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Dan Clawson's new book The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements argues that the U.S. labor movement may be on the verge of massive growth. Unions don't grow slowly and incrementally, but rather in bursts. Even if the AFL-CIO could organize twice as many members per year as it now does, it would take thirty years to return to the union levels when Ronald Reagan was elected president. In contrast, from 1934-45 labor membership more than quadrupled.
Bursts of growth come at times of social movements, and each burst re-defines the character of the labor movement. In order for there to be a new upsurge, labor must fuse with the new social movements of the 1960s, transforming both.
The new forms may create a labor movement that breaks down the boundaries between "union" and "community" or between what is a work and what is a family issue. That is exactly what's happening in some parts of the labor movement: labor has endorsed global justice and opposed war in Iraq, student activism focuses on combating sweatshops, unions struggle for immigrant rights. Innovative campaigns of this sort are creating new forms of struggle - ones determined by workers rather than union organizers - and redefining the very meaning of the labor movement. The book presents a range of examples, many of them little known even within the labor community, from attempts to replace "macho" unions with more feminist models, to campaigns linking labor and community issues, to struggles for cross-border solidarity and for a living wage.
Will the coming decade witness the rejuvenation of the U.S. labor movement? I believe the opportunity exists. Current movements may look like "failures" but are better understood as precursors that demonstrate future possibilities and begin to develop new models.
Table of Contents
ix
Preface
1
Why Organize?
13
Chapter 1 - Labor Revival:
What Would it Take?
27
Chapter 2 - The New Deal System: Employer Offensive, Labor Response
51
Chapter 3 - Gender Styles and Union Issues
90
Chapter 4 - New Tactics, Community, and Color
131
Chapter 5 - Neoliberal Globalization
164
Chapter 6 - Code of Conduct and Living Wage Campaigns
194
Chapter 7 - A New Upsurge?
207
Notes
229
Index
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