Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780252073199)

District 8 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) developed a style of unionism designed to confront corporate power but also act as a force for social transformation in their community and nation.

Rosemary Feurer examines the fierce battles between these Midwestern electrical workers and the bitterly anti-union electrical and metal industry, Exploring the role of radicals in local movement formation, Feurer reveals a "civic" unionism that could connect community and union concerns to build solidarity and contest the political economy. District 8's spirited unionism included plant occupations in St. Louis and Iowa; campaigns to democratize economic planning; and strategies for national bargaining that elected officials inevitably branded as part of a communist conspiracy. Though destroyed by reactionaries and an anticommunist backlash, District 8 molded a story that tells another side of the labor movement's formation in the 1930s and 1940s, and can inform current struggles against corporate power in the modern global economy.

Author: Rosemary Feurer
ISBN-10: 0252073193
ISBN-13: 9780252073199
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 10/09/2006
Pages: 360
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.38lbs
Size: 9.36h x 6.12w x 1.02d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2007 pg. 122