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Labour Book of the Week - Previous WeeksThere were no Labour Books of the Week in April and May 1999.31 March 1999: Cyberunion: Empowering Labor Through Computer Technology by Arthur B. Shostak; $64.95; Hardcover; Published May 1999.
The author of Robust Unionism -- and American labour's most prominent futurist -- takes a look at how unions are (and can) use computers. Essential reading.
A look at America's unions today -- from the rank-and-file point of view. The Nation recommended this book very highly in a recent review.
10 March 1999:
The author writes: "The goal of this book is to provide aid, comfort and tactical ammunition to
the labor movement's front-line troops, its union stewards. I hope it will
help strengthen the labor movement while it pursues its vital mission.
Employers of all stripes are making things harder than ever these days for
workers who are organizing and fighting to improve their lives. From the
huge international conglomerate to the small independent operator looking
to make his first million bucks, to the public employer who has decided
contracting out is the road to taxpayer approval and thus re-election, the
need for a strong, militant and united labor movement has never been more
felt. The only thing standing between unfair employers and their workers
are unions, and without dedicated and trained stewards, unions cannot
succeed."
A former union buster exposes the dirty tricks that elevated him to the top of his profession and that have transformed the war on organized labor into a billion-dollars-per-year industry. This book is the story of a man who has decided to come in out of the cold, to clear his conscience, and to share the hard lessons he has learned.
The Nation wrote: The first comprehensive guide to films about labor. . . succeeds in being a labor-history primer for cinephiles as well as an obscure-film resource for teachers and revolutionaries. Zaniello's capsule analyses are both scholarly and chatty, providing sources for further reading . . . on every single film. . . . A useful and far-reaching guide with abundant information. From the book description at Amazon.com: Stanley Aronowitz, a teacher, writer, and former trade union organizer, examines the decline of the labor movement in the past twenty-five years and its recent reemergence as a major player in the country's economic and political life. Republicans suddenly find themselves under attack from a forgotten foe. Democrats are shocked to see this ghost walking about, compelling the party to fight for a minimum-wage law it had practically abandoned. The labor movement, once given up for dead, is now the engine of economic democracy and progressive politics. But to succeed, Aronowitz argues, it must return to the social movement unionism of Debs and Reuther. Such an energetic new movement is the key to America's future. Bound to generate national debate, From the Ashes of the Old proposes a series of concrete, programmatic suggestions covering the principal challenges facing the labor movement today: organize in the South and among the working poor, unionize white-collar and technical employees, and reestablish labor's political independence.
3 February 1999: Provides an incisive analysis of the impact of de-unionization on the American economy, liberal ideology, the balance of political power, and the practice of politics, and calls for a reorganization of working America.
27 January 1999: This book contains a number of serious analyses of the U.S. labor's movement's current condition, and what it might do to rebuild for the future. The volume analyzes the overall state of U.S. unions, and arranges the essays according to the three themes of (1) organizing the unorganized; (2) outreach to community and international allies; and (3) internally transforming union cultures and operating methods. The book implicitly argues that (1) cannot be accomplished without (2), and that (1) and (2) likely cannot be achieved without (3). In this way the book aims to deepen the current discussion on how U.S. unions might revitalize themselves. Topics covered include: organizing in an era of contingent work and globalization; organizing through member volunteers; building "minority unions", careating coalitions with religious and community institutions; rebuilding the central labor council; international alliances to confront common employers; transformations in the building trades; "best practices" in recent attempts to internaly reorganize; and the depth of democratization and internal change necessary to rebuild. Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein describes the volume as follows: "Ideas and activism are indispensable to the revitalization of the American labor movement. In this stimulating and hopeful collection Bruce Nissen has assembled a set of remarkable essays by more than a dozen union sparkplugs who demonstrate that a new ferment is remaking the union idea before our very eyes. Excellent!". Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and President of the University and College Labor Education Association, writes, "Which Direction for Organized Labor is an excellent collection of essays on crucial issues confronting the American labor movement. The contributors include a dynamic cross seciton of scholars, union leaders, and fron line activists who are grappling with the hard questions concerning labor's revitalization. This is an important contribution to the emerging dialogue among labor leaders and progressive intellectuals that is taking place throughout the country." And Cornell University Director of Labor Education Research Kate Bronfenbrenner writes, "This volume brings together a diverse collection of fresh perspectives from labor and academia on some of the toughest challenges facing the American unions today. From organizing and bargaining in the global economy to community coalitions and union cities, the authors present compelling arguments about the dificult choices unions must make in their effort to rebuild and revitalizie their movement. This makes it important and worthwhile reading for union activists and labor scholars alike."
