We Are All Leaders

The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s

Bibliographic Data

ID4956859
AuthorsMartin Glaberman, Staughton Lynd
Year1998
Volume42
Pages277
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLabour / Le Travail (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0700-3862 • E-ISSN: 1911-4842
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/25148906
OpenAlexW1994170344
LanguageEN
Citations received9

We Are All Leaders describes a kind of union qualitatively different from the bureaucratic business unions that make up the AFL-CIO today. From African American nutpickers in St. Louis, chemical and rubber workers in Akron, textile workers in the South, and bootleg miners in Pennsylvania to tenant farmers in the Mississippi Delta, packinghouse and garment workers in Minnesota, seamen in San Francisco, and labor party campaigns throughout the country, workers in the 1930s were experimenting with community-based unionism. Contributors to this volume draw on interviews with participants in the events described, first-person narratives, trade union documents, and other primary sources to tell what workers of the 1930s did. The alternative unionism of the 1930s was democratic, deeply rooted in mutual aid among workers in different crafts and work sites, and politically independent. The key to it was a value system based on egalitarianism. The cry, We are all leaders! resonated among rank-and-file activists. Their struggle, often ignored by historians, has much to teach us today about union organizing. CONTRIBUTORS: Rosemary Feurer, Peter Rachleff, Janet Irons, Mark D. Naison, Eric Leif Davin, Elizabeth Faue, Michael Kozura, John Borsos, Stan Weir A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilenz

Economics · Management · Political science · Labor Movements and Unions · Race, History, and American Society

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub