In this Book
- Singlejack Solidarity
- Book
- 2004
- Published by: University of Minnesota Press
- Series: Critical American Studies
summary
Blue-collar intellectual and activist publisher, Stan Weir devoted his life to the advocacy of his fellow workers. Weir was both a thoughtful observer and an active participant in many of the key struggles that shaped the labor movement and the political left in postwar America. He reported firsthand from the front lines of decisive fights over the nature of unions in the auto industry, the resistance to automation on the waterfront, and battles over racial integration in the workplace and within unions themselves. Written throughout Weir’s decades as a blue-collar worker and labor educator, Singlejack Solidarity offers a rare look at modern life and social relations as seen from the factory, dockside, and the shop floor. This volume analyzes issues central to working-class life today, such as the human costs of automation, union policies, mass media images of work, and intergenerational relations in working-class families. It also provides humorous commentaries, historical vignettes, and moving portraits of people Weir encountered, including James Baldwin, C. L. R. James, and Eric Hoffer. Gathered here for the first time, Weir’s writings are equal parts memoir, labor history, and polemic; taken together, they document a crucial chapter in the life story of working-class America.
Table of Contents
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- I. Working-Class Cultures
- Meetings with James Baldwin
- pp. 3-16
- What Ever Happened to Frisco Jeans?
- pp. 17-20
- C. L. R. James: Revolutionary Artist
- pp. 21-25
- Work Force Writers on the Rise
- pp. 29-31
- I Am Lonely
- pp. 32-36
- II. The Human Costs of Automation
- The Human Cost of Automation
- pp. 68-72
- Luddism Today
- pp. 76-90
- III. Solidarity Networks
- Unions with Leaders Who Stay on the Job
- pp. 109-152
- The Need for Labor Networking
- pp. 153-154
- Introduction to Coordinadora
- pp. 157-159
- Strike in Spain Reveals Sickness and Cure
- pp. 160-163
- IV. Workers, Politics, and Social Change
- Eric Hoffer: Far-Right True Believer
- pp. 171-188
- Workers: Second-Class Citizens
- pp. 191-193
- Bill Akagi and the Union
- pp. 194-195
- V. The Vanguard Party and Worker Self-Activity
- Life in a Vanguard Party
- pp. 212-217
- After the War
- pp. 218-219
- VI. Primary Work Groups
- The Informal Work Group
- pp. 239-255
- Just a Matter of Gloves
- pp. 256-259
- VII. The Failure of Business Unionism, the Rank and File Alternative
- USA: The Labor Revolt
- pp. 302-317
- Doug Fraser's Middle-Class Coalition
- pp. 318-331
- The Failure of Business Unionism
- pp. 332-345
- The Australian Dock Strike
- pp. 346-353
- Stan Weir: Working-Class Visionary
- pp. 354-364
- Publication History
- pp. 375-378
Additional Information
ISBN
9780816695652
Related ISBN(s)
9780816642946
MARC Record
OCLC
228145221
Pages
400
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No