What do you think?
Rate this book
The Working Class in American History
A Renegade Union: Interracial Organizing and Labor Radicalism
Dedicated to organizing workers from diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, many of whom were considered "unorganizable" by other unions, the progressive New York City-based labor union District 65 counted among its 30,000 members retail clerks, office workers, warehouse workers, and wholesale workers. In this book, Lisa Phillips presents a distinctive study of District 65 and its efforts to secure economic equality for minority workers in sales and processing jobs in small, low-end shops and warehouses throughout the city. Phillips shows how organizers fought tirelessly to achieve better hours and higher wages for "unskilled," unrepresented workers and to destigmatize the kind of work they performed.
Closely examining the strategies employed by District 65 from the 1930s through the early Cold War years, Phillips assesses the impact of the McCarthy era on the union's quest for economic equality across divisions of race, ethnicity, and skill. Though their stories have been overshadowed by those of auto, steel, and electrical workers who forced American manufacturing giants to unionize, the District 65 workers believed their union provided them with an opportunity to re-value their work, the result of an economy inclining toward fewer manufacturing jobs and more low-wage service and processing jobs.
Phillips recounts how District 65 first broke with the CIO over the latter's hostility to left-oriented politics and organizing agendas, then rejoined to facilitate alliances with the NAACP. In telling the story of District 65 and detailing community organizing efforts during the first part of the Cold War and under the AFL-CIO umbrella, A Renegade Union continues to revise the history of the left-led unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Closely examining the strategies employed by District 65 from the 1930s through the early Cold War years, Phillips assesses the impact of the McCarthy era on the union's quest for economic equality across divisions of race, ethnicity, and skill. Though their stories have been overshadowed by those of auto, steel, and electrical workers who forced American manufacturing giants to unionize, the District 65 workers believed their union provided them with an opportunity to re-value their work, the result of an economy inclining toward fewer manufacturing jobs and more low-wage service and processing jobs.
Phillips recounts how District 65 first broke with the CIO over the latter's hostility to left-oriented politics and organizing agendas, then rejoined to facilitate alliances with the NAACP. In telling the story of District 65 and detailing community organizing efforts during the first part of the Cold War and under the AFL-CIO umbrella, A Renegade Union continues to revise the history of the left-led unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
231 pages, Hardcover
First published November 19, 2012
86 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2014
Phillips offers a well-researched, informative, and well-written history of one of the most important left unions in 20th century US history. She traces some of Local, later district, 65's most important struggles and explains its victories and defeats in an admirably critical, analytic voice which does much to situate the union and make clear it's impact. And it was helpful for me, as someone who spent six years as a graduate student organizer in one of 65's direct descendants, and as someone researching a 1968-1972 NCDWA campaign, to situate both. This is great labor history.
I have, however, two major criticisms and one minor one. The first is that Phillips' framing device, using SEIU's struggles with Unite HERE, NUHW, and the California Nurses Association to help contemporary readers understand 65's own convoluted history of affiliations and disaffiliations may obscure more than it illuminates, especially because District 65 was never an SEIU, even at its worst. But what makes this choice particularly confusing is Phillips apparent confusion in her introduction between NUHW, which was an SEIU local, and CNA, which was not. Phillips leans hard on these contemporary schisms to do work that doesn't need to be done in this book. Neither of these should dissuade someone from reading this book.
My last criticism is more of a quibble; Phillips stops with Walter Reuther's death and the collapse of the ALA. We don't get much information about district 65,s important organization of clerical workers in the 1960s and 1970s, nor its eventual affiliation with the UAW. Both would have been welcome.
I have, however, two major criticisms and one minor one. The first is that Phillips' framing device, using SEIU's struggles with Unite HERE, NUHW, and the California Nurses Association to help contemporary readers understand 65's own convoluted history of affiliations and disaffiliations may obscure more than it illuminates, especially because District 65 was never an SEIU, even at its worst. But what makes this choice particularly confusing is Phillips apparent confusion in her introduction between NUHW, which was an SEIU local, and CNA, which was not. Phillips leans hard on these contemporary schisms to do work that doesn't need to be done in this book. Neither of these should dissuade someone from reading this book.
My last criticism is more of a quibble; Phillips stops with Walter Reuther's death and the collapse of the ALA. We don't get much information about district 65,s important organization of clerical workers in the 1960s and 1970s, nor its eventual affiliation with the UAW. Both would have been welcome.
July 27, 2017
One of the best books I've read on labor radicalism throughout the read scare. Helped to contextualize the fear that ran through communist union members, staffers, and leaders while resisting the AFL and the CIO. It was also fascinating to learn about the radical labor federation that district 65 created (the DPO). I'm curious to learn more about it and see if there's any more in depth written text on it. Anyway, read this book!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews