1. Why study history at all?

a. We learn from it - gives us some control over future, etc.

b. Because its been hidden from us - why - who gains from hiding history? We begin to see history as a function of rich people, leaders, and ourselves as pawns or victims of history rather than its shapers and creators. Leaders are important but we must remember that history is the story of peoples' struggles and their relationship with the means of production, that is, the way goods and services are created.



History moves forward. You will see a progression of incidents but behind these incidents lies a steady progression, like the gains made in the hours of work.



c. Karl Marx - Wrote Manifesto in 1848 with Frederick Engles.



i. Class struggle--- said history was a reflection of that struggle. Classes arise out of the contradiction of the social means of production



and individual ownership of production. Are there classes in the U.S.A.?



ii. Surplus value - Results from contradiction of socialized means of production and anarchist means of ownership. Workers collective labor creates the value of a product but the workers are never paid the full value of their work.



iii. Dialectical Materialism. The study of change in the real world.



iv. Relationship of state to class struggle. The state is a weapon of those in power.



v. The labor movement has never been the same. Because students of Marx, in many often surprising ways, carried his ideas into the formation and growth of the unions.

2. Civil war---"I can hire half the working class to kill the other," (Jay Gould)

a. Fought over industrial capacity of North vs Slave-based economy of the south and the ability of both to expand into the west.

b. Slavery - the rich fought for profits (and stayed home - Rockie, Morgan, Carnegie, et.al.) the working class' fledgling unions enlisted.



c. Opening of the West - Dred Scott decision allowed slavery to open up new territory.



d. John Brown - violence against slavery.



e. William Sylvis and short lived national labor union - unique as national. Demanded 8 hour day.



f. A boom in the economy during the war - won by the north and a new form of slavery instituted in south - was followed by a bust in the 1870's. But in the 1860's the U.S. became second only to Great Britain in industrial output. There was, in 1860's, mass recruiting of European workers who often came because of political repression.



g. 1867---10,000 Chines laborers struck the Central Pacific RR.

3. 1870s---now more than 1/2 American workers are wage laborers.

a. Despite the hard times, people fought back. Like the Molly Maguires, Pennsylvania coal miners framed by pinkertons and then hanged in 1873.



b. National railroad strike of 1877. First national strike shut Pittsburgh. "We were shot back to work" by troops reg. army and national guard. It was necessary to whip up fear and hatred for "radicals, anarchist, and bomb-throwers" in order to get working class troops to shoot their compatriots. In the same year, all federal troops were removed from the south after a 12 year period of "reconstruction," perhaps the high point of U.S. democracy.

4. 1880s

a. Big money beginning to consolidate - Rockie in oil, Morgan in steel, etc.



b. Average work day - sixteen hours - child labor common.



c. Formation of the Knights of Labor, the International Working People Association and the AFL. (Craft Union) The war began between industrial and craft unions with employers aiding the crafts. K of L an industrial, but racist, union.

d. May 1, 1886, demo for the eight hour day. Peaceful parade of thousands. Later in day at a strike at the McKormick Harvester Plant, six workers fighting scabs on a picket line were killed. Chicago protest led by Parsons and Spies, the next day at Haymarket sq. Bomb -killed eight cops - Parson Spies, Engel & Fisher never accused of throwing bomb - no witnesses - but they were hanged for it despite a worldwide movement in opposition -- attack on whole labor movement and beginning of May Day as international holiday. May Day was shifted (by a compliant press) to a "foreign" holiday. Later, "Labor Day" was substituted for it. Later still, May Day became "Law Day." Today, outside the U.S., May Day stands as a workers holiday.

5. 1890s

a. Full fledged trusts are formed in basic industry which have never been broken - price fixing wage fixing trusts.



b. While industry organized, workers joined the splintered craft oriented AFL which excluded black and women workers and led by S. Gompers who opposed strikes and identified wholly with the employer.



c. But some fought for unity. Eugene Debs formed the American Railroad Union around 1894 and led the Pullman Strike -- General Strike - leadership jailed all over U.S., Attorney General was Clarence Darrow, first case he won---for the wrong side.



d. War against Spain and another war:



e. The war against the miners in the West. Troop warfare over 1,000 miners killed in five years trying to form the Western Federation of Miners --- Big Bill Haywood.



f. Reader of Shakespeare, gunfighter, speechmaker, and brawler, 6'2" 250 lbs, killed a man in gunfight, author, Autobiog., and rank and file. By 1905 had led the WFM in winning the eight hour day for miners and in 1905 helped form the Industrial Workers of the World - IWW - Wobblies -- a national industrial union opposed to the craft organizing of the AFL -- free speech fights - IWW in Michigan loggers -- a union on wheels -- Joe Hill (E. Shapiro ) 1915 hanging in Utah don't mourn - do not get caught dead in Utah. IWW sought to organize everyone, including the unemployed. IWW had a big base in Mexico and Canada. Fought everywhere by AFL. IWW weaknesses: openness, no real organization, no staying power, often organized transients. After IWW was broken, many leaders remained radicals, but many also just opened small businesses.



