Description

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Critical reading for all who care about the future of labor, Solidarity Unionism draws deeply on Staughton Lynd’s experiences as a labor lawyer and activist in Youngstown, Ohio, and on his profound understanding of the history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The book helps us begin to put not only movement, but also vision, back into the labor movement. There is a blossoming of rank-and-file worker organizations throughout the world that are countering rapacious capitalists and labor leaders who think they know more about work and struggle than their own members. To secure the gains of solidarity unions, Lynd has proposed parallel bodies of workers who share the principles of rank-and-file solidarity and can coordinate the activities of local workers’ assemblies. Detailed and inspiring examples include experiments in workers’ self-organization across industries in steel-producing Youngstown, as well as horizontal networks of solidarity formed in a variety of U.S. cities and successful direct actions overseas. This book is not a prescription but reveals the lived experience of working people continuously taking risks for the common good.

About the Author

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Staughton Lynd practiced employment law for 20 years, coedited Rank and File, and edited We Are All Leaders. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio. Immanuel Ness is a political economist who specializes in labor unions, and professor of political science at City University of New York. He is editor of WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society and author of numerous works including New Forms of Worker Organization He lives in New York City. Mike Konopacki is a political cartoonist specializing in labor issues. He is coauthor and illustrator of Howard Zinn’s graphic history A People’s History of American Empire. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Praise For…

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“Solidarity Unionism is based in a vision of genuine democracy. It’s accessibly written and rich in practical examples. I've used it successfully in study groups and labor education courses both to draw out and learn from participants’ own experiences and to plan our next steps in struggles. Challenging some of what are conventionally thought of as “wins” (e.g. dues checkoff or signed contracts), the book impels the kind of strategic thinking otherwise lacking in most of labor and the left.”  —Norm Diamond, former president, Pacific Northwest Labor College, and coauthor, The Power in Our Hands

“Brother Staughton Lynd continues to offer an informed, critical voice and many important ideas for today's labor movement. Anyone fighting for a better world for working people will be glad to read this revised edition of Solidarity Unionism, and to pass it on to students, friends, and fellow workers.”  —Michael Honey, Haley Professor of Humanities, University of Washington–Tacoma, and author, Going Down Jericho Road

“Staughton Lynd’s Solidarity Unionism mines his decades of labor activism and a century of American workers' struggles to shine a beacon on an alternative path that replaces top-down labor organization with local autonomy and community-level networking. Before you despair of reasserting workers' rights and power, read Solidarity Unionism!”  —Jeremy Brecher, Labor Network for Sustainability, and author, Strike!

“In Solidarity Unionism, workers are protagonists, not spectators, and that makes all the difference in the world. Staughton Lynd’s ideas will be at the heart of the next mass worker rising.”  —Daniel Gross, executive director of Brandworkers, and cofounder, IWW Starbucks Workers Union

"Lynd writes that the internationalization of capital has revealed the inability of centralized unions to respond to new challenges. We need solidarity across unions, industries, and even types of workers." —Daniel Tseghay, rabble.ca

"Staughton Lynd has given us a concise guide to thinking about workplace organization differently." —Pete Dolack, counterpunch.org

"The philosophy and practice of solidarity unionism provides a critical reminder of alternative ways of organizing and a valuable framework for the stronger and more militant labor movement that we need." —Eric Dirnbach, wagingnonviolence.org