The Revival of Labor Liberalism (review)

Political scientist Andrew Battista divides the story of labour liberalism in the United States over the past thirty years into three parts. Part 1 traces “The Rise and Decline of the Labor-Liberal Coalition,” covering the period from the New Deal into the 1970s. Part 2, “The Revival of the Labor-Liberal Coalition: Case Studies,” examines three major efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s to reconfigure and revitalize labour liberalism. Considered here are the Progressive Alliance (pa; 1978–81); the Citizen Labor Energy Coalition (clec; 1978–1984); and the National Labor Committee (nlc; 1981–). Part 3 addresses “The Past and Future of Labor-Liberal Politics” and treats the more recent past. It chronicles the forging of labour-led liberal initiatives, notably Jobs with Justice (jwj; 1986–) and the Economic Policy Institute (epi; 1986–), the victory of dissident unionists over the afl-cio establishment in 1995, and the split in the US labour movement that occurred with the secession in 2005 of the unions that now form the Change to Win (ctw) coalition.

Battista believes that despite its long-term decline and its marginalization in public discourse, organized labour remains critical to the fortunes of American liberalism. He also believes that cooperation between the labour movement and various strands of liberalism is essential to labour’s revival. In the 1960s and 1970s, the New Deal era labour-liberal nexus broke down as a new generation of liberals, focusing on civil rights, the environment, and foreign policy, increasingly perceived the labour movement as an impediment to social justice. Underlying this disaffection was a demographic reality that found widening disparities between the age, race, gender, and educational characteristics of liberal voters, on the one hand, and those attributes among union members. The victory of Richard Nixon in 1972 and the triumph of Ronald Reagan eight years later, along with declining Democratic presence in Congress, signaled the death knell of the New Deal labour-liberal coalition.

Battista’s recounting of the efforts of labour movement activists to rebuild the coalition in the 1970s and 1980s is an important contribution. While the pa and the clec were short-lived, both stimulated grassroots labour-liberal cooperation. The nlc, which still functions as a labour-liberal foreign policy advocacy body, sent the message to anti-war liberals that they had allies in the labour movement, despite the anti-Communist fixations of the afl-cio establishment. Battista points to specific, if limited, legislative victories such as plant closing legislation, resistance to natural gas deregulation, limitations on aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, and the initial defeat of “fast track” trade agreement authorization as in part a result of the efforts of these labour-liberal initiatives. The Jobs with Justice campaign and the Economic Policy Institute, both launched in 1986, evidence the success of the labour-led effort of the 1970s and 1980s to reconnect with liberal activists. Battista singles out Douglas Fraser, William Winpisinger, and Jerry Wurf, presidents respectively of the uaw, Machinists, and State, County, and Municipal Employees, for their leadership in these efforts. At the same time, Battista is measured in his claims for the accomplishments of the emerging labour liberal nexus. Organized labour’s continuing membership decline, conservative electoral success, and rightward drift of the Democratic party insured that such successes were defensive in nature and often only temporary in effect.

Battista sees the successful challenge of union dissidents to the afl-cio establishment, capped in 1995 by the election of John Sweeney to the federation’s presidency, as solidifying the labour-liberal coalition. The victory of Sweeney and his allies, Battista holds, represented the triumph of the vision of organized labour associated initially with late uaw president Walter Reuther, an unrelenting critic before his death in 1970 of the George Meany-led afl-cio. The Sweeney-led federation launched new organizing efforts that often linked membership drives to gender, race, and environmental concerns. The new leadership also substantially increased labour’s political operations, pouring millions of dollars into voter registration, voter...