Gompers initiated the link between AFL and U.S intelligence when he took money from Pres. Wilson to develop a spy system against IWW in Mexico. Perhaps the first true step in the development of labor imperialism.



g. Lawrence Strike - 1912 - women and children led strike -- Eliz Gurley Flynn - Bread and Roses is being played in New York - won strike after pouring in IWW's. John Reed and New York's bohemians supported the strike.

6. Early 1900s -- abortive revolution in the Soviet Union.

a. Women and children still working for 6 days a week, 18 hour day common.



b. Big money still consolidating and labor still organizing.



c. 1914 - Ludlow massacre - led by J.D. Rockie Jr. -- Ludlow Col, Easter eve torched striking mourners' tents drove them out and shot everyone with machine guns.



d. Just 8% of U.S. workforce organized

7. World War I

a. War to end all war -- make world safe for democracy -- 13 million died -- U.S. didn't enter war till 1917 -- big pacifist movement - IWW opposed it (along with a few in the S.P.) as an imperialist war. By 1918, over 2000 IWWs were in jail for opposing war including Haywood. Debs also in jail - given 10 years. Gompers meanwhile sent labor missions to Europe to convince allied unions to cooperate. War ended and like all world wars so far, it was followed by a revolution, this one in Russia. Big impact on U.S. labor. Weakened IWW with leaders like Haywood joining CP -- RED SCARES -- big impact on bosses.



b. Great Steel Strike of 1919 - organized by WZ Foster in spite of Gompers under aegis of AFL -- 40,000 steel workers out -- Army called out to fight "Bolsheviks" --after four months strike broken.



c. Palmer Raids - around 10,000 workers rounded up over US for disloyalty by Atty. Gen. Palmer and aid J. Edgar Hoover. One thousand arrested in Detroit where they were held in fed building without food or water for six days before they were transferred to Ft. Wayne. Many wooblies deported. U.S. immigration policies tightened and industry recruiters in the South. Broke wobblies.



d. Formation of Communist Party in U.S. in 1919 with around 25,000 members, about 1/4 of them Russian immigrants. Party was quickly attacked an much of it driven underground. (John Reed---"Reds").



e. U.S. entered war as a debtor, exited as a creditor.

8. The Twenties

a. 1920 - Debs ran for president from jail and got one million votes - crook Harding won.



b. 1920-21 Sacco and Vanzetti - roaring red scared racist 20's - shoemaker and fish peddler - anti capitalists - framed for murder - appeals lasted for seven years despite a man confessing to the crime and demos of millions all over the world they were electrocuted in 1927. But America was dancing and invading other countries like Nicaragua. General Smedley Butler denounced the military for using him as a tool for the rich.



1. 1925 - 5 million in U.S. belonged to the Ku Klux Klan which led a massive hooded march in Washington, D.C. Many see the twenties as a high point for racism in the U.S. - which is saying something.




c. 1929 - Average work day was still 6 days 10 hours. KKK elected mayor of Detroit.

d. In 1929 the bubble burst - Depression - first bank closing in Michigan by 1932, 15 million unemployed - CP organized unemployed councils - fight don't starve - Ford Hunger March 1932 - Dearborn - Demo of about 10,000 tried to march on Rouge - Harry Bennett - six died - protest of 100,000 in Detroit.



e. Bonus March - called openly by CP - "we don't give a damn who called it, money isn't communist" - 25,000 in DC living in shacks attacked by fed troops led by Pershing, Patton, Eisenhower and McArthur - 8 died but bonus was eventually won.

9. The Thirties

a. In Germany, Hitler popularly elected to power on the heels of a massive right wing movement which was sponsored in part by U.S. industrialists like Henry Ford and politicians like John Foster Dulles (later head of CIA). Hitler had to murder 30,000 reds to come to power. He immediately began rounding up trade union leaders - relation of fascism to attacks on trade unions.Fascism is the direct rule of the rich. It is hypernationalist, warlike, mystical, epansionist and seeks to mask the struggle of classes through calls to national unity. It is racist and creates scapegoats for internal failures. Is fascism a logical or necessary result of capitalism or is it an aberration?

