Editors' Blog
Working in the Union Movement
Since 1995 when the Sweeney leadership interrupted the usual transition in the AFL-CIO, America's union movement has become more and more approachable.
Breaching the Divide: Labor Militancy in Memphis
The 1930s and 40s were both vibrant and trying times for American workers. The two decades encompassed a great depression, and a concluding Second World War. Uniquely, among these conditions, the labor movement in America was led by various groups; from radicals "reds" such as the Communist Party(CPUSA) to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The vivacity of the 1930s labor movement should be seen as militancy for collective action among workers, perpetuated by external societal conditions. Both race and anticommunism played heavy roles in the resistance movement against labor organization by both white southern workers and upper level officials and state legislators. Memphis, TN was chosen by Michael Honey as the focus study of analyzing the history of labor organization in the South, and provides a deep insight into the realities of race, anticommunism, and their effect on labor conditions. The fight for community and worker solidarity within the workplace was a vibrant struggle against not only harsh economic conditions, but also social conditions that sought to alienate racial and ethnic groups to fragment the Southern labor movement into stagnation.
Labor’s Paradise Lost
via Project Syndicate.
AFL-CIO chief goes on the offensive
No one is doing more than Trumka to stir up anti-austerity politics and action around the country. This writer seems half-hearted about the effort, quoting Nelson Lichtenstein, a self-proclaimed "Didn't I tell you!?" expert on the "decline" of US Labor.
Retirees Occupy Century Aluminum
Reposted from Leo Gerard blog
Rose Ann DeMoro -- Bloice's Quote of the Day --11.29.30
Quote of the Day November 29, 2001'We urge the British government to stop its attempt tomake public-sector workers pay more and work longer toreceive a smaller pension when they retire.
Richard Trumka, American
Via Esquire
Lessons of Ohio
Richard Trumka on the Lessons of the Ohio SB 5 campaign via the Huffington Post.
UNDERSTANDING CHINA AND ITS UNIONS
Summary: There is a lot of confusion about China and its unions in the world workers' movement.
