Personal histories of the early CIO
Race and the CIO: the possibilities for racial egalitarianism during the 1930s and 1940s
An essay by Michael Goldfield, identifying what he believes are the most important issues concerning the CIO's racial policies, examining how racially egalitarian the CIO and its various components actually were; the determinants of how egalitarian a union was; what caused many CIO unions and the CIO as a whole to retreat from their early commitments to racial egalitarianism; and the unrealized possibilities for egalitarian, interracial unionism in the United States.
Originally appeared in International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 44 (Fall, 1993)
"Who gets the bird?" or, How the Communists won power and trust in America's unions: the relative autonomy of intraclass political struggles
The CIO: from reform to reaction
In popular mythology, the CIO was a revolutionary union in the tradition of the IWW. In actuality, the CIO was created by those opposed to the kind of working class self-activity best embodied in the U.S. by the IWW. This article by E. Jones, from Root & Branch: A Libertarian Socialist Journal (number 6; n.d.; c. 1970s), critiques the CIO's reactionary role in containing class struggle militancy.
"We are all leaders": a symposium on a collection of essays dealing with alternative unionism in the early 1930s
1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike photo gallery
Images from the 1934 Teamsters strike in Minneapolis, one of the most iconic strikes in American history. The strikers shut down transport of goods in the city and battled police and employer vigilante groups.
One day in July: Remembering the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike
An article written on the 1934 strike in Minneapolis for the 'One Day in July' festival.
[i]THE 1934 MINNEAPOLIS TRUCKERS STRIKE On "Bloody Friday", July 20,1934,at 3rd and 6th, 67 striking truckdrivers and their supporters were shot by Minneapolis police, acting on orders from the Citizens Alliance, an anti-labor employers' group, which controlled city government. Seventy-five years later, WE REMEMBER THEIR SACRIFICE!
Holiday! The Lansing general strike of 1937
A summary of the 1937 Lansing 'Labor Holiday', a general strike in the city in response to police raids on union organizers.
On June 7, 1937, Lansing’s labor force took a holiday. Thousands of strikers and their supporters crowded Lansing City Hall, the Michigan state capitol and many surrounding areas. Union on-call picketers, known as “flying squadrons,” arrived from out of town to assist with the protest. Cars and trucks were parked to block streets, and stores closed in support.












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