, who
founded Sol i darity i n 1 986. The Sojourner Truth
Organizati on and some Maoi st groups al so had a
smal l presence in the worki ng cl ass towards the
end of thi s peri od.
I nterested in learning more about organizing with
II
A RfVOlUJl ONARY SOCIAliST, ffMI NI ST AND ANJI - RACI ST ORGANIIAJl ON

Sol i darity i s a revol uti onary soci al i st
organi zati on with members and
branches across the country.
Today, we are active i n strengtheni ng
a worki ng- cl ass fi ghtback to the
economi c cri si s, demandi ng an end
to the wars i n I raq and Afghani stan,
a nd bui l di ng the l abor movement,
struggl es for self-determi nati on of
peopl e of col or, women and LGBTQ
and the fi ght for envi ronmental
j usti ce.
The soci al i st future that we fi ght
for has democrati c, worki ng
c l ass power as its bedrock. We
emphasi ze the need for soci al i sts to
bui l d movements for thei r own sake.
At the same ti me, we foster soci al i st
consci ousness through l i nki ng
i sol ated struggl es, opposi ng the
l ogi c of capital i sm and maki ng the
case for revol uti onary organi zati on.
Get i n Touch
For a l i st of branches, go to:
www. sol i da ri ty- us. org/bran c hes
To emai l a Nati onal Organizer,
emai l i nfo@sol i dari ty- us. org
To get i n touch by phone, cal l
31 3-841 -01 60 ( Nati onal Offi ce)
Joi n Sol i darity
Members are expected to have an
activist commitment and pari ci pate
in the organization -through
j oi ni ng a branch, becomi ng active
in a worki ng group, and payi ng
monthly dues. I f you don't yet meet
these requi rements, you may al so
apply for formal sympathizer status.
To apply for membershi p, pl ease use
the above contact i nformati on or go
to http://ww . sol i darity-us. org/j oi n