Join Lower Manhattan DSA political education working group in reading and discussing Strike!, Jeremy Brecher’s classic history of the labor movement in America. This crucial and often overlooked aspect of American history is essential to understanding our modern society and politics, and Brecher’s deep and clear analysis of the labor movement’s development, triumphs, and tragedies offers many lessons for the socialist organizers of today, especially as we see an uptick of renewed strike and union activity in public schools, in the media and tech industries, at Amazon warehouses, at Starbucks and elsewhere.

Our next meeting will take place Tuesday, May 17th at 7:00pm and will discuss the third chapter, "The Ragged Edge of Anarchy." This chapter examines the working classes' response to the changing American economy in the 1890s. As new technologies put increasing pressure on traditional craft unions, workers turn to more inclusive and ambitious industrial organizations like Eugene Debs' American Railway Union, which become the standard bearers for some of the most militant and widespread labor actions to date. The chapter culminates with the story of the Pullman strike, a key event in American labor history.

The group will meet in person on the ground floor of Continental Center at 180 Maiden Lane in FiDi. This is approximately a 10 minute walk from the Fulton St subway station or a 5 minute walk from Pearl St/Water St station on the M15 SBS.

The reading is available digitally here: Chapter 3 "The Ragged Edge of Anarchy"