Battling for American Labor: Wobblies, Craft Workers, and the Making of the Union Movement - Softcover

Kimeldorf, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520218337 ISBN 13: 9780520218338

Verlag: University of California Press, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Kimeldorf Howard

Über diesen Titel

Críticas

"Kimeldorf's stress on tactics and practices in the evolution of industrial syndicalism, rather than on ideological differences between the two unions, marks this as a vital and original contribution."--"American Studies International

Reseña del editor

In this incisive reinterpretation of the history of the American labor movement, Howard Kimeldorf challenges received thinking about rank-and-file workers and the character of their unions. Battling for American Labor answers the baffling question of how, while mounting some of the most aggressive challenges to employing classes anywhere in the world, organized labor in the United States has warmly embraced the capitalist system of which they are a part. Rejecting conventional understandings of American unionism, Kimeldorf argues that what has long been the hallmark of organized labor in the United States--its distinctive reliance on worker self-organization and direct economic action--can be seen as a particular kind of syndicalism. Kimeldorf brings this syndicalism to life through two rich and compelling case studies of unionization efforts by Philadelphia longshoremen and New York City culinary workers during the opening decades of the twentieth century. He shows how these workers, initially affiliated with the radical IWW and later the conservative AFL, pursued a common logic of collective action at the point of production that largely dictated their choice of unions. Elegantly written and deeply engaging, Battling for American Labor offers insights not only into how the American labor movement got to where it is today, but how it might possibly reinvent itself in the years ahead.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: University of California Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0520218337
• ISBN 13: 9780520218338
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 258