Staughton Lynd
Â  ,"We Are All Leaders", Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  describes a kind of union qualitatively different from the bureaucratic, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  business unions that make up the AFL-CIO today. From African American, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  nutpickers in St. Louis, chemical and rubber workers in Akron, textile, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  workers in the South, and bootleg miners in Pennsylvania to tenant farmers, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  in the Mississippi Delta, packinghouse and garment workers in Minnesota,, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  seamen in San Francisco, and labor party campaigns throughout the country,, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  workers in the 1930s were experimenting with community-based unionism., Â Â Â Â Â  Contributors to this volume, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  draw on interviews with participants in the events described, first-person, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  narratives, trade union documents, and other primary sources to tell what, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  workers of the 1930s did. The alternative unionism of the 1930s was democratic,, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  deeply rooted in mutual aid among workers in different crafts and work, Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â sites, and politically independent. The key to it was a value system based, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  on egalitarianism. The cry, "We are all leaders!" resonated, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  among rank-and-file activists. Their struggle, often ignored by historians,, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  has much to teach us today about union organizing., Â Â Â Â Â  CONTRIBUTORS: Rosemary Feurer,, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Peter Rachleff, Janet Irons, Mark D. Naison, Eric Leif Davin, Elizabeth, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Faue, Michael Kozura, John Borsos, Stan Weir, Â Â Â Â  ,A volume in the series ,Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, ,Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  David Montgomery, and Sean Wilenz, Â 
Labor,History,Nonfiction
We Are All Leaders: The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s