Description:
Collected for the first time, the essays that comprise Embedded With Organized Labor present a unique and informed perspective on the class war at home from a longtime organizer and "participatory labor journalist." Steve Early tackles the most pressing issues facing unions today and describes how workers have organized successfully, on the job and in the community, in the face of employer opposition now and in the past.
This wide-ranging collection deals with the dilemmas of union radicalism, the obstacles to institutional change within organized labor, and strategies for securing workers' rights in the new global economy. It also addresses questions hotly debated among union activists and friends of labor, including workers' rights as human rights, new forms of worker organization such as worker centers, union democracy, cross-border solidarity, race, gender, and ethnic divisions in the working class, and the lessons of labor history.
Brief description: Steve Early has been an organizer, strike strategist, labor educator, and lawyer. He recently retired from his job as national staff member of the Communications Workers of America. Early's articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces have appeared in The Nation, New Politics, CounterPunch, The Progressive, American Prospect, Working USA, New Labor Forum, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and many other publications. He is currently completing a book on the role of 1960s activists in American unions.
Review Quotes: "Early says things other people in the labor movement would like to say but don't, because of protocol, fear of firing, or, if truth be told, fear of afflicting the comfortable. This collection shows the consistency, over the years, of Early's insistence on a worker's-eye view of the big picture, as he uses his acid pen to call out our ersatz reformers and self-appointed spokesmen."--Jane Slaughter "Labor Notes"