Organized Labor and Class Consciousness in the United States

Abstract

Michael D. Yates, Why Unions Matter, 2nd ed. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009, 240 pp.

Michael D. Yates, In and Out of the Working Class. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2009, 217 pp.

Notes

¹ For Yates' explicit view of what is possible, necessarily working within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) see “‘Workers of All Countries, Unite’: Will This Include the US Labor Movement?” Monthly Review, 52:3 (July–August 2000), available at: < http://www.monthlyreview.org/700yates.htm> especially paragraph 7. He says, in part, “it is extremely unlikely that an entirely new and independent labor movement can be built today in the United States. Therefore, it will be necessary for leftists to work within or alongside the AFL-CIO. However, leftists must organize themselves into a coherent and disciplined force. Building on the movement for democratic control of union locals and in alliance with left workers in other progressive social movements, the left in labor can critically support whatever good things the AFL-CIO does, while pushing it in a more radical direction.” This was, of course, before the Change to Win coalition (CTW) was formed but it would appear from his discussion of the failures of CTW that his view would remain basically similar, now encompassing both federations. As an odd footnote, perhaps, the California Nurses Association, and its national Nurses Organizing Committee were able to join the AFL-CIO as a result of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) departure.

² Michael Yates, “An Essay on Radical Labor Education,” Cultural Logic, Fall 1998, available at: < http://clogic.eserver.org/2-1/yates.html> (accessed August 19, 2009).

⁴ Michael Yates, “Obama and the Working Class,” Counter Punch, August 6, 2008, available at: < http://www.counterpunch.org/yates08262008.html> (accessed August 19, 2009)

³ Michael Yates, “Obama and the Working Class,” Counter Punch, August 6, 2008, available at: < http://www.counterpunch.org/yates08262008.html> (accessed August 19, 2009).