Rebel Rank and File
Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below During the Long 1970s
Edited by Aaron Brenner, Robert Brenner, and Cal Winslow
Paperback with free ebook
July 2020 / 9781789600889
Hardback with free ebook
320 pages / December 2010 / 9781844671731
The hidden story of the 1970s insurgency from below, against employers and bureaucrats.
Often considered irredeemably conservative, the US working class actually has a rich history of revolt. Rebel Rank and File uncovers the hidden story of insurgency from below against employers and union bureaucrats in the late 1960s and 1970s.
From the mid-1960s to 1981, rank-and-file workers in the United States engaged in a level of sustained militancy not seen since the Great Depression and World War II. Millions participated in one of the largest strike waves in US history. There were 5,716 stoppages in 1970 alone, involving more than 3 million workers. Contract rejections, collective insubordination, sabotage, organized slowdowns, and wildcat strikes were the order of the day.
Workers targeted much of their activity at union leaders, forming caucuses to fight for more democratic and combative unions that would forcefully resist the mounting offensive from employers that appeared at the end of the postwar economic boom. It was a remarkable era in the history of US class struggle, one rich in lessons for today's labor movement.
"Truly shines ... By uncovering the hidden history of the 1970s, Rebel Rank and File reminds us that there is another path to union renewal—a path firmly rooted in the workplace and motivated by visions of transforming society."
– Joe Burns, In These Times
"An important collection ... honest and thoughtful."
– World Wide Work
"This is an unusually high-quality effort, with an all-star cast of authors, which should attract wide interest."
– Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at University of California Santa Barbara
"The chapters in this collection take the reader on a vivid journey through battlegrounds of the 1960s and 1970s where workers and employers clashed over the future of the US workplace."
– Against The Current
"Bracing and often electrifying ... A primer and a call to arms for a radical rank-and-file politics."
– Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies at UC Berkeley
"Extraordinary reflections."
"[A] spirited volume ... a call to arms to today's workers and potential activists."
– Choice
"Page after page of the remarkable militancy of rank-and-file workers."
– John Borsos, WorkingUSA
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