Left out : Reds and America's industrial unions / Judith Stepan-Norris, Maurice Zeitlin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stepan-Norris, Judith, 1957- author.

Zeitlin, Maurice, 1935- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor unions and communism--United States--History.

Labor unions and communism.

Labor unions--Political activity--United States.

Labor unions.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 375 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From the late 1930s through the mid-1950s, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) brought together America's working men and women under a united class banner. Of the 38 CIO unions, 18 were 'left-wing' or 'Communist-dominated'. Yet the political struggle between the CIO's 'Communist dominated' and right-leaning unions was immensely divisive and self-destructive. How did the Communists win, hold, and wield power in the CIO unions? Did they subordinate the needs of workers to those of the Soviet regime? The authors of this book, first published in 2002, provide testable answers to these questions with historically specific quantitative analyses of data on the CIO's origins, internal struggles, and political relations. They find that among the CIO unions, the Communists were more egalitarian, the most progressive on class, race, and gender issues, and leading fighters in struggles to enlarge the freedom and enhance the human dignity of America's workers.

Contents:

The Congress of Industrial Organizations : left, right, and center

'Who gets the bird?'

Insurgency, radicalism, and democracy

Lived democracy: UAW Ford local 600

'Red company unions'?

Rank-and-file democracy and the 'class struggle in production'

'Pin money' and 'pink slips'

The 'big 3' and interracial solidarity

The red and the black

Conclusion: an American tragedy

Epilogue: the 'third labor federation' that never was.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 328-367) and indexes.

ISBN:

1-107-12986-9

1-280-43635-2

0-511-07786-6

0-511-17991-X

0-511-20391-8

0-511-30682-2

0-511-49939-6

0-511-07629-0

OCLC:

701838988