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Strike!
Book by Brecher, Jeremy
329 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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1290 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 28, 2023
From the great railroad strikes of the 1870s all the way through the Occupy Wall Street in the 21st century, Strike! is an outstanding history of mass action and resistance to the assaults of the capital class on labor. Comprehensive, with extensive notes, but always readable, this is absolutely necessary reading for anyone looking to know the history of the working class’s struggle for power in America.
July 21, 2022
So I kinda have to split my review in two parts. I read the updated 2020 version of this which has a couple hundred extra pages. The original core of the book, covering major labor upsurges from 1877 to the 1970s, is very good. It highlights organizing strategies, tactics, the response to worker movements from the state, and the radicalism of the rank and file. Lots of great information about epic struggles that we aren't taught about in school, or if we are it's usually from the bosses perspective. As a labor history, this is excellent. Brecher chooses which struggles to cover and how to link them together in a very accessible narrative.
However when he gets to his conclusions, the idealism fundamental to his anarchist perspective lead to some bafflingly ineffective recommendations. It is wild to see someone with such a depth of knowledge of labor history look back on the Occupy movement as something effective, rather than an illustration of the bankruptcy of unorganized, consensus based, individualized revolt. It is just a testament to the power of ideology that someone with such a deep historical background can present stories of "and then people organized themselves, with no leadership, and the movement grew!" followed by "after the initial victory, the workers faced blow after blow and were unable to hold onto their gains" and then keep telling readers that they should focus on these unorganized, spontaneous movements to win lasting power. Especially in the added chapters on "mini revolts", we see Brecher over and over again lionize things like the Women's March and "The Resistance", which were so painfully ineffective due to lack of a program and organization that they have become memes for futility. Yet these are what he holds up as examples of the "new forms of organizing" that will replace "old", "failed" strategies like you know, union organizing and political parties, things than have actually won workers real lasting power. Incredible mental gymnastics.
There are many, many valid and important critiques to be made of the major unions and the Left in the US. But Brecher's devotion to spontaneous movements as the only "real" or "pure" workers' struggles is far more ahistorical than any ideology he condemns as passé. We've had centuries of global labor history now and not once has spontaneous, unorganized, leaderless revolt ever succeeded in fundamentally altering the property relations in a society. Continuing to tell people that unions and parties are too "bureaucratic" and only want to co-opt "real" worker action in the year 2020 reveals a profound idealism that is pretty disappointing.
However when he gets to his conclusions, the idealism fundamental to his anarchist perspective lead to some bafflingly ineffective recommendations. It is wild to see someone with such a depth of knowledge of labor history look back on the Occupy movement as something effective, rather than an illustration of the bankruptcy of unorganized, consensus based, individualized revolt. It is just a testament to the power of ideology that someone with such a deep historical background can present stories of "and then people organized themselves, with no leadership, and the movement grew!" followed by "after the initial victory, the workers faced blow after blow and were unable to hold onto their gains" and then keep telling readers that they should focus on these unorganized, spontaneous movements to win lasting power. Especially in the added chapters on "mini revolts", we see Brecher over and over again lionize things like the Women's March and "The Resistance", which were so painfully ineffective due to lack of a program and organization that they have become memes for futility. Yet these are what he holds up as examples of the "new forms of organizing" that will replace "old", "failed" strategies like you know, union organizing and political parties, things than have actually won workers real lasting power. Incredible mental gymnastics.
There are many, many valid and important critiques to be made of the major unions and the Left in the US. But Brecher's devotion to spontaneous movements as the only "real" or "pure" workers' struggles is far more ahistorical than any ideology he condemns as passé. We've had centuries of global labor history now and not once has spontaneous, unorganized, leaderless revolt ever succeeded in fundamentally altering the property relations in a society. Continuing to tell people that unions and parties are too "bureaucratic" and only want to co-opt "real" worker action in the year 2020 reveals a profound idealism that is pretty disappointing.
October 6, 2008
So I didn't actually read the whole book. But that's partly because the book fell apart as I was reading it! (it's an old paperback edition) But that doesn't matter. I didn't have to read the whole thing to recommend this. Strike! is nothing less than reality-shattering. Like Zinn's People's History, but more dramatic. This book is the secret history of the United States, the shadow that is Labor. Strike! recounts how ordinary people--workers--battled (often literally) against their employers, hired goons, even the military in order to protect their well-being. It's crazy to think that there was a time when huge sections of America's workers identified as anarchists or socialists. These groups are the ones who are ones that paved the way for reforms such as the 8 hour day.
Now I know why Aaron Lund would babble about this book incessantly in college, and carry it under his arm to our student group meetings, as if he were an evangelist touting a Bible. If you want to be radicalized, this is the book to do it. After reading it, there's no turning back. By the time I came to this book, I was already there, but it was nevertheless an exciting read. I began reading this just weeks before I spoke at Chicago's 2007 May Day rally, at which, in part because of this book, I felt humbled and sobered by the courage of labor activists before me.
Now I know why Aaron Lund would babble about this book incessantly in college, and carry it under his arm to our student group meetings, as if he were an evangelist touting a Bible. If you want to be radicalized, this is the book to do it. After reading it, there's no turning back. By the time I came to this book, I was already there, but it was nevertheless an exciting read. I began reading this just weeks before I spoke at Chicago's 2007 May Day rally, at which, in part because of this book, I felt humbled and sobered by the courage of labor activists before me.
