Steve Early On Labor's Renewed Solidarity

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“Things had certainly been looking pretty depressing when I wrote my book” laughs Steve Early, who appears at the 5th & K Busboys and Poets tomorrow night at 6:30P to discuss his new book “The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor: Birth of a New Workers' Movement or Death Throes of the Old?” Labor’s political agenda had stalled and there were splits emerging between the private and public sector unions, Early – a labor journalist and lawyer -- told Union City in a phone interview late last week from his home in Boston. “So the broad cross-union solidarity” around the attacks on public workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere “has been really encouraging. It’s given new impetus to the idea of reviving unions through direct action and bottom-up organizing. Instead of the usual boring lobby day, these folks (in Wisconsin) showed up with their sleeping bags and didn’t leave.” And no matter what the outcome of the various specific battles, “the spirit of solidarity seems to be pretty contagious,” said Early. This spirit is in stark contrast to the $140 million Early says was spent on “inter- and intra-union conflicts from 2008 to 2010,” in what he terms “a carnival of organizational cannibalism that was a huge distraction during a key window of opportunity for labor to take the offensive between Obama’s election and the Republican re-capture of the House.” His book, Early says, “is not intended to point a finger of blame but to examine the systemic causes of the problems.” Tuesday’s free discussion is co-sponsored by Labor Notes, WorkingUSA, Monthly Review and Haymarket. - Chris Garlock