{"id":2422,"date":"2021-01-08T15:22:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T20:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=2422"},"modified":"2021-01-08T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T21:22:13","slug":"what-labors-untold-story-doesnt-tell-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2021\/01\/what-labors-untold-story-doesnt-tell-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What Labor\u2019s Untold Story doesn\u2019t tell you"},"content":{"rendered":"

L<\/span>abor\u2019s Untold Story by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais is one of the classic books of United States labor and Left history. It was published by the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) in 1955<\/a> when Cold War repression still raged. Boyer and Morais sought to salvage the bloody history of class struggle and the heroic role of radicals from the anti-Communist wrecking ball of the era. It pitched itself as \u201cThe adventure story of the battles, betrayals, and victories of American working men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not surprising that the UE published Labor\u2019s Untold Story (LUS). The UE was one of the eleven \u201cCommunist-dominated\u201d unions, to use the language of that era, that was expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1949-1950. The once militant mass movement of industrial workers of the late 1930s and 1940s, the CIO, was tamed by Cold War repression. The UE was one of the largest CIO-affiliated unions. Members and supporters of the besieged Communist Party, USA (CP) bore the brunt of this repression, including many leaders of the UE throughout the country.<\/p>\n

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I read LUS when I was a young socialist in the late 1970s along with The Labor Wars<\/a> by Sidney Lens. I was not alone. LUS was certainly a favorite textbook for many young radicalizing students and workers throughout those years. Both books, however, were difficult to find back then except in left-wing or used book stores. So, when I read in Jacobin<\/a> and The Intercept<\/a> that LUS was getting a fresh hearing, I was heartened by the renewed interest in labor history, but I also cringed because of its paleo-Stalinist politics. After all Boyer and Morais wrote LUS from the perspective as loyal members of a highly Stalinized Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Do not get me wrong, there are many strengths to LUS. Boyer was a gifted writer who wrote for a variety of news outlets during his lifetime, including the New Yorker. The first two-thirds of the book are exciting reading. I credit Boyer with making this history leap off the page. It lives up to its billing as an \u201cadventure story\u201d replete with massive battles between labor and capital from the end of the Civil War to World War I. All our heroes are there: the Haymarket Martyrs, the Industrial Workers of the World, Eugene Debs, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and many more.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the last third of the book takes a turn for the worse. It devolves into a polemic in defense of CP politics from the late 1920s onward, including writing out of history Trotskyists and other radicals that led many of the most important strikes of the era. Here a few examples:<\/p>\n

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  1. The mass strikes of 1934 in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Toledo were a major turning point in the emergence of a mass industrial workers movement that eventually led to the formation of the CIO. Yet, Boyer and Morais exclude any mention of the Minneapolis Teamster<\/a> strikes, led by the Trotskyists\u2019 Communist League of America, or the Toledo<\/a> auto strike, led by A.J. Muste\u2019s American Workers Party. These strikes were excluded because they were not led by the CP.<\/li>\n
  2. The Smith Act, signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1940, gets brief mention towards the end of the book as the legal instrument used by the federal government to destroy the CP. Yet, the Smith Act was first used against the Trotskyists<\/a> in Minneapolis to destroy their influence in the labor movement\u2014a prosecution that was cheered on by the CP. Boyer and Morais exclude any reference to this.<\/li>\n
  3. During World War II, a massive rank and file rebellion against the no strike pledge<\/a> of the American Federation of Labor and the CIO swept across the industrial landscape starting in 1943. This rebellion happened despite the vigorous opposition of union officials, including the leaders of the UE. It was an important prelude to the historic strike wave of 1945-1946, immediately following the end of the war.\u00a0 Once again, there is no discussion of these events.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n