Segmented Labor, Fractured Politics: Labor Politics in American Life (Springer Studies in Work and Industry)

William Form offers a contemporary analysis of division within American labor and its inability to forge a cohesive political strategy. The author describes changes in American cities, political parties, and organized labor over the last thirty years. This comprehensive work features three case studies of political activities in three metrolpolitan centers - Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. In addition, chapters present the results of a survey examining the electoral effectiveness of labor and offer a strategy for labor to become more politically viable. My curiosity and concern about the working class in America stems from childhood memories of my father, a cabinetmaker, and of my oldest brother, an autoworker, who were passionately involved in the labor movement. Perhaps because they so wanted the working class to achieve greater social and economic justice and because they insisted it was not happening, I became curious to know the reasons why. Without even being aware of it, I began to explore a possible explanation—the internal diver­ sity of the working class. In my studies of autoworkers (the prototype proletarians) in the United States, Italy, Argentina, and India, I discovered that they seemed to be more divided economically, socially, and politically in the more eco­ nomically advanced countries—an idea that ran contrary to the evolution­ ary predictions of my Marxist friends. When I reported this in Blue-Collar Stratification (1976), I was surprised that some of them who were commit­ ted to an ideology of working-class solidarity attacked the hypothesis because it ran against their convictions. 0306450313......Page 1 Segmented Labor, Fractured Politics......Page 2 Preface......Page 7 Contents......Page 10 Abbreviations......Page 15 I Change and Decline......Page 17 1 Explaining Labor's Political Fortunes......Page 18 2 Can a Class Theory of Labor Politics Be Saved?......Page 41 3 Labor as a Changing Social Class......Page 53 4 Labor's Changing and Turbulent Environment......Page 67 5 Labor's Changing and Turbulent Environment......Page 83 II Labor Politics in Three Cities......Page 100 6 Economy, Politics, and Labor in Three Cities......Page 101 7 Cleveland......Page 130 8 Cincinnati......Page 161 9 Columbus......Page 192 10 Labor-Party Relations in Three Cities......Page 227 11 Labor, Community, and State Politics......Page 243 III Labor in National Politics......Page 264 12 Bargaining in the Democratic Party......Page 265 13 Labor Politics in Washington......Page 298 14 Organizational Reform or Movement Revival?......Page 326 Appendix......Page 342

William Form offers a contemporary analysis of division within American labor and its inability to forge a cohesive political strategy. The author describes changes in American cities, political parties, and organized labor over the last thirty years. This comprehensive work features three case studies of political activities in three metrolpolitan centers - Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. In addition, chapters present the results of a survey examining the electoral effectiveness of labor and offer a strategy for labor to become more politically viable.