June 14, 2017
Brecher’s Strike! is a foundational text of American labor history, popular amongst labor historians as it is a synthesis of labor histories from the standard foundation of the modern labor movement in the US in 1877 with the fight for the 8 hour day. He argued that the fundamental problems of society boil down to the struggle of ordinary people to control their own fates as a collective whole, which he calls the both the labor movement’s tensions and ideals, as unions often have to curtail spontaneous action by workers against those higher than them in social hierarchy in the name of larger tactical progress, but at the same time the labor movement gets its strength from the participation of workers in their own fates.. He therefore looks at labor more generally until the 1997 UPS strike. Episodic in nature, he concentrates on the book’s title, the strike, which is probably labor’s most enduring image, of the picket line and mass job actions. He makes the observation that cities were often shaped by fear of labor insurrection, which is why older cities have armories even today. More specifically, the most militant socialist union at the beginning of the 20th century, the Industrial Workers of the World, sparks popular memory amongst labor historians of the potential of labor radicalism until the post war years.
April 10, 2024
My favorite moment in this book is a description of some of the first sit down strikes that happened in the Goodyear tire plant in Akron, Ohio. The great rumbling of conveyor belts, metal on metal, the buzz of activity all comes to a great resounding stop. All the workers step back from their places in the assembly line and revel in the thundering silence. The factory, and really all of society, is nothing without them.
September 11, 2007
Strike! is one of those texts that is much better as a research aid than it is as something to actually sitdown and read linearly.
It is an exhaustive history of labor unrest in America and gives you a real sense of how pervasive and autonomous militant labor activity was in the U.S. It is also not very well written. The book is basically a laundry list. In Flint, a sit down strike, in Akron, a lock out, in Seattle, a general strike, etc etc etc. Before reading this I wouldn't think you could turn out a history of labor in America that is so lacking in life. Those were exciting times, but reading Strike! I sometimes had difficulty staying awake.
It is an exhaustive history of labor unrest in America and gives you a real sense of how pervasive and autonomous militant labor activity was in the U.S. It is also not very well written. The book is basically a laundry list. In Flint, a sit down strike, in Akron, a lock out, in Seattle, a general strike, etc etc etc. Before reading this I wouldn't think you could turn out a history of labor in America that is so lacking in life. Those were exciting times, but reading Strike! I sometimes had difficulty staying awake.
November 22, 2007
I would have liked this book more when I was newer to labor history. But by the time I read it, it came off as a bit romantic.
Want to read
May 1, 2014Set aside for my summer reads...
What's cool about ordering this book directly from the publisher (PM Press in Oakland) is they give you a free eBook copy of the book.
What's cool about ordering this book directly from the publisher (PM Press in Oakland) is they give you a free eBook copy of the book.
July 29, 2021
Important history but poorly brought to life. Reads like a text book most the time
November 22, 2020
A great popular survey of major US labor actions since the Great Upheaval of 1877. Not having read much labor history from pre-WWII this was extremely informative for me. I don't think I previously understood just how militant US labor has been historically, and how void of that militancy labor is today. Also super fascinating to see the rise of officially recognized trade unions/large bureaucratic unions as one of the central neutralizing forces of this militancy (though simultaneously a vehicle for systemic labor reforms).
It was a bit of a choppy read just because of the way it is formatted (a description of the events--sometimes 40 pages long, sometimes just a quick series of many short paragraph-long sections listing different events--followed by an analysis at the very end (also a whole new chapter that has been added at the end)). I suppose this makes it a nice book to be able to pick up and start reading at any point.
It was a bit of a choppy read just because of the way it is formatted (a description of the events--sometimes 40 pages long, sometimes just a quick series of many short paragraph-long sections listing different events--followed by an analysis at the very end (also a whole new chapter that has been added at the end)). I suppose this makes it a nice book to be able to pick up and start reading at any point.
January 8, 2022
Really valuable overall.
Less valuable in this edition is the coverage of 21st-century protests movements outside the scope of labor specifically and strikes otherwise.
That drifting away from the focus weakens the overall effect and value, but the edition is still worth it for the coverage of 21st-century strikes and labor matters in there along with the less relevant other protest movements.
Less valuable in this edition is the coverage of 21st-century protests movements outside the scope of labor specifically and strikes otherwise.
That drifting away from the focus weakens the overall effect and value, but the edition is still worth it for the coverage of 21st-century strikes and labor matters in there along with the less relevant other protest movements.
November 22, 2024
Some very important history. I think Brecher's conclusions are often questionable, but if read critically with a focus on the history itself it's a very valuable read. He is quick to aim criticism of Foster and other communist leaders but largely refrains from criticizing the direction of OWS and other quickly-captured so-called 'mini-revolts'.
July 13, 2022
Loved it, I feel fired up now!
June 12, 2025
A very detailed history of strikes and mass protests across US history. I would warn a reader that after reading about so many strikes it can feel repetitive. Still a great work
October 18, 2014
Lots of labor history I had no idea ever happened. Some repetitive sections and places where I was completely unable to tell what year was being discussed, but it was free to read and full of well-researched stories from the 19th century to (almost) today. Here's the link to read it: http://libcom.org/history/strike-jere...
March 15, 2008
Another essential history of the evils involved in the construction of American capitalism. Yes, evils. Read it.
December 16, 2009
finished several months ago. will review after finals...
July 20, 2009
A very dense read, mostly due to the details and block qoutes, but very informative.
September 5, 2009
Bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.
July 24, 2011
Simply outstanding history of US workers' struggles.
October 10, 2012
3.5
Very good perspective from labor's side of American union and worker history, focusing on strikes and labor actions.
Very good perspective from labor's side of American union and worker history, focusing on strikes and labor actions.
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March 8, 2019331.89297 B8292 2014
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews