From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America's Future [Hardcover]

Stanley Aronowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1998

The future of American labor is deeply connected to America's future. In the last quarter century, most American workers -- blue collar, white collar, and professional -- have taken an enormous hit, while only 20 percent of the population has prospered. Corporate downsizing, technological change, mergers, and acquisitions have cut the workforce by half in some industries; in others, the best-paid employees have lost their jobs and have been replaced by part-time, temporary workers who often lack benefits. Meanwhile, government protections are slowly fading from the lives of ordinary Americans as health benefits, pensions, and safety and health standards deteriorate. Stanley Aronowitz, a teacher, writer, and former trade union organizer, examines the decline of the labor movement in the past twenty-five years and its recent reemergence as a major force in the country's economic and political life. Republicans suddenly find themselves under attack from a forgotten foe. Democrats are shocked to see this ghost walking about, compelling the party to fight for a minimum-wage law it had practically abandoned. The labor movement, once given up for dead, is now the engine of economic democracy and progressive politics. But to succeed, Aronowitz argues, labor must return to the social-movement unionism of Eugene Debs and Walter Reuther. Such an energetic new movement is the key to America's future. Bound to generate national debate, From the Ashes of the Old calls for a bold new agenda, covering the principal challenges facing the labor movement today: to organize in the South and among the working poor, to unionize white-collar and technical employees, and to reestablish labor's political independence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The years of American economic prosperity after World War II, argues sociologist Stanley Aronowitz, resulted in the diminishment of the political influence the labor movement had acquired. By the 1980s, which included Reagan's decisive undercutting of the air-traffic controllers' strike and increasing concessions to management by unions, it made sense to question whether such a thing as a labor movement remained. Changes in Teamster and AFL-CIO leadership in the 1990s have increased the likelihood of strong labor's recurrence--but what would it take to make that happen?

Aronowitz presents a compelling case for the idea that "unions, if they are to thrive, must overcome the complacency of the last fifty years and expand labor's influence throughout politics and culture. But first labor must overcome its image as the representative of a narrow segment of the working population...." In intellectually strong but clear-spoken language, Aronowitz urges labor once again to define itself in sharp opposition to the ideology of corporate capitalism. He might attract some controversy with his suggestion that doing so requires a distancing of the unions from the Democratic Party (which, he reminds the reader, has drifted increasingly to the right under Bill Clinton, whose "reform" of welfare not only took money from the unemployed but may also keep wages down for the working poor). Might, that is, if labor had a strong enough voice for its dissent to be heard. Aronowitz delivers some rather intriguing proposals; it remains for history to determine whether an audience exists that will absorb and act upon them. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

In the last few years, histories have squeezed the most minute details out of the rise and fall of the 20th-century labor movement. Aronowitz (The Death and Rebirth of American Radicalism) takes the tack that "the future of American labor is directly tied to America's future" and, after extensive exposition of union diversity and interaction, he finds future union potential in the millions of white-collar workers and professionals and among production and service workers in the South. Citing the AMA and ABA as powerful lobbying units for professions once "horrified" at collective bargaining, he argues that doctors and lawyers have become increasingly salaried employees rather than owners of their practices "and therefore control neither their incomes nor conditions of work." Corporate managers are also ripe for unionization because they see, but do not share, the rewards of top executives. Meanwhile, the working poor (whom he defines as those families that earn under $20,000, not the government's $14,200) make up 30% of the workforce and should be another dynamic power. Aronowitz calls for an aggressive effort to organize the working poor?unlike distribution of food stamps and survival checks, Aronowitz sees organizing for collective bargaining as the best way for redistributing social wealth. This is an authoritative plea for broadening union punch beyond the flash of UPS and GM strike successes. Aronowitz's description of the current labor movement offers little new information, however, leaving readers wishing that he spent a little less time on the ashes and more on the new Phoenix.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (September 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395881323
• ISBN-13: 978-0395881323
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,394,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something unusual, a reference that's readable, May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America's Future (Hardcover)

Not having read any of Mr. Aronowitz' other books, I came to this one looking for a guide to the history of organized labor and am glad I did. As he points out, labor seems not to exist as far as the media are concerned. Workers appears only in strikes, portrayed as grasping disrupters of business. My interest in organized labor and the plight of the worker came from direct experience in a lock out. Eyes opened by the event, I was eager to put it in perspective and this book was exactly what I was looking for. Things can't go on as they are. Aronowitz rightly points out how both political parties are pro-business, that the conservatives have framed the debate on the economy and labor is confined to a diminished spot with the Democrats, largely taken for granted. If you scratch the surface of material wealth you find discontent with society. The lack of protection for workers; the "temping" of the workforce and the shifting of the costs of benefits to workers from business is spreading like wildfire. Those who never dreamed of associating with organized labor are now having second thoughts. Labor, as Aronowitz points out, must appeal to social issues and working conditions in other countries if it is to survive. This book is a call to take a full place on the stage, a stage set for labor to re-enter from parochialism. Anyone interested in new forms that labor may take and why it should take them should read this book. If you work for a living and wonder about tomorrow, read it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most important book on labor since The New Men of Power, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America's Future (Hardcover)

Stanley Aronowitz is the most important (perhaps one of the only) public intellectual of our age. He argues convincingly for a new agenda for the labor movement, one that takes into account not only the interests of the working class, but opens the possibility for injecting new life into the movement by forcing unions to find ways to link its interests with the interests of all Americans. In other words, Aronowitz shows how labor can finally fulfill its promise to be the vanguard of democracy in America. Anyone interested in the future of our democratic enterprise -- be they middle class or working class -- needs to read this book.

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another hollow call for the rebound of moribund labor unions, January 13, 1999

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J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America's Future (Hardcover)

From the beginnings of craft protectionism and built upon a number of militant worker movements from say 1875 to 1920, the Great Depression spurred the rise of industrial unions. The Wagner Act neatly bottled up, with union acquiescence, worker unrest and power to influence US industry. As Aronowitz shows, the limitations of that accord were revealed early on in the failed Southern organizing drives and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act. But that was then. Now one has to wonder if the notion of a "labor movement" has any real meaning. Is there a recognizable philosophy of labor or worker empowerment in the general public's consciousness. I don't think so. Yes unions have hung on in some industries and teachers, whose situation in terms of public and contract-based employment is unlike that found in the private sector, have hidden the overall decline of unions. Also unions in this age of extremely small voter turnouts that can mobilize a dedicated minority can influence some elections much as can the Christian right. But those have been mostly defensive victories: elect the least conservative of two. One of Aronowitz's key suggestions is the organizing of the huge numbers of professional-technical and white collar workers. But that seems to be mostly hope. Many (probably most) of those folks accept all of the negative stereotypes of unions. Aronowitz briefly mentions European-style works councils, but US unions aren't about to allow that. There just is not much in this book, as well as in scores of others written since John Sweeney took over the helm of the AFL-CIO, that is a realistic assessment of the possibility of going from point A (corporate dominance of the economy and politics) to point B (genuine worker influence within enterprises and the overall economy and political process).