For Labor, Armageddon

In the spring of 1995, when Lane Kirkland's old order was toppling and John Sweeney's young(er) Turks were poised to revitalize the American labor movement, one of the movement's leading operatives gave me his take on what was behind the revolt. "We didn't join the labor movement when it represented 20 percent of the work force," he said—and by "we," he meant a generation of more militant organizers, children of the sixties, who were then in their forties—"only to see it drift down to 5 percent on our watch."