This diary is simply a pointer to the best article I’ve read on the plight of organized labor in the US. I would urge you to read it in full if you have an interest in labor, unions, or the working class as a whole. It presents a good explanation for why the organized labor has been eviscerated in this country and an excellent explanation for why organized labor is essential to maintain a strong, secure working class. It charts lays out what some of the recent wins (Fight for 15) and losses (right to work) have meant to organized labor and the working classes as a whole. It is unflinching in its analysis of organized labor’s failures. And the author charts a possible road back for organized labor.

It’s what the best blog posts are meant to be, a sudden ray of light.

It’s by Gabriel Winant, and it’s published at n+1, you’ll have to go there to read the whole article. The site has a pay-wall but this article is free. I’m excerpting a couple of paragraphs. Go read the whole thing.

Who Works for the Workers?

The union movement’s problem isn’t that workers don’t want to fight; it’s that they don’t want to lose.

These criticisms are not altogether wrong. But they tend to forget the fundamental order of things. It’s the power of the boss that makes for a sorry labor movement, and the political economy of the past five decades has made for a strong boss. Labor markets are slack and layoffs endemic, which keeps wages stagnant, costs low, and shareholders happy. Wage theft is common and largely goes unrectified; health and safety standards are unenforced. A byzantine nest of subcontracts and corporate shells often separates the workers from the profits, so that whatever subentity is the employer always appears in the red. Labor law’s teeth have been worn down to the gum: to take concerted action these days is to invite near-certain employer retaliation with little chance of remedy. And when the boss inevitably tells workers they should be grateful for what they have and warns them that plenty of people would be happy to take their jobs, the workers have no trouble picturing these people. They are their nieces, cousins, and neighbors, stuck in part-time jobs or out of work. The workers feel isolated and discouraged, the organizers wring their hands, and wages and conditions keep deteriorating.

THERE ARE A FEW WAYS people can wield collective power. They can join together to lobby officials or file a lawsuit, they can participate in political campaigns, or they can engage in direct action — rallies, marches, occupations, and strikes. In general, the organizations that do lobbying and lawsuits don’t tend to do direct action, which demands a different set of skills and attitudes: what you say to win in court or convince a lawmaker often has little to do with the real reason you care about the issue. More distastefully, lobbying, electoral politics, and legal efforts inevitably involve cozying up to the enemy. This means that organizations specializing in these tactics tend not to produce mass engagement by a movement’s true-believing base. The obverse is also true. It’s nearly impossible to run a tent city, for instance, and at the same time get a well-sourced policy paper to the key staffer of the swing member of the right subcommittee of the state senate. It’s harder still if that state senator is pissed off about the tent city because it raises issues that could interfere with his reelection — and the tent city and the lobbying organization are not just politically sympathetic but part of the same organization.

Historically, organized labor is the only movement that attempts to participate in virtually every type of collective action, from hiring lobbyists to shutting down cities.

read all of it here.