BOOK CORNER April Book of the Month
Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice
by Bill Fletcher, Jr., and Fernando Gapasin. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. 2008.
The authors are both activists of color, involved in the Black Freedom and Chicano social movements. Long-time unionists, educators and writers, they present an up-to-date history of the union movement in the U.S. and offer their proscriptions for the vital change that is needed. In telling the story, they combine their personal knowledge of the struggles the y themselves have been involved in, with a broad historical and social analysis of the travails of labor.
The authors Fletcher and Gapasin make the case for a shift to the left for the labor movement, calling their model “social justice unionism.” Broader than the labor or union movement itself, such a model calls for labor solidarity; the “obligation to build and support working-class leaders of color and women leaders”; and the need to coordinate with other progressive social movements. Social justice unionists will fight for immigrant rights, support trade alliances that will strengthen the positions of workers outside of the U.S., and oppose “illegal wars of aggression.”
The power of Solidarity Divided is enhanced by the authors’ intimate knowledge of the paths taken by the labor movement over the past three decades, and by the specific examples they cite as models for the way forward. They take us to Los Angeles for the gains made by labor-community alliances in the Justice for Janitors campaign, a struggle that brought together issues of immigrant rights, cross-class alliances, a corporate campaign, and innovative organizing across an entire sector (janitorial services for downtown highrise buildings). We go to Boston to learn of Local 26 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (now HERE of UNITE HERE!) and their work in not only improving the conditions of their members but in organizing in the community for good quality, affordable housing.
Class Action would recommend this book for people who wish to learn more about the history of the labor movement, and those already in unions who want to join the debate about which way forward. The authors are clear about their own perspective, and that clarity helps in laying out and making decisions about the various options. Finally, both groups of potential readers would benefit by a case study that Fernando Gapasin presents in an appendix to the book, using class, race and gender concepts in analyzing the transformation of a transit union local from 1970-1992.
View previous Class Action Book of the Month selections...
March 2009: Immigrants and the American Dream: Remaking the Middle Class
February 2009: Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics
December 2008: (Movie) Zoned In
November 2008: Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide
October 2008: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash
September Book of the Month: Race and Class Matters at an Elite College
July Book of the Month: Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)
June Book of the Month: Without a Net: The Female Expereince of Growing Up Working Class
May Book of the Month: Women Without Class: Girls, Race and Identity
April Book of the Month: Trembling in Bones
March Book of the Month:The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
February Book of the Month: Class and Parenting
January Movie of the Month: The Story of Stuff
December Book of the Month: Graceful Simplicity: Towards a Philosophy & Politics of Simple Living
November Book of the Month: All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
October Movie of the Month:The Milagro Beanfield War
September Book of the Month: Tearing Down the Gates
August Book of The Month: Staff Picks
July Book of the Month: Theory of the Leisure Class
June Book of the Month: Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
May Book of the Month: Death in the Haymarket
April Book of the Month: Food Politics
March Book of the Month: Psychology and Economic Injustice
February Book of the Month : What's My Name, Fool?
December Book of the Month:
Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming
November Book of the Month: Awol
October Book of the Month: Class Passing
September Book and Video of the Month: Beyond Silenced Voices and Declining By Degrees
August Books of the Month: Human Cargo and Gathering the Sun
July Book of the Month: The Overworked American by Juliet Schor
June Book of the Month: More Money Than God by Steven R. Leder
May Book of the Month: Global Class by Jeff Faux
April Books of the Month: Classified and Strapped
March Book of the Month: Welfare Brat, A Memoir by Mary Childers
February Book of the Month: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
January Book of the Month: Invisible Privilege: A Memoir about Race, Class, and Gender by Paula Rothenberg
View last year's Book of the Month selections...
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