b. FDR was sworn in and a strike wave swept the country -- "the President wants you to join the union." Out in Michigan, union organizers were met by the Black Legion - the Klan of the North - and Ford's Harry Bennett who hired goons from Jackson Prison to bust the fledgling trade union movement. Arbitrary firings - silence on the line. The Cp was calling FDR a social fascist.



c. 1934 - San Francisco General Strike - Harry Bridges led the strike despite the attempts of local AFL President Ryan to break it. It was a grass roots strike truly led by the rank and file. Police and troops murdered several strikers but longshoremen won six hour day and union hiring hall. Longshoremen on the west coast have been one of the most supportive and "political" union ever since. On the east coast, the mob runs the unions on the docks.



d. 1935 Wagner Act which is the basis for nearly all labor legislation passed. Gave people the right to CB. At nearly the same time, the Social Security Act which established welfare and other benefits passed. These were not gifts to the people but made because of the estimate that there might be a revolution without them.



e. 1936 - Formation of the CIO - John L. Lewis. After knocking out another delegate, quit the AFL and took the UMW with him along with the LLGWU and others to form the CIO. Grew to two million in six months - primarily by using a new tactic - the sit down strike -seizing the factory. Sitdowns swept the country - the first in Detroit was in Woolworths led by women fountain clerks. Akron rubber workers won a 30 hour week with a sit-down strike.



f. Flint Sit Down Strike of 1937 - led by CP - and Reuther and his brother Victor - the fledgling UAW had been trying for a year to organize GM - GM owned Flint body and soul - from the cops to the judges to the press -44-day strike inside the plant - role of Womens Emergency Brigade subject of film, "With Babies and Banners". GM surrendered.



g. Steelworkers Organizing Committee led by CP and WZ Foster organized steel industry. Red baiting becomes a focus of the bosses and the press.

10. The Forties and Fifties

a. Spanish Civil War had drawn many rank and file leaders to enlist in Abe Lincoln brigade but had to enlist through Canada because once again, US was late in entering the war. There was some discussion as to whose side US would enter WWII on. In Britain, many in the Royal Family supported the Nazis, including the Duke of Windsor who would have been king if he had not married a "commoner."



The AFL and the CIO both supported the war and deepened their relationships with U.S intelligence agencies, working especially in Europe and Latin America. Both AFL and CIO agreed it was necessary to keep areas of markets and raw material open to U.S expansion. When Germany invaded the USSR in June, 1941, the CP leadership in the unions, what was left of it after numerous line changes, called for support for the war to defend mother Russia. They led the parade to exchange no strike pledges for guaranteed dues income. John L. Lewis and the mineworkers struck throughout the war anyway.



Post war, the OSS/CIA poured money into Europe. They began working with Nazis in 1943 and imported many of them, like Wehner Van Brahn, into the U.S. The CIA gave the French docks to the mob in exchange for driving out the reds. This was the beginning of the modern drug trade.



b. 20 Million Soviets died. The U.S. trade unions were decimated by no strike pledges. The war ended the depression but the economic good times only lasted about 2-3 years. Revolution brewed in China.



c. 1947 - Taft Hartley Act amended the Wagner Act - gave courts the right to fine unions and gave them the right to issue injunctions against them. Abolished the closed shop and prohibited secondary boycotts. The economic hard times also led to the intensification of red baiting, particularly coupled with the Dulles created cold war with the Soviets. A number of CP leaders were arrested for violating the Smith Act.



d. In 1949, the CIO led by Reuther (whom his brother claimed was now on the payroll of the US intelligence community), expelled the "reds" - among them The Mine & Smelters Union ("Salt of the Earth"), UE and the United Public Workers Union. Then they created "alternative" unions like I.U.E. to raid the UE. Membership dropped from 6 1/2 million in 1945 to 4 1/2 million in 1954. Meany became the president of the AFL - his claim to fame was that he was never on strike in his life.

Revolution in China drove Chang Kai Shek into the sea.

In 1953, the French lost at Dien Bien Phu. The U.S. moved to support the French.



e. 1955 - led by Meany and Reuther, the AFL and CIO merged.



Rosa Parks decided to sit in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama



f. McCarthyism - as an attack on the unions - anti commie clauses in constitutions. Blacklisting Common. HUAC hearings. Hollywood ten.



g. In later developments, the Teamsters were expelled from AFLCIO - UAW quit cause Reuther couldn't wait for Meany to die.



h. Unions said virtually nothing about the Korean War - unless to support it.

