This is a hybrid event, and a Zoom link will be sent to you when you register.

As Labor Notes founder Kim Moody has said, “The labor movement is the critical institution for the left. Socialists should root themselves in it.”

This course focuses on two concepts of particular importance for socialists to understand:

1. The vital role socialists of various kinds have played (and can still play) in the US labor movement. To thrive, labor needs a strong socialist movement.

2. The critical role powerful labor organization and strikes play in shifting the power balance between labor and capital to realize political and social objectives. A thriving socialist movement needs a powerful labor movement.

Recommended Reading

Eric Blanc, “Liberals Get the New Deal Wrong: Why Voting is Not Enough,” Pt 1. Labor Struggle from Below and Above: Lessons from the 1930s, Labor Politics, May 7, 2022.

If time permits: Paul Prescod, “To Fight Racism, Organize with Your Coworkers,” Jacobin, August 15, 2021.

Supplemental Reading for Further Study

Paul Prescod, “A Religion of Unity,” Jacobin, June 30, 2019. The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) fought discrimination on the job, challenged racist attitudes, and took on civil rights initiatives.

Barry Eidlin, “What is the Rank-and-File Strategy, and Why Does It Matter?,” Jacobin, March 26, 2019.

Ahmed White, “Memorial Day, 1937,” Jacobin, May 29, 2017. Story of the violent crushing of Little Steel Strike in 1937 and the limits of New Deal legislation

Howard Kimeldorf, Reds or Rackets? The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), [for CP & Waterfront strike: Ch 4].