Labor’s Giant Step: The Rise of the CIO
The emergence of the CIO in the 1930s was the most significant development in American working-class history yet. The rise of industrial unionism swept the country by storm, organizing workers in entire industries across every part of the supply chain.
This movement ushered in innovative tactics like “rolling pickets” and “sit-down” strikes, which brought production to a total standstill. These militant tactics starkly posed the question, “who really runs the workplace?”
This period offers many rich lessons for communists today. Once again, economic storm clouds are gathering, resembling the period of the late 1920s. Every revolutionary must study this period in depth to prepare for the coming wave of radicalization and class struggle—because the high point of the American class struggle is still to come.
This discussion will be introduced by Jaybre Acres, a leading member of the RCA in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Reading list:
Articles
- Communists and the Trade Unions – RCA
- The Fight for a Mass Workers’ Party in the US – Tom Trottier
- The Role of the Trotskyists in the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike – Marco La Grotta
- How to Win Strikes – Henry DeBoer
- Class Struggle Unionism: Reviving the Labor Movement – Steve Iverson
- Class Struggle and the New Deal – Eric Goodman
Books
- Labor’s Giant Step – Art Preis
