The New Left was still pretty “new” at the annual convention of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in June 1969. A direct ideological/historical line connects that long ago…
In July, members of the 52nd contingent of the Venceremos Brigade traveled to Cuba to demonstrate their solidarity with the country’s communist government. They were the latest of approximately 10,000…
In 2000, the executive council of the AFL-CIO reversed its policy on immigration, calling for amnesty for undocumented immigrants and ending sanctions on their employers. This represented a turn for…
As President John F. Kennedy took office in January 1961, organized labor looked ahead toward a future of ever-increasing power and influence. States had begun to advance laws requiring themselves…
In the 1960s, government worker unionism subordinating the wider labor movement was still decades away. The Left of organized labor (laying aside some straggling outright communists and fellow-travelers like International…
By 1979, when Lane Kirkland succeeded George Meany as head of the AFL-CIO, fundamental changes to the economy had led to a decline in the unionized share of the private…
Precisely one former national labor union president has been elected to the presidency of the United States: Ronald Reagan. Before his political career, he was already a notable figure, perhaps…
Lane Kirkland, leadership of the AFL-CIO from 1979 through 1995, was defined by the Long Decline in union membership and union density, the proportion of the workforce consisting of organized…
Corruption within organized labor is pervasive, but what happens to a union after the thieves, Mafiosi, or corrupt political fixers have been driven out by the long arm of the…
The labor-conservative faction led by American Compass—an ostensibly conservative think tank funded by liberal Big Philanthropy—has an insurmountable problem in converting the conservative movement and the Republican Party from its…