The road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell
Orwell's examinations of the conditions for the working class in the north of England prior to World War Two and how he became a socialist.
Where is Juliet Stuart Poyntz?
An article by Carlo Tresca on Juliet Stuart Poyntz, a Communist Party USA member who is believed to have been abducted and murdered by a Soviet NKVD assassination squad in 1937.
Where is Juliet Stuart Poyntz?
Personal histories of the early CIO
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Oct 9 2012 03:23
Transcript of a talk given by 5 people who were involved in CIO organizing in the 1930s.
This is an edited transcript of a community forum on “Labor History From The Viewpoint Of The Rank And File” held at Saint Joseph’s College in East Chicago, Indiana on March 24 and March 31, 1970.
Race and the CIO: the possibilities for racial egalitarianism during the 1930s and 1940s
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Aug 29 2012 06:32
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
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Aug 29 2012 04:01
An essay on the American Communist Party's efforts in the CIO.
ABSTRACT
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
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Aug 15 2012 04:49
A collection of reviews and commentary on Staughton Lynd's book of 1930s labor history.
1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike photo gallery
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Jul 20 2012 21:09
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
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Jul 19 2012 20:39
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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