This study discusses the legacy of the Communists in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from the 1930s through the 1950s. How did the Communists win and hold power in the CIO unions, and what did they do with it once they had it? Did they subordinate the needs of workers to those of the Soviet regime? Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin find that Communists were more egalitarian and most progressive on class, race and gender issues. They were also leading fighters in exemplary workplace struggles to enlarge the freedom and enhance the human dignity of America's workers.
Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Left Out is a meticulous and comprehensive history of the Communist contribution to democracy, militancy, and racial justice in the dynamic unions that emerged out of America's Depression-era labor upsurge. Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin skillfully deploy the tools of both sociologists and historians to uncover a vast, variegated world of left-wing thought and praxis, in the process demonstrating how tragic and debilitating was the destruction of this left-wing union current in the early Cold War years." Nelson Lichtenstein, author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
"`Why no socialism in America?' is one of the great and perennial sociological enigmas. To explain American exceptionalism one needs to understand what happened to `red' unionism....Left Out is a landmark study because of its ambition and intellectual integrity; an exemplar of tough analysis, supported by incredibly rich historical evidence. And it is a pure joy to read...Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin have written a sociological tour de force that compels us all to reconsider what, truly, is exceptional about America." Gosta Esping-Andersen, author of The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
"Left Out is a meticulous and comprehensive history of the Communist contribution to democracy, militancy, and racial justice in the dynamic unions that emerged out of America's Depression-era labor upsurge. Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin skillfully deploy the tools of both sociologists and historians to uncover a vast, variegated world of left-wing thought and praxis, in the process demonstrating how tragic and debilitating was the destruction of this left-wing union current in the early Cold War years." Nelson Lichtenstein, author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
"Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin...peel away the veil of anti-communism and organizational pessimism to reveal an insurgent communism that was no Stalinist front for `infiltrating' or `colonizing' unions, but was instead the backbone of popular struggles for decent working conditions, racial equality, women's rights, and participatory democracy....Going against the shibboleths of our time, [the authors] question the inevitability of American labor's self-destructive accommodation to corporate capitalism. Courageous, clear and compelling, this is counterfactual history at its best--history returned to the actors who make it." Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley, President-elect of the American Sociological Association
"Finally someone has engaged the old and new anti-Communist scholarship, treated it seriously, and having put its assertions to the test of thorough empirical research, finds this literature to be radically wrong. Finally someone gives the Communists their due without soft pedaling their apologetic stance toward the former Soviet Union. This book will replace Lipset's classic on the ITU as the last word on trade union democracy and its relationship to anti-communism." David Wellman, author of The Union Makes Us Strong: Radical Unionism on the San Francisco Waterfront
"[A]n intensive study of the ACP-dominated unions.... Highly recommended." Choice
"The authors meticulously investigate bogus claims by red-baiters, and set the record straight. It is a breath of fresh air and a welcome addition to the body of literature which seeks to understand how workers make gains." UE News
"...the authors' conslusions and insights help to illuminate not only the history of organized labor and the ILWU, but the present and future as well...Stephen-Norris and Zeitlin have helped us understand the importance of not repeating the mistakes of the Red Scare, and not letting another member of the House of Labor be left out." The Dispatcher
"`Why no socialism in America?' is one of the great and perennial sociological enigmas. To explain American exceptionalism one needs to understand what happened to `red' unionism....Left Out is a landmark study because of its ambition and intellectual integrity; an exemplar of tough analysis, supported by incredibly rich historical evidence. And it is a pure joy to read...Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin have written a sociological tour de force that compels us all to reconsider what, truly, is exceptional about America." Gosta Esping-Andersen, author of The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
"Left Out is a meticulous and comprehensive history of the Communist contribution to democracy, militancy, and racial justice in the dynamic unions that emerged out of America's Depression-era labor upsurge. Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin skillfully deploy the tools of both sociologists and historians to uncover a vast, variegated world of left-wing thought and praxis, in the process demonstrating how tragic and debilitating was the destruction of this left-wing union current in the early Cold War years." Nelson Lichtenstein, author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
"Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin...peel away the veil of anti-communism and organizational pessimism to reveal an insurgent communism that was no Stalinist front for `infiltrating' or `colonizing' unions, but was instead the backbone of popular struggles for decent working conditions, racial equality, women's rights, and participatory democracy....Going against the shibboleths of our time, [the authors] question the inevitability of American labor's self-destructive accommodation to corporate capitalism. Courageous, clear and compelling, this is counterfactual history at its best--history returned to the actors who make it." Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley, President-elect of the American Sociological Association
"Finally someone has engaged the old and new anti-Communist scholarship, treated it seriously, and having put its assertions to the test of thorough empirical research, finds this literature to be radically wrong. Finally someone gives the Communists their due without soft pedaling their apologetic stance toward the former Soviet Union. This book will replace Lipset's classic on the ITU as the last word on trade union democracy and its relationship to anti-communism." David Wellman, author of The Union Makes Us Strong: Radical Unionism on the San Francisco Waterfront
"[A]n intensive study of the ACP-dominated unions.... Highly recommended." Choice
"The authors meticulously investigate bogus claims by red-baiters, and set the record straight. It is a breath of fresh air and a welcome addition to the body of literature which seeks to understand how workers make gains." UE News
"...the authors' conslusions and insights help to illuminate not only the history of organized labor and the ILWU, but the present and future as well...Stephen-Norris and Zeitlin have helped us understand the importance of not repeating the mistakes of the Red Scare, and not letting another member of the House of Labor be left out." The Dispatcher
Book Description
