Strike!

[red flag over teeside]

Just started to re read Jeremy Brecher book Strike. Wondered what others thought of it.

[Vendetta]

I haven't read it. Wanna tell all what it's about?

[Os Cangaceiros]

I haven't read it. Wanna tell all what it's about?

It's about mass strikes in the USA.

The book is OK. It's kind of plainly written, but that's fine. A lot of the stories are worthwhile, as they remind one of how intense the class war in the USA was (a country which for some reason has a reputation for a passive labor force, which couldn't be farther from the truth). My favorite story is the one involving a strike outside a factory in Ohio, where the National Guard came in and killed/wounded a bunch of workers. The next day the workers returned, angrier then ever, after having went to the local cemetery and smashed gravestones, which they then proceeded to pelt the soldiers with. Intense.

(That factory was later shut down for good.)

[x359594]

It's about mass strikes in the USA.

The book is OK. It's kind of plainly written, but that's fine...

That about sums it up. A useful introduction. Better in my opinion is Dynamite: A History of Class Violence in America by Louis Adamic. It takes the story down to the 1930s (it was published in 1935) but it's vividly written and despite what the title may imply it's pro-worker.

[bricolage]

wait so why only ok?
I'd heard good things about it and was on my 'to buy' list...

[red flag over teeside]

Strike is still worth buying Bricolage although I felt that simply listing the wave of grass roots strikes from the Great Upheaval of 1877 through to the UPS strike of 1997 became a bit of a montage. I don't think the problem is using plain language a lot of so called intellectuals of the left could use plain text no it's where there is little sense of the differences within these movements and how these differences were argued out.

The stories in the collection are truly inspiring especially those that show the union machinery getting a bloody nose as in the 1919 coalfield strikes where the miners union the United Mine Workers spent as much time trying to break the strike as did the bosses and the government.

The book also highlights the weaknesses of a rank and file movement that has no clear political perspective for taking political power. Still all the examples are good lessons for workers across the world.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah, the theme of the "union Judas" kind of runs throughout "Strike!". It was also the impetus for the sit-down strike wave of the 30's.