No power greater
Paul LeBlanc, "A Short History of the
U.S. Working Class", (Amherst, NY:
Humanity Books, 1999), 193 pp, $17.95
PAUL LeBlanc's superb new book, "A
Short History of the U.S. Working Class"
begins with a preface that outlines the jobs and trade union affiliations of the author's family. A life-long socialist as well as a college professor, LeBlanc writes working class history from the working class's point of view.
The scope of this book presents an author with a difficult task: to outline the breadth of American labor history in little more than a hundred pages of text. LeBlanc has met these challenges admirably. His book organically binds together and presents a coherent, chronological narrative that links disparate events into an overall theme of struggle and solidarity against class oppression.
LeBlanc writes from a consistent Marxist framework, which is more than partisanship and advocacy of measures favorable to the working class. His treatment of Marxist concepts, though, is never heavy-handed. LeBlanc's advocacy of the working class never descends to apology. A chapter on race, "Rainbow Working Class," begins with this factual statement: "The working class of the United States is one of the most diverse in the entire world." That diversity became a source of fragmentation rather than solidarity.
Why? LeBlanc explains that, "many industrialists felt that ethnic divisions among their workers made it easier to control the work force." Furthermore, "Racism and ethnic bigotry flourished within the divided working class, as earlier immigrants and their children struggled to maintain their precarious 'privileges.'"
LeBlanc notes instances where racial acknowledges these as exemplary exceptions to the norm. "Formally the AFL opposed excluding workers on the basis of race, creed, color, or ethnic background — but in fact it was common practice, often apologized for and justified by the AFL leaders themselves... It took some workers a long time to learn the 'practicality' of the egalitarianism and solidarity which was necessary for the working class to win its struggles against a powerful and often brutal capitalist class.
In this book political analysis, political opinion, and historical fact are blended with the aim of providing readers with a better understanding of events. These qualities are especially evident in
LeBlanc's account of the Carter-Reagan years. In the mid-1970s hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost in basic industry and hundreds of factories closed.
As a result of deregulation policies, spiraling interest rates, and cutbacks in social programs, the bizarre not only became an unlikely possibility but became the accomplished fact.
That is, "conservative Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan [could] look into the eyes of many working people and ask, 'Are you better off or worse off now than you were four years ago? The negative answer to that question helped to elect Reagan president of the United States."
Until they absorb the lessons of history, workers will continue to be whip-sawed by the dead-end strategy of lesser-evilism, in which the evil always worsens and the lesser shrinks to what the evil had been in the last go-round. The negative spiral winds down through the decades. Politically, economically, and organizationally, the working class and the union movement is kept in a weakened state as a result.
Is the labor movement on the threshold of change? Certainly, there are signs that lead to a sense of optimism and renewal. But history warns against overconfidence. LeBlanc concludes, then, not with ringing assertions but with a simple statement. "It remains to be seen to what extent the promise of democracy — rule by the people — will become a living reality in the new century." For better or worse, this judgement befits our times, where labor, for all its potential, remains on the defensive.
The American left today, perhaps even more than in the 1960s and 1970s, still suffers from a crisis of direction. The need to acquire the past is no less acute for today's generation of radical activists. "A Short History of the U.S. Working Class" should become one of the essential books for everyone who wants to understand America in order to change it. [Joe Auciello] * International Viewpoint #325 November 2000 35