The book group blog has been live for couple months now. There’s been a moderate amount of traffic of people reading the posts, but not many people have added their own comments. If you’ve been following along, please take a moment to answer this poll so I’ll know what we should do next. Feel free to leave comments below!
The second half of Them & Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union covered the challenges UE faced after WWII, which led to its break with the CIO. The Taft-Hartley legislation not only made it more difficult to organize workers, but also to maintain unity within the labor movement. The disputes with the other CIO unions may be more than 60 years old now, but they continue to have repercussions in our ability maintain worker solidarity in our battles against big business. The choices of UE’s leaders to stand firm in the union’s guiding principles did not make for an easy path, yet we are the union we are today because of their decisions, and (I think) better for them.
Matles and Higgins took us through the twists and turns of the McCarthy Committee’s investigations and the dramatic strike of 1969-70, through solidarity and discord. Mark McColloch and Peter Gilmore’s concise but thorough afterword brought the book into the ’90s when UE expanded its organizing into the public sector, now one of the biggest portions of our membership. (And there we read many names that should be familiar to us!) Though the particulars of every job site and organizing campaign are unique, the tactics used by the bosses to disrupt organizing and keep more of the profits they earn off of the labor of others are not. UE’s consistent commitment to creating power for working people through organizing despite the bosses’ schemes is part of what helps us make contract gains where others take concessions and keeps our leadership grounded in the day-to-day struggles we face as rank-and-file members.
What inspired or baffled you in the second half of the book? I was surprised by the extent to which the CIO unions tried to break UE through membership raids, early on even using UE’s own money to do it! I know our GE brothers and sisters still wrestle with the ramifications of having multiple unions at the bargaining table every time they sit down to negotiate. The second half of the book also raises some important questions about how we will keep our rank-and-file, trade unionist spirit going as we continue our important organizing efforts with public sector workers, where the “boss” is the state. Can we use the same language for our struggles in the public and the private sectors? Do others have some thoughts on that issue?
In closing, Them & Us also pointed out some of the political developments that impacted our union. As Henry Wallace told our 1947 convention, “They cry Communism but their real fear is democracy” (171). Well these days, they cry “Socialism” and “Welfare State,” and they still fear democracy. Don’t forget to vote!
Well folks, I know a number of people read the post for the first discussion assignment, but only one person was bold enough to leave her feedback. Since I know many of you already have the book, let’s give this discussion one more shot. The next assignment is to finish Them & Us, so Part II and Part III as well as the Afterword, by Saturday, November 3. I’ll make an initial post that morning, and please add your comments and questions sometime over the weekend.
Missed the first assignment? That’s ok! You can either read the whole book now, or just pick up in the second half. If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comment box below.
Our first reading for this book group is Part I of Them & Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union by James J. Matles and James Higgins. This section chronicles the state of the labor movement in the 1930s that led some to desire a different kind of union, the establishment of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) in 1936, and the main events involving UE through the mid-1940s. These included such momentous occasions in 1938 as establishing a first (and national) contract with General Electric (GE), the lock-out of workers at a Maytag plant in Iowa, being founding members in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the establishment of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which targeted CIO leaders for their supposed involvement in Communist Party activities. (It was a busy year!) We learned of the 1941 dispute over interpreting UE’s constitution, involving whether or not locals could establish discriminatory policies regarding political party affiliation of members interested in leadership positions (they couldn’t), and that the resolution of this dispute resulted in the first leadership changes for the union. Finally, after trudging through World War II in which companies raked immense profits off workers, we learned of the successful nationwide strikes of late 1945 through early 1946 that used worker solidarity to open the clenched fists of profiteering bosses at a number of large companies.
Part I showed that UE’s early commitment to a union run by its rank-and-file members was not always an easy one. It meant standing up to the leadership of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), even though it resulted in political name-calling. It also meant standing firm in negotiations on ideas like equal pay for equal work for all workers, including women. What were some of the moments of UE’s rank-and-file commitment that impressed you, or took you by surprise?