Left Out discusses the legacy of the Communists in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during the 1930s through the 1950s. How did the Communists win and hold power in the CIO unions, and what did they do with it once they had it? Did they subordinated the needs of workers to those of the Soviet regime? Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin find that Communists were more egalitarian, the most progressive on class, race and gender issues, and leading fighters in exemplary workplace struggles to enlarge the freedom and enhance the human dignity of America's workers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Specter of Communism still haunts America,
By Mara Lindsay (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions (Paperback)
Left Out tears the veil of anti-Communism away to reveal the insurgent origins of Communist-led unionism in America. The Communists didn't "infiltrate" or "colonize" unions, but were instead the backbone of popular struggles for decent working conditions, racial equality, women's rights, and participatory democracy. Culling and compiling data from many sources, Left Out reveals a broad, grassroots support for the Communists in America's industrial unions stretching from the long decade of the 1930s through the early 1950s. The postwar decline of organized labor is, then, tied to the aggressive purge of Reds and radicals of all hues and the failure of the expelled Communist-led unions to forge their own labor federation. Left Out goes against the shibboleths of our time and questions the inevitability of American labor's self-destructive accommodation to corporate capitalism. Courageous, clear and compelling, this is counterfactual history at its best -- history returned to the actors who make it.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
...It pays to be a pinko Mr. Gompers.,
By
This review is from: Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions (Paperback)
The suggestion that the communists/radicals were able to infiltrate particular American CIO unions either because they were opportunistic organizers or because their ideology made them worked harder are quickly shown to be false in this revisionist book. The reason: the reds got better results for the rank-and-file.Because of a range of factors which the authors lay out in a very clear form, red (roughly meaning radicals of a socialist/communist nature not necessarily explicitly tied to the Communist Party) led CIO unions were much more democratic (underminging Michels' iron law of oligarchy), they consistently won more pro-labor contracts in comparison to their moderate and oligarchic counterparts in the CIO, they had higher levels of gender egaltarianism, and finally they had higher levels of racial egalitarianism. The bottom line is that because of the political practices that the reds adopted in certain CIO unions they were able to achieve more substantial gains in the labor movement - in terms of both organizing and collective bargaining. But what happened? Why did the CIO end of merging with the AFL and move to a business union strategy? The conclusion and epilogue provide a very interesting answer to this question which suggest that the radical leaders made a number of crucial tactical mistakes. But I will leave this to the reader to discover. This book could not come more highly reccommended. It revises the historiography concerning radicals in American unions and it also provides an interesting sociological analysis of political practices. The errors in research design are too minor to overshadow the great contribution that this book has made.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Specter of Communism still haunts America,
By Mara Lindsay (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions (Paperback)
Left Out tears the veil of anti-Communism away to reveal the insurgent origins of Communist-led unionism in America. The Communists didn't "infiltrate" or "colonize" unions, but were instead the backbone of popular struggles for decent working conditions, racial equality, women's rights, and participatory democracy. Culling and compiling data from many sources, Left Out reveals a broad, grasstoots support for the Communists in America's industrial unions from the long decade of the 1930s through the early 1950s. The postwar decline of organized labor is, then, tied to the aggressive purge of communism on the one side, and the failure of the expelled Communist-led unions to forge their own labor federation. Left Out goes against the shibboleths of our time and questions the inevitability of American labor's self-destructive accommodation to corporate capitalism. Courageous, clear and compelling, this is counterfactual history at its best -- history returned to the actors who make it.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Communism is now only a memory, but its specter still haunts America, obscuring and distorting our nation's recent past. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
oligarchic internationals, sporadic factions, prolabor provisions, small black membership, third labor movement, electoral contention, comparative odds, solidarity ratio, inner political life, insurgent origins, solidarity score, insurgent practices, large black membership, local union contracts, solidarity index, expelled internationals, rival political camps, uniform association, stable constitutional democracy, conditional prohibition, unitary unions, shifting camp, third federation, independent organizing, interracial solidarity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, World War, Walter Reuther, United States, Business Week, Daily Worker, Taft-Hartley Act, Cold War, Harry Bridges, Los Angeles, James Matles, San Francisco, Philip Murray, Ford Facts, Soviet Union, Unemployed Councils, Appendix Table, David Saposs, Furniture Workers, Julius Emspak, Smith Act, Department of Labor, Marshall Plan, War Labor Board, Henry Wallace New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Communism is now only a memory, but its specter still haunts America, obscuring and distorting our nation's recent past. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
oligarchic internationals, sporadic factions, prolabor provisions, small black membership, third labor movement, electoral contention, comparative odds, solidarity ratio, inner political life, insurgent origins, solidarity score, insurgent practices, large black membership, local union contracts, solidarity index, expelled internationals, rival political camps, uniform association, stable constitutional democracy, conditional prohibition, unitary unions, shifting camp, third federation, independent organizing, interracial solidarity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, World War, Walter Reuther, United States, Business Week, Daily Worker, Taft-Hartley Act, Cold War, Harry Bridges, Los Angeles, James Matles, San Francisco, Philip Murray, Ford Facts, Soviet Union, Unemployed Councils, Appendix Table, David Saposs, Furniture Workers, Julius Emspak, Smith Act, Department of Labor, Marshall Plan, War Labor Board, Henry Wallace New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- American Labor on 10 pages
- Union Democracy: The Inside Politics of the International Typographical Union by Seymour Martin Lipset on 5 pages
- Political Power and Social Theory (Political Power & Social Theory) by Maurice Zeitlin on 4 pages
- Black Labor in America (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies) by Milton Cantor in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- West Germany (Countries of the World) by Barbara Einhorn in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
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