The Era Was Lost
The Rise and Fall of New York City’s Rank-and-File Rebels
By Glenn Dyer
232 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-8206-8
Published: October 2024 -
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8205-1
Published: October 2024
Justice, Power, and Politics
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Workers in unions across New York wanted more than better contracts: they contested control of the work process, racism on the job, and workers' place in America's socioeconomic hierarchy while implicitly and explicitly demanding greater democratic control of their representative organizations. Some initial challenges were effective and succeeded in delivering better contracts and unseating undemocratic leaders. However, those early successes were short-lived. Glenn Dyer traces the way workers were met with employer recalcitrance and union attacks that proved too powerful to organize against. In the face of this resistance, workers retreated into a survivalist attitude of accommodation and resignation, contributing to the decline of social democratic New York and working-class power in the city. Ultimately, Dyer argues, the failures of the rank-and-file organizing efforts in New York City, which was the biggest center of organized labor in the country, shows how stunted workers' aspirations and numerous defeats not only uprooted the foundations of New York's uniquely social democratic polity but also ushered in a national era of increased working-class subservience that has resonance today.
About the Author
Glenn Dyer is a lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy at Kennesaw State University.
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Reviews
"A superb social and labor history. Charting the strike surge that swept New York City in the decade prior to the fiscal crisis of 1975, Dyer illuminates this central aspect of the city's life."—Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics
"With expansive research and fresh insights, this impressive first look at rank-and-file worker militancy in New York City during this period substantially furthers the field of labor studies and working-class history."—Robert Ovetz, author of We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few