6 January 1999: A terrific collection of articles by leading officials of the new AFL-CIO as well as top journalists reviewing what has happened to the American labour movement since John Sweeney took charge in 1995. Highly recommended!
23 December 1998: Disparaged Success: Labour Politics in Postwar Japan by Ikuo Kume. Paperback. $16.95.
From the description on Amazon's website:
9 December 1998:Japanese scholars have begun to challenge conventional wisdom about effective labor organizing, and Ikuo Kume has written the first book in English to advance their controversial theory. Since at least the early 1980s, the power of organized labor has weakened in most advanced industrial countries. Kume documents the one notable exception. The Japanese trade union confederation has steadily grown in importance, expanding its scope beyond individual companies to national policy making. Kume traces the achievements of enterprise unionism in private firms. Labor, he argues, slowly gained legitimate corporate membership by establishing joint institutions with management. By the 1960s, labor-management councils, stimulated by foreign competition, had become a wide-spread feature of Japanese industry. Soon unions were regular participants in the government deliberation councils and in the information exchange that shaped policy when inflation hit the Japanese economy. The unions had become a full partner by the 1980s and were crucially involved in the 1993 defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party after thirty-eight years of rule. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile by Mary Helen Spooner. Hardcover. $35.00.
From the description on Amazon's website:
On September 11, 1973, a military coup in Chile violently overthrew the socialist government of Salvadore Allende, beginning an era of political repression that lasted over sixteen years. Soldiers in a Narrow Land is a devastating account of the Pinochet regime that provides an inside look at the rise and slow disintegration of a brutal dictatorship. Mary Helen Spooner takes us behind the wall of censorship and propaganda, recounting vivid stories of persecution, struggle, and political rivalry. She traces the personal histories of key political figures, explains why many Chileans supported the regime, and reveals in stark detail the fate of many of its victims. Pinochet himself was a reluctant participant in the 1973 coup, but quickly grew into the role of absolute dictator, disposing of potential military rivals as well as civilian dissidents. His notorious secret police were responsible for acts of terrorism at home and abroad, including the 1976 assassination of exiled Chilean minister Orlando Letelier and his American coworker in a car bombing in Washington, D.C. Spooner, who spent nine years in Chile working as a correspondent for such publications as Newsweek and the Economist, was on hand to witness the creation of the regime's new, authoritarian constitution and the successes and failures of its controversial experiment in free-market economics. She saw the first nationwide antigovernment protests and the subsequent regime crackdown, and she voted in the one-man presidential plebescite in 1988 that Pinochet and his backers believed he could not lose. The fall of dictators in eastern Europe has prompted some revisionists to gloss over the Pinochet regime's record; this book shows that Pinochet was neither a free-market visionary nor an anticommunist hero, but rather a ruthless and opportunistic army general whose security forces targeted military rivals as well as political dissenters, and who harbored a deep distrust of the United States during both Democratic and Republican administrations. Drawing on interviews with former regime officials, military officers, and ordinary Chileans from many walks of life, as well as on recently declassified State Department documents, this powerful work unravels the complex and harrowing events that transformed Chilean society. Compelling and vividly descriptive, Soldiers in a Narrow Land is sure to engender controversy and debate. 2 December 1998: The Crisis of Global Capitalism by George Soros. Hardcover. $16.50. 40% Off List Price!
Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalization: Alternative Union Models in the New World Order Edited by Ronaldo Munck and Peter Waterman. Hardcover. $79.95. To be published February 1999 (may be ordered now).
18 November 1998: Workers in a Lean World : Unions in the International Economy by Kim Moody. Paperback. $20.
The World's Strongest Trade Unions: The Scandinavian Labor Movement by Walter Galenson. Hardcover. $55. From the publisher:
4 November 1998: Globalization, Social Movements, and the New Internationalisms (Employment and Work Relations in Context) by Peter Waterman. Hardcover. $90. What author Peter Waterman writes:
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This document was last modified: Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 08:32:21 CET