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/lit/ - Literature

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14730233 No.14730233 [Reply] [Original]

I would like to know more about American labor unions. Can anyone recommend a good, informative book about their purpose and what they've accomplished?

>> No.14730241

That sounds like a very boring subject. Wouldn't you rather read about something more interesting, like trains?

>> No.14730244
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14730244

>>14730233
if you don't get a good answer, try leftypol as well

>> No.14730432
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14730432

>>14730244
Didn't leftypol get nuked along with the rest of 8chän?

>> No.14730451

>>14730432
look carefully at the image

>> No.14730492
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14730492

i'm convinced MKULTRA was successful. people like this are extremely rare outside of the US

>> No.14730502

>>14730492
Do people like that have no self-awareness? What does he live for? He is wasting his whole life on making money for someone else.

>> No.14730552

>>14730502
He can buy much more products than you can. How about that, commie?

>> No.14730606

>>14730233
"Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise", it's about 15 years old but it's the best critical read you're going to get.

Here's an old interview with the author from the Monthly Review
https://mronline.org/2006/03/30/whats-the-matter-with-u-s-organized-labor-an-interview-with-robert-fitch/

>>14730432
Correlation isn't causation. Unions weren't the only force lowering top marginal incomes.

>> No.14730645

>>14730492
your brain on protestantism

>> No.14730646

>>14730552
>consoooooooooooooooome

>> No.14730676
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14730676

>>14730606
Thanks, anon

>> No.14730708

>>14730492
H.P. Lovecraft really let himself go...

>> No.14730726

>>14730502
They literally don’t let you become a marine if you have an IQ above room temperature.

>> No.14730742

>>14730676
It's not some right-wing anti-union screed FYI, the authors a Marxist and just laying out how American unions over the years have work for corporate interests (not to mention outright mob ties), worked against public health coverage, etc, etc. The authors getting at if American unionism was just more like the Western European experience everything would be great. It's very overly sympathetic/optimistic in that regard... but this was written in the mid-00's.

>> No.14730755
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14730755

>a

>> No.14730780

>>14730742
Yeah that sounds like what I'm looking for. Not an economist or anything, but from what I've gathered A) unions were founded with good intentions and made serious accomplishments for the working class in the 19th and early 20th Century, B) at some point unions went to shit and became a kind of cartel, just another business trying to screw over the consumer, but C) some large and very powerful corporations these days seem very opposed to unionization, hinting that there must be some potential for unions to reclaim their status as a shield for the working class. Really just looking for a book that elaborates on all of this or corrects me if I'm wrong.

>> No.14730792

>>14730233
a economy...

>> No.14730839

>>14730233
Unions got btfo by Thaddues Russels Renegade History of the United States.

>> No.14730912

>>14730780
Of course corporations are opposed to unionization, what corporation doesn't want to deal with individuals as isolated competing persons to get the most work for the least cost? Even if that's collectively irrational and results in overwork and decreased real productivity for everyone if it appears less-costly on paper it's what they want.
Unions formed on the basis of workers looking out for their own interests, same reason companies may try to consolidate to maximize their profits. There's noting "socialist" or revolutionary about that per se, just self-interest. It's no more outrageous than granting corporations legal personhood and special rights like limited liability. All that's just what's created if you're going to have modern complex collective production.
When you look at a lot of those 19th century accomplishments like shortening the working day by the mid-20th century those type of really accomplishable concrete goals were dropped in favour of futile attempts to just raise nominal wages.

>>14730839
Infantile.

>> No.14731448

Try reading History of American Labor by Joseph G. Rayback. It is pretty neutral and focuses on different elements of the labor movement and internal conflicts as well as some of the rights we recieved through them.