(Did you all hear about UE’s newest rank-and-file organizing success? Check it out!)
Particularly in light of the group reading this book, I really enjoyed reading about the young people who shaped UE and the willingness of “old-timers” to embrace new ideas. I think many of those stories speak to the potential for this Young Activist program to shape UE today. What were some of the stories of young leaders in Part I that inspired you? How might the examples of some of our predecessors motivate young people in your local?
There are a lot of other interesting things to think about from Part I. What captured your interest? What are you curious to find out about in the rest of the book? What’s one fun fact you learned that you plan to share with others in your local? Personally, I find that knowing Ernest Hemingway visited one of our strikes really cool!
Note: Feel free to answer questions I’ve raised, ask ones of your own, or bring up a topic from the book you’d like to discuss. If you’re replying to a comment in the comment feed below, it will be helpful to reference the name used by the author of the comment in your reply. All comments in this first discussion have to be approved by the site moderator before they will appear on the blog, so please don’t get frustrated if they don’t appear as quickly as you’d like. We can discuss moving to a different system after we see how this initial discussion goes.
The first key to participating in our discussions will be to get a copy of whatever we are reading and to set aside some time to read it. As you read, make notes on things you find interesting or surprising, or things you might want to know more about.
Then, the day we set aside for our discussion, an assigned person will make an initial post about his or her thoughts on the book. (For Them & Us, this will be Kari for simplicity’s sake, but hopefully others will want to take on this role as we move on to new books.) In addition to overall comments, this post will also include a few questions for discussion.
Then, after reading this initial post, everyone can chime in by using the “Comment” feature of the blog (in the box under “Leave a Reply” below). You will be required to give a name and an email address to leave your comment. It will be helpful to us as Young Activists who know each other in the real world as well as the virtual one for people to identify themselves by their real names, and possibly their local number. The first comment you make will not show up as soon as you hit submit—don’t panic. This is just a moderation feature that will help us prevent anyone from spamming or trolling our discussion.
Be sure to check back on the discussion page at some point after your initial reading and commenting to see what others are saying. Since this is over the internet, we don’t have to be on the blog at all times to stay involved, but discussion inherently involves some give and take of ideas, occasional clarifications, and of course, new questions worth exploring.
Also, keep in mind that this is a public blog, so it’s possible that some people who are not Young Activists might read our discussions. Let’s make sure that we always champion the inclusive values of UE that foster our thoughtful learning, and our actions in the world.
Welcome to the blog for the new UE Young Activist Book Group. The idea for a book group for Young Activists came about after the 2011 UE National Convention, at which it became apparent that many of our up-and-coming leaders had not read foundational texts about UE’s history. This book group is intended to motivate us, as Young Activists, to read these works, and then continue our discussions by reading additional books on labor history and the current conditions in which we work.
More information will be posted about how to participate in the discussions soon. But before we can get to such details, we need to get to reading! Our first selection will be Them & Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union, by James J. Matles and James Higgins. It was published by UE and is available through the national office for only $6 for members, or $14 plus shipping for the public. If you are a UE member, you can contact your local’s field organizer with assistance in getting it, or order it yourself by mail or fax (sorry, no online order form). Here is that info:
The fax number is 412-471-8999. The address is:
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
One Gateway Center
Suite 1400
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1416
UE members will be billed for the cost. Nonmembers have to send a check to pay in advance. They can call the national office to find out total cost, including shipping charges. The number is 412-471-8919.
Order your copy soon so you can get to reading! Them & Us is a history of UE itself, written in part by a former UE General Secretary. It is a detailed and intimate look at why workers were not satisfied by the other unions available to them at the time of UE’s founding (and since) and the struggles they faced in establishing the union. This book will help us to appreciate the unique qualities of UE, and we will probably also recognize situations that are similar to our own.
Because we’re just getting started and it may take people a little bit of time to get a copy of the book, let’s set our first discussion post for Saturday, Oct. 6. At that time, we’ll discuss Part One of Them & Us, which is the first ten chapters (about 150 pages).
UE young activist book group 