In Solidarity: Essays on Working-Class Organization and Strategy in the United States

by Kim Moody

In this thorough collection of inspiring and informed essays, Kim Moody, one of the world's most authoritative and recognized labor writers, analyzes the past, present, and future of unions in the United States. With a sharp understanding of Marxist theory and labor history, Moody charts a well-reasoned course for the future of rank-and-file struggle. Kim Moody was a founder of Labor Notes and is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a senior research fellow at the Work and Employment Unit of the University of Hertfordshire.

Genres: Labor, Nonfiction, Politics, History, United States

416 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2013

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moody continues to be probably my single favorite writer on US labor. I have my political differences with him, I think he gets a bit over harsh with past political tendencies he disagrees with compared to those he does, but that's basically any author. More importantly he constantly strives to take a rigorously materialist approach to looking at the course of the US labor movement to see what has worked or, more often, what has not worked. His attempts to synthesize the lessons of the past hundred years of US unionism with a Marxist examination of the country's political economy has had him pushing for socialist support of rank and file worker organization well before the current trend. His prediction of the power of warehouse workers, of workers to organize themselves independently of the major unions, seems.well born out by the current drives at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and other areas. Despite my political quibbles with his worldview in some places, I've learned a ton from his work on the labor movement and socialists of all tendencies in the US would do well to read his work. The working class has all the same revolutionary potential that it always has, if we can just humble ourselves, go amongst the people, learn from them, help them lead their own struggles, and do our best to support them.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to the Rank-and-File Strategy of US Trotskyists (e.g., ISO, Solidarity). Discussions of Worker Centers, strike laws, Central Labor Councils, and transnational coalitions were probably the most interesting parts. Also, since a lot of labor history stops in the 70s, I really enjoyed the detailed history of structural changes for labor during 80s, 90s, and 00s.