Book review: Labor, Empire and Globalization: An Extended Review of Solidarity Divided

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.zmag.org/zbooks/review/108

By Kim Scipes

December, 27 2008

Bill Fletcher, Jr., and Fernando Gapasin (hereafter, F &G) have written a very important book on the contemporary US labor movement that deserves to be read by all progressive activists inside the labor movement, and even by those outside. This gives an “insider’s look” to what is going on inside the labor movement—considerably much more than most outsiders realize—with implications, should suggestions be implemented, for all of us in the wider society. Efforts to change the US labor movement, should they be successful, could have ramifications on the US social order and for people around the world.

F & G begin by arguing that the 2005 split in the labor movement—where seven unions withdrew from the AFL-CIO and created the Change to Win Federation—was unnecessary, unprinicipled, and without input from their members. Further, even three years later, “we can identify very little significant change in organized labor” (p. 5).


There is a larger argument, however. And that is that the American labor movement is in crisis, and that despite the rhetoric, the 2005 split did nothing to address this crisis. Accordingly, those of us who want a revitalized labor movement must understand what went on behind the scenes, recognize that the split was not based on significant differences, and therefore, we must learn from the split to address the real problems that exist, which Labor’s top leaders so far have refused to confront.


To begin this process, the authors take us back through US labor history. Key to recognize, they argue, is the exclusionism that the unions have generally built upon; most notably “race,” but also excluding (in earlier times) immigrants as well as women. They particularly focus on the impact of Samuel Gompers’ (first President of the American Federation of Labor) ideas and practices on the subsequent development of the labor movement, which, they argue, continues today as “business unionism.”


One of the most interesting sections is on the three ideological trends within the labor movement, both historically and currently. They used labor leaders from the past to represent the three trends: they identified Eugene Debs as a “leftist”: Samuel Gompers as a “traditionalist”; and John L. Lewis and Walter Reuther as “pragmatists.” They argue that the traditionalists and pragmatists have ruled labor, but that in times such as the 1930s, the pragmatists have joined with the leftists to confront the crisis, and then once the crisis was overcome, betrayed the left and rejoined the traditionalists.


Following this, however, is recognition of the assault on labor that began in the 1970s. F & G recognize that attacks on workers began with attacks on other progressive social movements, and especially the movements of people of color. They write,

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