The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements

by Dan Clawson

This thoughtful and bracing book examines a host of new initiatives that link labor organizing to communities, students, minorities, and women. Clawson argues that these experiments may show us the path to a new upsurge from below in which a revived labor movement would play a central role. We should all hope so, not only for the sake of a revived labor movement, but also for the sake of a revived American democracy. —Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York The U.S. labor movement may be on the verge of massive growth, according to Dan Clawson. He argues that unions don't grow slowly and incrementally, but rather in bursts. Even if the AFL-CIO could organize twice as many members per year as it now does, it would take thirty years to return to the levels of union membership that existed when Ronald Reagan was elected president. In contrast, labor membership more than quadrupled in the years from 1934 to 1945. For there to be a new upsurge, Clawson asserts, labor must fuse with social movements concerned with race, gender, and global justice. The new forms may create a labor movement that breaks down the boundaries between "union" and "community" or between work and family issues. Clawson finds that this is already happening in some parts of the labor labor has endorsed global justice and opposed war in Iraq, student activists combat sweatshops, unions struggle for immigrant rights. Innovative campaigns of this sort, Clawson shows, create new strategies—determined by workers rather than union organizers—that redefine the very meaning of the labor movement. The Next Upsurge presents a range of examples from attempts to replace "macho" unions with more feminist models to campaigns linking labor and community issues and attempts to establish cross-border solidarity and a living wage.

Genres: Labor

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read different chapters of this book at different times, so my thoughts about it are a bit disjointed. I believe it would read well straight through, with the exception of the chapter on neoliberal globalization, which, while certainly an important part of the topic at hand, reads like a separate book, out of place. It would have served the book better to integrate discussion of neoliberal globalization throughout. Clawson's overarching contribution is the observation that the labor movement expands in moments of great upsurge, rather than gradually, and does so when it effectively fuses with other movements. He proceeds by studying some of these moments of fusion—or lack thereof. Some case studies touched upon are the UPS strike, the union struggles at Yale and Harvard, the L.A. Justice for Janitors campaign, and the Workplace Project worker center. Much of the book serves well as a practical manual for activists with its discussion of the nuances of organizing different groups and in different communities. Clawson lays some important ground that should be built upon. Written in 2003, it needs to be followed by more books, to assess labor's relationship with other current movements, especially the environmental movement (“blue-green alliances”), the now much more prevalent worker center movement, and the anti-displacement movements (“right to the city,” anti-foreclosure organizing, etc.).

[Peter]

I didn't exactly BUY it, was given it by Danny Katch while doing some organizing. Danny, if you want this back, call me.