"During the nineteenth century, American and foreign travelers often found New Orleans a delightful, exotic stop on their journeys; few failed to marvel at the riverfront, the center of the city's economic activity. . . . But absent from the tourism industry's historical recollection is any reference to the immigrants or black migrants and their children who constituted the army of laborers along the riverfront and provided the essential human power to keep the cotton, sugar, and other goods flowing. . . . In examining one diverse group of workers--the 10,000 to 15,000 cotton screwmen, longshoremen, cotton and round freight teamsters, cotton yardmen, railroad freight handlers, and Mississippi River roustabouts--this book focuses primarily on the workplace and the labor movement that emerged along the waterfront."--From the preface
With working lives characterized by exploitation and rootlessness, merchant seamen were isolated from mainstream life. Yet their contacts with workers in port cities around the world imbued them with a sense of internationalism. These factors contributed to a subculture that encouraged militancy, spontaneous radicalism, and a syndicalist mood. Bruce Nelson's award-winning book examines the insurgent activity and consciousness of maritime workers during the 1930s. As he shows, merchant seamen and longshoremen on the Pacific Coast made major institutional gains, sustained a lengthy period of activity, and expanded their working-class consciousness. Nelson examines the two major strikes that convulsed the region and caused observers to state that day-to-day labor relations resembled guerilla warfare. He also looks at related activity, from increasing political activism to stoppages to defend laborers from penalties, refusals to load cargos for Mussolini's war in Ethiopia, and forced boardings of German vessels to tear down the swastika.
Few work settings can compete with the waterfront for a long, rich history of multi-ethnic and multiracial interaction. Here, five scholars focus on the complex relationships involved in this intersection of race, class, and ethnicity. "Opens up some of the most significant questions in American labor and social history, including the struggle for control at the workplace and, even more important, the relationship between black and white workers and among various ethnic groups on the docks." -- David Brundage, author of The Making of Western Labor Radicalism: Denver's Organized Workers, 1878-1905 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz
The rise and fall of America's first truly interracial labor union For almost a decade during the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the CIO era. For much of its time, Local 8 was majority black, always with a cadre of black leaders. The union also claimed immigrants from Eastern Europe, as well as many Irish Americans, who had a notorious reputation for racism. This important study is the first book-length examination of how Local 8, affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, accomplished what no other did at the time. Peter Cole outlines the factors that were instrumental in Local 8's success, both ideological (the IWW's commitment to working-class solidarity) and pragmatic (racial divisions helped solidify employer dominance). He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union's destruction.
In this ethnographic account of longshoremen in California, William Finlay examines how they have been affected by recent technological changes in this industry. Focusing on the workers in Local 13 (Los Angeles-Long Beach) of the ILWU, he finds that despite the profound impact of new technologies, in particular of containerization, these workers have retained much of their influence over production, their autonomy at work, and their skill on the job. Using data collected from interviews and participant observation, Finlay provides a first-hand view of a union, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, about which there has been considerable speculation and discussion but which has been quite difficult for outsiders to penetrate. During his research, Finlay worked as a longshoreman, accompanied crane operators loading and unloading ships, observed union business agents on their waterfront rounds, and attended negotiation meetings. Contrary to many contemporary arguments concerning the negative impact of technological innovation at the workplace, Finlay finds that in longshoring the new technologies have resulted in the increased demand for skilled workers and in fresh opportunities for workers to assert their control of production.Work on the Waterfrontexamines local unionism in action and discusses the factors that produce on-the-job bargaining in longshoring and other lines of work. Author note: William Finlay is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa.
In A Terrible Anger, David F. Selvin presents a narrative history of the strikes. Unlike other labor historians who have stressed the importance of radical groups involved in the strikes, he addresses the impact on unions, owners, government, and the daily press. A witness to the strikes, Selvin has written a compelling story of the traumas and triumphs which acted as catalysts for the tumultuous labor battles of the mid-1930s.
Today's workers can no longer continue to depend on bourgeois politicians to address issues of systemic racism, income inequality, corporate greed, workers' rights, universal health care, slashing the military budget, and ending the murder of African Americans, and people of color by police. The initiators of the Million Worker March (MWM) understood this, which is why they challenged the Democratic Party, the officialdom of labor, and others to organize the MWM. This anthology is about radical African American trade unionists from one of the most renowned radical labor organizations in the world, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, that defied the Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO and mobilized the MWM on October 17, 2004, at the Lincoln Memorial.The writer understands that now more than ever, workers around the world must act in unity in our own interests. Workers must build an international rank-and-file fight-back movement to defend the rights of workers internationally to achieve economic security and a peaceful world.The MWM called for an independent mobilization of working people, with a workers' agenda to address the unrestrained class warfare by the captains of capital. This historic event, which was viewed on C-Span, attracted thousands of workers (organized and unorganized), immigrant rights groups, anti-war activists, community organizations, social movements, youth, and trade unionists from around the world.This anthology captures radical workers' actions and struggles written by activists as those events were happening through news articles, interviews, photos, posters, leaflets, and video transcripts.Through these documents, the story is told of the MWM Movement, its roots, and the branches that have grown from it mobilizing in our own name. It is intended to create a historic account and give impetus to the struggles ahead.
Is class outmoded as a basis for understanding labor history? This significant new collection emphatically says "No " Touching on such subjects as migrant labor, religion, ethnicity, agricultural history, and gender, these thirteen essays by former students of David Montgomery--a preeminent leader in labor circles as well as in academia--demonstrate the sheer diversity of the field today.
Workers who loaded and unloaded ships have formed a distinctive occupational group over the past two centuries. As trade expanded so the numbers of dock labourers increased and became concentrated in the major ports of the world. This ambitious two-volume project goes beyond existing individual studies of dock workers to develop a genuinely comparative international perspective over a long historical period. Volume 1 contains studies of 22 major ports worldwide. Built around an agreed framework of issues, these 'port studies' examine the type of workers who dominated dock labour, their race, class and ethnicity, the working conditions of dockers and the role of government as employer, arbitrator and supporter. The studies also detail how dockers organized their labour, patterns of strike action and involvement in political organizations. The structure of the port city is also outlined and descriptions given of the waterside environment. These areas of investigation form the basis for a series of 11 thematic studies which comprise Volume 2. Drawing on the information provided in the port studies, these essays identify important aspects and recurring themes, and explain how and why particular cases diverge from the rest. The final chapter of the book synthesizes the various approaches taken to offer a model which suggests several configurations of dock labour and presents suggestions for future research. This major scholarly achievement represents the most sustained attempt to date to provide a comparative international history of dock labour. An annotated bibliography completes this essential reference work.
