The New Rank and File

by Staughton Lynd (Editor), Alice Lynd (Editor)

Much has changed for workers in the years since Staughton and Alice Lynd's classic Rank and Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers was first published in 1973. The New Rank and File presents interviews with working-class organizers of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s who face the challenges of a new economy with the same determination and creativity shown by those profiled in the earlier book. Reflecting the increasing globalization of labor practices―and problems― The New Rank and File contains oral histories of workers in Guatemala, Palestine, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Canada, as well as the United States. In their narratives, rank-and-file workers from many different industries and workplaces reveal the specific incidents and pervasive injustices that triggered their activism. They discuss the frustrations they faced in attempting to effect change through traditional means, and the ways in which they have learned to advocate through innovation. In an incisive introduction, the Lynds set forth their distinctive perspective on the labor movement, with a focus on "solidarity unionism": making decisions on the assumption that we all may be leaders at one time or another rather than relying on static hierarchies. Their insights, along with true stories told in the organizers' own words, contain much to inspire a new generation of workers and activists. Jim Brophy
Tony Budak
Andrea Carney
Chinese Staff and Workers' Association
Coalition of University Employees
Bill DiPietro
Kay Eisenhower
Rich Feldman
The Frente Autentico del Trabajo
Marshall Ganz
Mia Giunta
Martin Glaberman
Mayra Guillen
The Hebron Union of Workers and General Service Personnel
Hugo Hernandez
Margaret Keith
Elly Leary
Ed Mann
Charlie McCollester
Virginia Roman
Vicky Starr
Gary Stevenson
Mike Stout
Manuela Aju Tambriz
James Trevathan
TriState Conference on Steel
Mauricio Vallejos
Workers for Ford in Mexico

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

The son of renowned sociologists Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Lynd, Staughton Lynd grew up in New York City. He earned a BA from Harvard, an MA and PhD in history from Columbia. He taught at Spelman College in Georgia (where he was acquainted with Howard Zinn) and Yale University. In 1964, Lynd served as director of Freedom Schools in the Mississippi Summer Project. An opponent of the Vietnam War, Lynd chaired the first march against the war in Washington DC in 1965 and, along with Tom Hayden and Herbert Aptheker, went on a controversial trip to Hanoi in December 1965 that cost him his position at Yale.

In the late 1960s Lynd moved to Chicago, where he was involved in community organizing. An oral history project of the working class undertaken with his wife inspired Lynd to earn a JD from the University of Chicago in 1976. After graduating the Lynds moved to Ohio, where Staughton worked as an attorney and activist.