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Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

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At center: organized labor leader John L. Lewis surrounded by crowds of male workers of all races.

Fragile Juggernaut

Introducing a project on US labor history, exploring what we can learn from 1930s-1950s industrial struggles.
by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via n+1 on January 24, 2024
Starbucks Workers United partners celebrate after a store in Mesa, Arizona, became the third Starbucks location in the country to unionize in February 2022.

Labor Rising

Is the working class experiencing a new CIO moment?
by Sarah Jaffe via The Progressive on October 10, 2022
Black and white photograph of workers of various affiliations march together at a 1946 May Day parade in New York City, holding signs about "world labor unity."

Welcome to Operation Dixie, the Most Ambitious Unionization Attempt in the U.S.

Southern segregation, racism and a militarized police meant the plan was destined to fail.
by Meagan Day via Medium on May 8, 2018
Supreme Court justice swearing in FDR at inauguration.

When FDR Took On the Supreme Court

The standard narrative of Roosevelt's court-packing efforts casts them as a failure. But what if they were a success?
by John Fabian Witt via The Nation on June 27, 2023
Man at the wheel of a ship.

The Safe Harbor

Harry Bridges may no longer be widely known, but his philosophy of inclusive, democratic unionism imbues much of today’s most ambitious organizing campaigns.
by E. Tammy Kim via New York Review of Books on March 30, 2023
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, left, holding up hands with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, right, both smiling.
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Michigan Democrats Can Reignite Their State’s Vaunted Labor Tradition

A historic victory in the midterm elections will let Democrats repeal the state’s right-to-work laws and return to its labor roots.
by Ken Wohl via Made By History on November 17, 2022
Photograph of author Mike Davis.

Mike Davis Revisits His 1986 Labor History Classic, Prisoners of the American Dream

The late socialist writer's first book was a deep exploration of how the US labor movement became so weakened.
by Mike Davis, Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on October 31, 2022
People holding union and BLM signs out of their car windows, taking part in the Workers First Caravan for Racial and Economic Justice, June 17, 2020, with the US capitol in the background.
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How Conservatives Drove a Wedge Between Economic and Cultural Liberals

Elites understood that a unified left spelled doom for their economic advantages.
by Jonathan Schlefer via Made By History on June 14, 2022
Doorkeeper at a meeting of the United Mine Workers of America in Wheelwright, Kentucky.

Before Operation Dixie

What the failed Southern labor movement teaches us about the rightward shift in US politics.
by Joe William Trotter Jr. via Dissent on December 16, 2020
A line of Black men sit and stand in a half circle. They all where Pullman Porter uniforms.

How Black Pullman Porters Waged a Struggle for “Civil Rights Unionism”

Led by A. Philip Randolph, Black Pullman porters secured dignity on the job — and laid the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement.
by Eric Arnesen, Arvind Dilawar via Jacobin on July 28, 2020
Black and white STFU members including Myrtle Lawrence and Ben Lawrence listen to Norman Thomas speak outside Parkin, Arkansas, on September 12, 1937. Louise Boyle / Kheel Center

When Black Sharecroppers in the South Rose Up

In the 1930s, Socialist and Communist organizers tried to help Black sharecroppers rise up against their oppressors.
by Arvind Dilawar, Nan Elizabeth Woodruff via Jacobin on July 7, 2020
A group of men gather at a headquarters of the Communist Party USA following a protest demanding pay raise and an end to police brutality, US, circa 1920. Hirz / Archive Photos / Getty

How McCarthyism and the Red Scare Hurt the Black Freedom Struggle

Union activists linked the struggle for black equality in housing, employment, and at the ballot box, to the broader struggle against capitalist domination.
by Paul Heideman via Jacobin on May 21, 2020
National civil rights leaders (L-R) John Lewis, Whitney Young Jr, A. Philip Randolph, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, James Farmer, and Roy Wilkins pose behind a banquet table at the Hotel Roosevelt as they meet to formulate plans for the March on Washington and to bring about the passage of civil rights legislation, on July 2, 1963 in New York City. (Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

The Emancipatory Past and Future of Black Politics

75 years ago, black leaders and activists shared a consensus around the importance of the labor movement and multiracial class organizing for black liberation.
by Paul Prescod via Jacobin on January 27, 2020
A broken key with a fist

