Strike!

Rating:
Summary: What do workers really want?
Review: A classic ploy of employers who want to keep unions out of their companies is to paint the unions as outsiders, a bunch of rabble rousing radiclas who will disrupt what was once industrial harmony. This theme has lasted through the years, from last century, when all socialists where decried as immmagrants, to modern union busting campaigns.

There is certainly a short term, self-serving aspect to this image, but there is also a larger social claim: american workers are basically satisfied. America is the land of opportunity and no regular Joe worker would question this fact if outsiders didn't come in and cause trouble.

Jeremy Brecher's classic book, Strike!, runs gaping holes through this image. He details several of the countless times in American history that workers have spontainiously risen to fight for better jobs, better lives and a better world. Further, he shows that labor leaders, whether conservative or radical (socialist, communist etc) have have historically acted to hold the militancy of the workers at bay and channel them into the compromise of collective bargaining. A system which the labor leaders control and profit from.

An important book for anyone interested in unions, labor, or the history of the American working class.

Rating:
Summary: What do workers really want?
Review: A classic ploy of employers who want to keep unions out of their companies is to paint the unions as outsiders, a bunch of rabble rousing radiclas who will disrupt what was once industrial harmony. This theme has lasted through the years, from last century, when all socialists where decried as immmagrants, to modern union busting campaigns.

There is certainly a short term, self-serving aspect to this image, but there is also a larger social claim: american workers are basically satisfied. America is the land of opportunity and no regular Joe worker would question this fact if outsiders didn't come in and cause trouble.

Jeremy Brecher's classic book, Strike!, runs gaping holes through this image. He details several of the countless times in American history that workers have spontainiously risen to fight for better jobs, better lives and a better world. Further, he shows that labor leaders, whether conservative or radical (socialist, communist etc) have have historically acted to hold the militancy of the workers at bay and channel them into the compromise of collective bargaining. A system which the labor leaders control and profit from.

An important book for anyone interested in unions, labor, or the history of the American working class.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with limitations
Review: Jeremy Brecher's "Strike!" takes on one narrow subject and does it in a very interesting if limited way. It's simply a history of strikes, no more no less. That history is a fascinating and often shocking one -- few of us in this country know about the huge strikes and violent repression that occurred in the late 19th century and early 20th, and we should. This book catalogues a lot of that history and memorably illustrates the growth of labor consciousness and state opposition.

However, it only occasionally gives much context in terms of legal background, the rising and falling strength of the labor movement and the changes in industry. So it's actually a book full of examples from which you'll have to draw your own conclusions, not a comprehensive history. But it's a hard-hitting introduction to labor history and an enticement to read more. Very worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with limitations
Review: Jeremy Brecher's "Strike!" takes on one narrow subject and does it in a very interesting if limited way. It's simply a history of strikes, no more no less. That history is a fascinating and often shocking one -- few of us in this country know about the huge strikes and violent repression that occurred in the late 19th century and early 20th, and we should. This book catalogues a lot of that history and memorably illustrates the growth of labor consciousness and state opposition.

However, it only occasionally gives much context in terms of legal background, the rising and falling strength of the labor movement and the changes in industry. So it's actually a book full of examples from which you'll have to draw your own conclusions, not a comprehensive history. But it's a hard-hitting introduction to labor history and an enticement to read more. Very worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Classic of American Labor History despite some faults
Review: Strike! is a classic book of American labor history. It's definitely worth reading if you want to understand some of the more amazing points when labor negotiations have broken down and workers walked out.

Strike, is not a history of the American labor movements. Neither is it a history of strikes, despite the claim of other reviewers. It's an examination of the mass strike. That is when the normal course of labor struggles reach a boiling point. Mass strikes are when a strike starts in a specific shop but spreads horizontally across an industry or even the whole nation. Brecher profiles the few but real times in which a spreading strike presented the possibility of more radical and systemic change.

He talks about how at these times of mass strike, the ideas and possibility for real radical change takes hold among previously apolitical rank and file workers. When this happens, often the state, unions, and business conspire together to put a stop to these growing strikes. This is very similar to what happened in with the 'communist' union bosses in France in May 68. As soon as the option of radical change where the bosses of industry and unions could be thrown out, the unions take up their roll as labor regulators.

Unfortunately Brecher does not look in to the dynamics of why this happens. Nor does he consider the roll of the IWW, the one American labor federation which worked to create mass strikes. He also does not address the issue of ideology the unions or social movements during the times of mass strike. He rightly, claims that most workers who spread mass strikes are not working from an ideological perspective, but he doesn't look in to the roll in which ideology plays. Often mass strikes take hold in times of general political upheaval, understanding the relationship between mass strikes and other social change struggles seems to me to be an essential and missed point in the book.

The other amazing aspect of the book is that it chronicles how labor demands have becoming increasingly less radical over time. During the first mass strikes in the 1880's workers were demanding fundamental autonomy and the dismantling the very system of corporations and trusts. By the last mass strikes in the US during 1960's workers were demanding better wages, conditions, and self management. The concept that the system of exploitation could be dismantled and we could return to a world of small artisans had disappeared.

Strike's other fault is that it only looks at American labor history. There were major activities and ideas in other countries which had a direct influence on American labor. Brecher doesn't deal with the roll of immigration and the ideas and practices immigration brings to the labor movement. In the last chapter of this updated edition he talks about the very successful UPS strike. While it is a good story and I think it's important he updated the book, the UPS strike was not a mass strike. We haven't had any mass strikes of the kind Brecher profiles in Strike since the 60's.

This book is definitely worth the read. It's well written and entertaining. It makes labor history exciting. Unfortunately it is not a full labor history, and if you want to understand the history of American labor struggles you'll need to read further. Strike is a good place to start learning about our collective labor history and I highly recommend it.