Labor Rising : The Past and Future of Working People in America

When Wisconsin governor Scott Walker threatened the collective bargaining rights of the state's public sector employees in early 2011, the massive protests that erupted inresponse put the labor movement back on the nation's front pages. It was a fleeting reminder of a not-so-distant past when the “labor question”―and the power of organized labor―was part and parcel of a century-long struggle for justice and equality in America.

Now, on the heels of the expansive Occupy Wall Street movement and midterm election outcomes that are encouraging for the labor movement, the lessons of history are a vital handhold for the thousands of activists and citizens everywhere who sense that something has gone terribly wrong. This pithy and accessible volume provides readers with an understanding of the history that is directly relevant to the economic and political crises working people face today, and points the way to a revitalized twenty-first-century labor movement.

With original contributions from leading labor historians, social critics, and activists, Labor Rising makes crucial connections between the past and present, and then looks forward, asking how we might imagine a different future for all Americans.

Daniel Katz is a professor of history and dean of labor studies at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland. A former union organizer, he sits on the boards of the New York State Labor History Association and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. He is the author of All Together Different: Yiddish Socialists, Garment Workers, and the Labor Roots of Multiculturalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Richard A. Greenwald is a professor of history and social sciences and the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, New York. He blogs on workplace issues for In These Times and has written for The Progressive, Businessweek online, the Brooklyn Rail, and the Wall Street Journal. His previous books include The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace and the Making of Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York and Sweatshop USA: The Sweatshop in Global and Historical Perspective. He lives in Queens, New York.