The Road Not Taken

The shuttering of the GM works in Lordstown will also bury a lost chapter in the fight for workers’ control.
by Sarah Jaffe via The New Republic on June 24, 2019

America’s Missing Labor Party

The history of labor strikes shows that, in order to achieve lasting success, workers need to capture political power.
by David Sessions via The New Republic on October 2, 2018

Memorial Day, 1937

Eighty years ago, striking workers in Chicago were shot down by police. It transformed the course of labor rights in the US.
by Ahmed White via Jacobin on May 29, 2017

Why Did White Workers Leave the Democratic Party?

Historian Judith Stein debunks liberal myths about racism, the New Deal, and why the Democrats moved right.
by Judith Stein, Connor Kilpatrick via Jacobin on September 6, 2016
Antiwar march on October 31, 1970. Marchers holding a banner reading "Chicano Power" and "Remember Reuben Salazar."

Mapping American Social Movements

Interactive maps showing the historical geography of influential American social movements since the late 19th century.
by Civil Rights History Consortium via University of Washington

The Making of the Springfield Working Class

Each generation of this country’s workforce has always been urged to detest the next—to come up with its own fantasies of cat-eating immigrants.
by Gabriel Winant via New York Review of Books on September 30, 2024
The Executive Board of UCAPAWA in 1937.

Challenging the New Deal’s “Contemptible Neglect”

In the midst of the Great Depression, one CIO union used the new administrative state to influence legislation on behalf of people considered outcasts.
by Jarod Roll via Nonsite on September 21, 2024
Communist Party USA members march for unemployed relief during the Great Depression in San Francisco.

Bring American Communists Out of the Shadows — and Closets

In the 20th century, American Communists were seen as an enemy within. In reality, they were ordinary people with complex lives that deserve to be chronicled.
by David Bacon via Jacobin on August 15, 2024
summer campers around a fire
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Around the Campfire with Paul Robeson

The history of Camp Wo-Chi-Ca tells a largely overlooked story about left-wing politics and Black culture.
by Nina Silber via HNN on August 6, 2024
Angela Davis standing at podium, speaking at Communist Party USA event.

How and Why American Communism Failed

Plus: One historian’s about-face on the Communist record.
by Ronald Radosh via The Bulwark on August 2, 2024
Joe Biden, with a nervous expression, campaigning in Wisconsin.
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How Trump Captured the Rust Belt—And What Democrats Can Do

History not only explains how the industrial Midwest became Trump country, but also how the area's politics may shift again.
by Stephanie Ternullo via Made By History on April 2, 2024
Untitled (Strike), Dox Thrash, c. 1940.

Hard Times

The radical art of the Depression years.
by Rachel Himes via The Nation on November 27, 2023
African American factory worker assembling an automobile engine.

How the UAW Broke Ford’s Stranglehold Over Black Detroit

The UAW's patient organizing cemented an alliance that would bear fruit for decades.
by Paul Prescod via Jacobin on October 23, 2023
Labor day parade

Just Transition: Learning From the Tactics of Past Labor Movements

It is time to recognize the power that organized labor can wield to fight for environmental, economic and social justice.
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Dylan Plummer via The Trouble on October 12, 2023

The Life of the Party

In his latest book, Michael Kazin argues that the Democrats have long sought to build a “moral capitalism.” Have they ever succeeded?
by Osita Nwanevu via New York Review of Books on August 29, 2023
Ruth Ehrlich and Aileen Hernandez sitting next to each other at a National Organization for Women event.

Labor Union Radicals Built the US Feminist Movement

Labor radicals played a crucial role in organizing the struggles to topple gender hierarchies, and should serve as an inspiration for labor feminists today.
by Katherine Turk via Jacobin on August 9, 2023
Striking workers at General Motors in 1970.

Nelson Lichtenstein on a Half-Century of American Class Struggle

The esteemed labor historian reflects on his life and career, including Berkeley in the 1960s, Walter Reuther, the early UAW, Walmart, Bill Clinton, and more.
by Nelson Lichtenstein, Micah Uetricht via Jacobin on July 10, 2023
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