11. The Sixties to Now

a. Unions for the most part tailed behind students and community activists in both the civil rights and anti- war movements. This was partially caused by the racist nature - particularly of the skilled trade unions which dominate the AFL executive board and the nature of business unionism which sees class struggle, war, and racism out of their domain. LID (League for Industrial Democracy did give initial finding grants to the sds - a few Michigan sds and UAW locals maintained friendships - work of Worker Student Alliance).



b. Probably the AFL did more harm than good - particularly abroad during this period - AIFLD and ORIT American Institute for Free Labor Development - serving as CIA conduit to smash unions in Chile and ultimately the presidency - trying to wreck dockworkers union which were refusing to load ships bound for Vietnam.



c. Examine current TU leaders and their actions - Frazier - Woodcock - Wurf - Winpinsinger - Kirkland - Bieber.

12. 60s and 70s saw an explosion of public employee unionism.

Do we now have a shorter work week? (takes 2 in family)



Do public workers create value?



What causes inflation?



Does a shorter work week reduce profits?



Was Marx right on the government, class struggle, etc.?

13. American Institute for Free Labor Development:

a. Formed to respond to Castro in Cuba.



b. Follow already established "Guatemalan Pattern." In 1954, CIA & ORIT overthrew Arbenez government which was confiscating United Fruit land and installed Aramas.



c. AIFLD's first officers were: President Meany, Chairman of the Board Peter Grace - owns 70% of land in Peru - and "Guano" Billionaire.



d. AIFLD functions in nearly every country in Latin America. Has no direct domestic function. AFSCME's Zander directly involved in aiding CIA overthrow of Jagen government in Guyana. But now over 1/2 the AFL's budget is spent overseas.



e. Chile - IT&T (telecommunication industry nationalized) and AIFLD.

AFL broke French Dock Strike (1949). French were leading the war. $33 million channelled through Agency for International Development to AFL for support of war. Three factors in shaping union opinion on war:

(1) What's good for US capitalism is good for US workers.



(2) US domination of markets of the world is essential to US economy and, therefore, workers.



(3) War against communism.

AFL goon squads attacked anti-war activists - usually with cooperation of the employers. Vietnamese ended all this by inflicting a massive military defeat.

U.S. entered Vietnam as the most powerful country in the world. Exited in a permanent decline. Entered as a creditor nation, now the world's largest debtor.

El Salvador -Nicaragua-Peru etc.

In the 80's labor led a full scale retreat of American workers. Beginning with Reagan's crushing of the PATCO

strike, and culminating with Eastern, the labor leadership simply organized the demise of organized workers. By the end of the 80's less than 12% of the workforce was organized. The UAW lost over 1/2 million members. In part, labor mimicked management in this period. Major corporations in the U.S. abandoned their stated purpose, production of basic materials, and opted to merge and take profits. Perhaps the most glaring example was U.S. Steel which, after taking a million dollars in concessions from its workers, invested the savings in a liquor company. When asked, the company president simply said, "I'm not in business to make steel, I'm in business to make profits".

The major corporations, from auto to steel, downsized and outsourced their work. By the end of the decade, the industrial base of the U.S. was destroyed and the banking system was in trouble due to the boom built on sand.

The big unions, rather than lead any resistance (in 1988 there were less strikes than any time in recorded U.S. history), simply merged with one another in order to maintain their dues base and staff jobs. The UAW and Teamsters reentered the AFL as did the Mineworkers and any number of smaller unions. In the late 80's the top leadership of the nations largest union, the NEA, began to negotiate entrance into the AFL-CIO. Just as unions reflect the industries from which they grow, so did the labor movement, which, in a frenzy of mergers with no related creation of value, mimicked capital's actions in the 1980's.

From the 60's to the mid-80's the wealth of 90% of America's families increased by 1/2---by adding a second wage earner.

In the same period, the wealth of America's richest families shot up by 90%. Now the top 2% own 75% of everything. Most own nothing at all. One major illness would wipe out most of the rest.

In the 70's, growth ended in private sector unions. All union growth is in the public sector. Teachers are the most highly organized people in the United States.

Also in the 70's, business accelerated its unity as a class. In l978 business pac contributions ran about $8 million. By l980, business pacs had $85 million. Their agenda was to gain deregulation, wage erosion, to restrain government spending, and to restructure taxation. They enjoyed success. Government, in the words of former Budget Director David Stockman, "Became a trojan horse for the rich."

In the wage gains that are now made by unions are self-limiting bonus arrangements which are monies not included in the base pay.

In many areas, health and safety and even job protection, and certainly civil rights, the government is replacing the union as both advocate and arbiter.

From '73 to '85, average weekly wages dropped by 14% Now we see a situation of mass unemployment and underemployment while others are working forced overtime.

In '91, the U.S., now the worlds leading creditor nation, is fighting a war on money borrowed from nations that have a direct interest in the outcome but will not fight.

Richard Gibson 1991