There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America, Philip Dray

There’s a rumbling storm crawling up the spine of American history. Here there be details that politicians, Wall Street bigwigs, and textbook writers on propaganda commission don’t want you to know about. It is history seen from the eyes of the middleman, the lower class, and all the fighters for economic reform that have been stifled by the armor of militant suppression. The history of America is coated with the blood of its builders, not by the rhetoric of elitist figureheads that occupy the White House. A great and bloody civil war has been going on for decades, a subtle one. You’d be surprised how often union strikes and civil rights protests ended in violence (provoked by authorities, not peaceful demonstrators). The whole story of labor in America is here baby; this knowledge is bonafide classified, at least in history classes.

Unions were originally effective in organizing workers’ rights, whether they be about wage, safety, child labor, or hours-per-week issues. The amount of violence that these civilians had to withstand to obtain these rights over the years is staggering. As the unions evolved and gained more influence they were loosely connected with Communism after the Red Scare of 1919. It was mind-blowing to read about how J. Edgar Hoover unconstitutionally ordered the deportation of thousands of suspected communists (many of whom were influential union leaders that didn’t even identify with the ideology). During the Great Depression many of the workers’ rights we know and love today came into effect thanks to FDR’s New Deal and other Supreme Court rulings.  All the struggles of the past were finally worth something.

One of the more disturbing facts about unions is that, as they grew in strength and merged, their political affiliations became more corrupt. I was shocked to learn that the largest union in the nation’s history, AFL-CIO, backed the Viet Nam war and its members were highly influential as the “silent majority” for keeping the war going. Well, every rose has its thorn.

In addition to outlining the epic history of labor vs. capital, the book’s concluding thesis offers that the future of union organization can only depend on transnational compliance. I’d have to agree, because it doesn’t matter how many rights are won. Corporations always sell out to the cheapest bidder, and the world will always have a new one unless the power to strike is not universal.