The Jackson Project: War in the American Workplace

by Phil Cohen, Si Kahn (Foreword)

"When it comes to the issues confronting working people and their unions today, Phil Cohen knows what he's talking about as few people do . . . through knowledge born of bare-knuckle experience." --Si Kahn


The Jackson Project is a dramatic, hard-hitting account of a brutal labor dispute at a West Tennessee textile mill. A historically accurate page turner, this is one of the few books about unions written by a frontline participant.

In the spring of 1989, union organizer Phil Cohen journeyed to Jackson, Tennesee, to rebuild a troubled local and the problems were an anti-union company in financial disarray, sharply declining union membership, and myriad workplace grievances. In the tumultuous months ahead, as ownership of the plant twice changed hands, shutting down and then reopening to exclude union leaders and senior employees, he would risk his life and consider desperate measures to salvage the unions cause.

In this riveting memoir, Cohen taken the reader from the union hall and factory gates to the bargaining table and courtroom, and untimately to the picket line. We get to know the millworkers with whom he formed close bonds, including a stormy romance with a young woman at the plant. His up-close account brims with vivid descriptions of the negotiating process, the grinding work at the textile mill, the lives of its employees, and the grim realities of union busting in America.

The last generation of the old south and it's textile subculture are portrayed as they come to terms with a changing economy, racial dynamics, and the introduction of hard drugs to their community. When the organizer's four year old daughter accompanies him to the field, a unique and unexpected dimension is added to the tale.

The Jackson Project offers readers a rare insider's view of the American labor movement in action.

376 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2016

About the author

Phil Cohen was a British cultural theorist, urban ethnographer, community activist, educationalist and poet. He was involved in the London underground counter-culture scene and gained public notoriety as "Dr John", a leader in the squatter's rights movement but is now better known for his work on youth culture and the impact of urban regeneration on working-class communities, particularly in East London, with a focus on issues of race and popular racism. More recently the scope of his work has widened to includes issues of identity politics, memory and loss, and the future of the Left in Britain. His most recent writing and research focuses on the transformation of object relations within digital capitalism, especially in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and the environmental crisis. Most recently (2023) he has embarked on a series of collaborative book projects with graphic artists. Cohen's academic work is trans-disciplinary and draws on concepts from linguistics and narratology, psycho-analysis and anthropology, cultural history and social phenomenology. He was Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of East London, and a member of the Livingmaps Network which he founded in 2013. Cohen was also a member of Compass, a Gramscian think tank within the Labour Party and was on the editorial board of New Formations. His work has been translated into French, German, Swedish, Italian, French and Japanese.

Reviews

[Stephany Wilkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the 1980s, when I was growing up in a union family in Detroit (Mom, Grandma, and an Uncle were organizers and stewards, and those who were not were at least members), Phil Cohen's organizing and bargaining strategies and effectiveness were legendary. This is an honest, compelling read and I learned a great deal about negotiating, when to amp up efforts on the street and not wait for legal to run its course, and strategic thinking. I wish schools taught more books like this, to shake people out of their marketed-to, brainwashed beliefs about corporate benevolence that never, ever is.

[Alice Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An electrifying action packed true account of a seasoned union organizer, climbing up up through the ranks of the hard-boiled blue collar work world, who leads a heated campaign to save a distressed union local at a Tennessee textile mill, sharing his in depth, hard won understandings with readers, along the way. A must read for everyone involved with grassroots social justice and labor movements, and pretty much anyone who works.

[Jody Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get past the massive ego it's a decent read. Some interesting stuff from a very tough situation- a bankruptcy allowing a company to destroy a local union. Phil was obviously a talented organizer and strategist, perhaps not quite as good as he thought he was but still very good. Union activists can learn from this book, and it's pretty well written imo, not a boring read. A few antiquated views on women, but not actually as bad as one might think.

[Frank Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked after the first few pages, and tore through this extraordinary book in three days. The Jackson Project has it all – great storytelling and compelling character portraits. I came away with a new level of understanding about unions, and what working people face in our society.