“Management has no right to exist.”

March 14, 2020 10:42 AM

“ Gilpin makes clear that “communist domination” of the Farm Equipment Union was an overstatement, but the leadership was certainly influenced by the Communist Party, and that includes her father DeWitt Gilpin, who came on staff in 1941. CP involvement gave the leaders a “grounding in Marxist analysis, a dedication to racial solidarity, and a belief in perpetual class conflict that would shape their worldview” Their affiliation made them “zealous and unflagging” and “sustained them and instilled discipline through what proved to be a drawn out, and frequently discouraging, campaign.” Eric Dirnbach reviews Toni Gilpin’s The Long Deep Grudge - part labor history, part family biography — recounts the rise and fall of the radical United Farm Equipment Workers of America, and its relentless battles with the International Harvester corporation. Interview with Gilpin “The labor movement needs to learn its history.”
posted by The Whelk (2 comments total)

Thanks for sharing this. I was reading about FE and UE recently in the context of militant unionism, alongside Mine Mill (of Salt of the Earth fame) and the ILWU, and the Communist Party seems to be the common thread among them all. I don't think she was involved in any of these particular unions, but Dorothy Healey talks about her role as a communist in the labor movement in the excellent California Red.

I'm hoping that the recent increase in strikes, as well as the formation of rank-and-file reform movements like Unite All Workers for Democracy, is a sign of things to come for organized labor.
posted by heteronym at 5:34 PM on March 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

"Constant FE wildcat walkouts, hostility to managerial authority, and militant picket line activity demanded much of its leaders and members. It’s reasonable to ask how difficult it would be to revive this kind of struggle on a mass scale today and whether we need to."

Well, yes, yes we do, for a while, anyway. Current conditions should show us that.

But one union, or even a couple of unions, can't do all the work on their own, because what is gained will eventually be lost if workers do not come to own the means of production.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2020