Communists’ Role in the Unions  

As a participant and survivor of the labor and radical struggles of the 1930s and 1940s, Bert Cochran has substantial credentials for undertaking this major study. The result is a fascinating, controversial, and important book. Cochran knows politics, trade unionism, …



The Polish Workers  

The Polish workers fought for themselves and their families and won a victory for all of us. In coming issues of Dissent we will try to report extensively on the social basis and political meaning of that victory. Here (we …



The Union Movement in the Southwest  

The history of the labor movement in the South is varied and colorful, though little known. The first Southern unions were formed in the major cities early in the 19th century, especially in the building and printing trades. Shortly after …



Divided Soul of Labor Leadership  

The following is excerpted from H. W. Benson’s book, published last year by the Association for Union. Democracy cold entitled Democratic Rights for Union Members. Soon after George Meany became its president, the AFL embarked on a campaign against corruption …



Blacks & Unions  

This book has many virtues. It is a well-documented, well-written and lively study of one of the crucial periods in modern labor history: the triumph of the UAW-CIO over that citadel of the open shop, the Ford Motor Company, and …



The Unions and the State  

This March Britain’s Labour government fell in a vote of no confidence after months of industrial strife. Ford machinists, truckers, local-authority manual workers, social workers and civil servants had battered and broken the government’s wage guidelines. Five years ago Heath’s …



Organizing at the Grassroots  

The grass-roots organizing of the 1970s is an ambitious and at least partially successful effort to bring working-class women and men into the political arena as organized, self-conscious actors. The organizations that provide structure and direction to this “movement” are …







How Now “The New Class”?  

The notion that there is a New Class in our society—”class” for large groups like owners or workers; “new” because Marx did not include it in his grand schema—is an idea that has arrived. After nearly a century of episodic …





The Unions and the Mobs  

John Ford in Grapes of Wrath, Martin Ritt in The Molhv Maguires, Hal Ashby in Bound for Glory have all shown that the union movement can be powerful material for the screen. Yet we do not have in this country …