Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt From Below During the Long 1970s

by Aaron Brenner (Editor), Robert Brenner (Editor), Cal Winslow (Editor)

Often considered irredeemably conservative, the US working class actually has a rich history of revolt. Rebel Rank and File uncovers the hidden story of insurgency from below against employers and union bureaucrats in the late 1960s and 1970s.

From the mid-1960s to 1981, rank-and-file workers in the United States engaged in a level of sustained militancy not seen since the Great Depression and World War II. Millions participated in one of the largest strike waves in US history. There were 5,716 stoppages in 1970 alone, involving more than 3 million workers. Contract rejections, collective insubordination, sabotage, organized slowdowns, and wildcat strikes were the order of the day.

Workers targeted much of their activity at union leaders, forming caucuses to fight for more democratic and combative unions that would forcefully resist the mounting offensive from employers that appeared at the end of the postwar economic boom. It was a remarkable era in the history of US class struggle, one rich in lessons for today’s labor movement.

Genres: History, Labor, Politics, American History, Nonfiction, The United States Of America

434 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology. Aaron Brenner's intro is very clear. Two interesting articles on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Articles by Kim Moody & Robert Brenner are quite good. As Aaron Brenner points out this mass strike wave & rebel insurgency had several limitations: Difficulty breaking out of the sectoralist pattern that had become so entrenched in the American labor movement since World War 2, and thus there were no general strikes and few sympathy strikes, unlike in previous periods of insurgency. Also, rebels in the unions tended to rely too much on a strategy of changing the unions by electing new leaders, which failed to see how the problem of American business unionism is a systemic, structural problem. And also the rank and file rebellion of that period was unable to make significant links to the "new social movements" of that period.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's an important story in the essays collected in this anthology concerning the decline of the labor movement and the resistance of line workers against a union bureaucracy that was complicit in what happened. But the essays take on a cookie cutter feel, telling the same story with different unions at the center, and often relying on quantitative evidence at the expense of the human presence, though a few essays like the one on DRUM have people present. Very academic, but significant. I'd like to see this story incorporated more fully into the larger stories of labor in the 20th century.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of reflections on the rank and file labor upsurge of the 1970s, from a collection of authors deeply involved in the labor movement themselves.

While a couple chapters do get into the political economy behind the conjuncture of the 70s (the downturn in the US rate of profit starting in the late 50s pressing corporations to double down on their assault on labor), I'm very glad I read Kim Moody's excellent work An Injury to All before hand to have the full picture as context for these stories. It's certainly not a requirement, each author does a great job setting the stage for the particular art of struggles they focus on, but it helped.

The insights here touch everywhere in the US labor movement: the Teamsters, UAW, UMWA, NEA/AFT, UFW, CWA, SEIU, even the building trades. Not every example is a point of pride for the labor movement, but the mistakes and losses are often where we can draw the most important lessons.

A vital collection for those wanting to learn from history to inform the rank and file movements of today.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My union's (UUP) plan for the future doesn't involve paying contingent faculty a living wage. It doesn't mention the words 'adjunct' or 'contingent faculty.' Is it my union? Are we real? Is there a contingent caucus? Rebel Rank and File led me to do this research and ask these questions. This essay collection provides a history of bottom-up labor militancy in the 70s, which often involved rank-and-file members fighting their own complacent and concessionary union. And, sometimes, those union officials beat the shit out of their own union members, as was the case with the UAW at the Mack Avenue Stamping Plant in 1973. This nuances union history, emphasizing that numerous traditional unions didn’t dwindle without a fight (while new sectors unionized) and a generation of union activists emerged from these fights with a clear view of what their unions had become and how they might be transformed.

The majority of the collection is case studies; it also includes an early essay on the broad post-war economic context which debunks the myth that American industrial decline was caused by union over-reach. It’s closing essay extends into 2000s the struggle between top-down business unionism (relying on the collective bargaining process and political influence) and bottom-up democratic unions (whose primary tool is the strike) via the fight between the SEIU and UHW.

Other takeaways:
I always thought Reagan represented the first post-war president who was dead set on breaking the power of the unions—but don’t sleep on Carter. He sucked for labor.
See also Amiri Baraka’s struggle against the teachers’ union (the conservative AFT) in Newark.
The cardinal sin of union officials: “to confuse the defense of the organization with the defense of the membership” (41).

[loitering outside 711 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploitation of miners, yikes….

[Gerard]

This book has both a broad view of post-war political economy and many essays that focus on upheavals in particular industries. The chapter on the United Farm Workers is the best I've read yet. Close second is the chapter on the Revolutionary Union Movement in Detroit and Kim Moody's overview. Sharp critique of unions. Essential reading if you want to start your own rank and file caucus... Could the Occupy movement be for labor radicals today what the 60s/70s social movements were for labor radicals then?