| "(...) African American working class and labor history are inextricably interwoven with the larger history of the black community, the labor movement' and the nation itself. No less than in the past, the labor movement today is a complex phenomenon' which reveals divergent but related tendencies. on the one hand, we are struck by the decline in union membership from an estimated 35 percent of the nonagricultura] labor force in the mid-1950s to less than 20 percent by the mid-1980s. on the other hand, there is also evidence that the labor movement is undergoing a revival, as service workers, white collar professionals, women, immigrants, and diverse people of color enter the work force in growihg numbers. Moreover, workers are experimenting with creative combinations of old and new strategies and tactics: international solidarity, independent labor politics, various inside strategies, and civil disobedience. Taken together, according to labor historian Peter Rachleff, "we find the elements of a new labor movement." (...)" |
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