Class War, USA: Dispatches from Workers' Struggles in American History

by Brandon Weber

Overview

Class War, USA is a rich collection of stories about ordinary people who resisted oppression and exploitation against all odds. Brandon Weber's succinct and vivid essays capture crucial moments of struggle when working-class people built movements of hope and defiance. Evocative imagery, archival photographs, and descriptive text make history come alive in these pages.

From the mines to the factories to the fields, Weber shares the experiences of the real-life men and women who organized, heroically resisted, and battled the bosses and corrupt politicians. In the spirit of A People’s History of the United States, this book conveys engaging and accessible narratives of ordinary people who led labor struggles that have indelibly shaped American history.

Essays include vivid accounts of resistance in the workplace like the Ludlow miner’s strike and organizing at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, as well as broader pieces on cultural figures like Woody Guthrie, Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK, and the fight for the eight-hour day.

An invaluable tool for learning the lessons of grassroots struggle, Class War, USA is the perfect counter-narrative to the myth that change comes only from the top, and will appeal to students of history and labor activists alike.

Brandon Weber has written for The Progressive, Upworthy, Big Think, and many other online publications, and has been a union activist for over 30 years. His has also written for The Progressive Magazine, Common Dreams, Good.Is and Liberals Unite.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608468478
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Brandon Weber (1963-2020) wrote for The Progressive, Upworthy, Big Think, and many other online publications, where wrote extensively on labor history and current events. He also was a union activist for more than 30 years.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. Joe Hill

Labor’s Best-Known Songwriter Refused to be Buried in the State of Utah

1. Lowell, Massachusetts

America’s Very First Union of Working Women

1. The Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike

African American Women with the Power to Call a General Strike—in 1881

1. Pullman

Former Slaves Were Hired to Staff Pullman Box Cars Because They “Knew How to Be Servile” So They Formed a Union

1. Chicago

The Haymarket Massacre of 1886 and the Pullman Strike of 1894: Chicago Was the Center of Both Struggles, and Things Got White-Hot

1. Eugene Debs

The Carnegies and Rockefellers Tried to Silence Debs with Jail Time. That Didn’t Stop Him

1. Colorado’s Mining Frontier

Cripple Creek, 1894, and Ludlow, 1913: Two Very Different Battles, and Both Were Shocking

1. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

One Hundred Twenty-Three Young Women Who Went to Work One Day in a New York Factory Never Came Home. It Changed Our Country Forever

1. Christmas Eve, 1913

Fifty-Nine Children Died on Christmas Eve, 1913, and It Broke Hearts Around the World

1. Christmas Truce

These Soldiers Were Thought to Be Enemies, but They Played Soccer and Celebrated Christmas Eve,1914, Together

1. The Battle of Blair Mountain

It Ended When Federal Troops Were Called Against Thirteen Thousand Miners It Was “Civil War in the Hills”

1. Tulsa, Oklahoma

Ever Heard of “Black Wall Street”? There’s a Reason You Might Not Have

1. Bonus Army

The Great Depression Left WWI Vets with the Short End of the Stick, They Weren’t Going to Sit Back and Take It

1. The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934

It Began with Truck Drivers Who Wanted a Union. They Became Teamsters

1. Sitting Down, Striking Flint

These Images Might Look Like Some Lazy Workers, Up to No Good But They’re Actually Heroes

1. The Battle of the Overpass

A PR Disaster for Ford Motor Company that Kick-Started the UAW

1. “Rosie the Riveter”

Remember the “Rosie the Riveter” Image Pretty Much Everybody Knows? (Ahem)

1. United Farmworkers

That Time When 14 Million Americans Stopped Eating Grapes, Because Farmworkers Asked Them To

1. The Stonewall Rebellion

A Civil Rights Battle for the Times

1. Wildcat

In 1970, Postal Workers Suddenly Walked off the Job. The Nation, the Union, and Even President Nixon Were Caught by Surprise

1. Attica

What Actually Happened at Attica in 1971 Is Still Largely Kept Hidden—but Clues and Facts Are Coming Out Even Now

1. The Watsonville, California, Cannery Strike

This Is What Solidarity Looks Like

1. UPS

Those Packages Won’t Move Themselves: Big Brown Versus the IBT

1. The Fight for $15

The Long Game, and Why It’s Part of Labor’s Future

1. Woody Guthrie

Why Several Verses of “This Land Is Your Land” Are Usually Left Off When It’s Taught in School

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Brandon Weber knows how to tell a good story, and he has a knack for labor history. There are stories here you've never heard of and ones that you have — but read them all. They'll light a fire under you!"
-Mrill Ingram, The Progressive

"At a time when unions face the possibility of extinction, Brandon Weber’s Class War, USA shows us that working-class struggle is the only strategy that has ever advanced the labor movement historically—and is also the only way forward today. This book is indispensable reading for today’s generation of young workers who—through no fault of their own—have no knowledge of the US working class’ vast tradition of struggle, or its relevance for the future. At the same time, Class War, USA is just as valuable for those who have withstood the relentless assault on unions over the last four decades—and will undoubtedly find tremendous inspiration in the history Weber so convincingly tells. It is also worth noting that Weber also recounts the stories of working-class struggles far beyond the realm of the official union movement, including the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the gay liberation movement in 1969 and the Attica prison uprising in 1971. At fewer than 150 pages, written in accessible language, illustrated with an abundance of original photographs, this book should be on the coffee tables of all those invested in returning to a tradition of class struggle in the US."
-Sharon Smith, author of Subterranean Fire

"Brandon Weber’s Class War USA isn’t just a retelling of well-known and not-so-well-known strikes. Weber has done for a new generation of social and labor activists what Sid Lens did for an earlier one: bring to life the hard scrabble union, social, and political struggles of working class people from the past to the present. And by the way, in case you ever wondered why Woody Guthrie’s "This Land is Your Land" never became the national anthem, Weber has the answer."
-Kim Moody, a founder of Labor Notes and author of On New Terrain: How Capital is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War

"Brandon Weber does a masterful job at succinctly bringing to life many gripping and insightful episodes from the rich history of American labor, allowing readers to draw invaluable lessons for today’s struggles. Yes, this was, and is, class war. In his colorful collection, Weber vividly shows that people working together can, against all odds in a culture that fetishizes individualism, bring about social progress. Now, let’s get these stories and lessons into the hands of those who buy into the
prevailing divisiveness and tribalism, so that they too can unite across racial, ethnic, gender and other barriers and be heard!"
-Dr. Thomas Greven, Freie Universityät Berlin/Germany

“[Class War, USA is] a brave attempt to focus attention on a subject, the need for strong unions, at a time when too many people appear to be dissatisfied with their situations, but don’t want to commit themselves to organisations which could help to resolve their problems.”—Northern Review of Books

From the Publisher