Reigniting the Labour Movement

For over a century, the Labor Movement has led campaigns for a more egalitarian and democratic society. As the central vehicles for popular social struggle, labor unions and socialist political movements contributed to much of the improvement in wages and working conditions for average workers, as well as the general democratization of society since 1880. The Labor Movement's importance in the campaign for democracy makes its decline since 1980 a matter of pressing concern for all. Gerald Friedman charts the movement's rise and fall and explains how it can be reignited to rebuild a movement for a democratic society. This book begins by confirming that Labor Movement decline is universal, the result of the exhaustion of an old pattern where unions grew by representing strikers, winning recognition from employers by exchanging labor peace for higher wages and improved working conditions. Friedman explores how strike involvement promotes union growth both from the perspective of the individual worker, whose understanding of class conflict is transformed through participation in collective action, and from the perspective of the Labor Movement leadership, who suppress popular militancy and popular democracy to advance a reform agenda through collaboration with employers and state officials. Union decline began because, on one side, workers lost faith in autocratic labor organizations and socialist parties and, on the other side, employers ceased to fear unrest and, thus, saw no reason to deal with unions. The book's most novel contribution is its Tocquevillian analysis of the way labor unrest and labor organization can promote democracy by giving workers the opportunity to participate in collective action and self-government. Friedman's controversial analysis suggests that the key to reigniting the Labor Movement is to restore it from a reformist movement of leaders to one organised by the rank-and-file to promote popular democracy. The book is relevant to courses in Labor History, Economic History, Modern History and Comparative Social Systems and is also important reading for political activists and anyone concerned with the future of the Labor Movement.Friedman, Gerald is the author of 'Reigniting the Labour Movement ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780415770712 and ISBN 0415770718.