"We Are All Leaders": The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s

  "We Are All Leaders"         describes a kind of union qualitatively different from the bureaucratic         business unions that make up the AFL-CIO today. From African American         nutpickers in St. Louis, chemical and rubber workers in Akron, textile         workers in the South, and bootleg miners in Pennsylvania to tenant farmers         in the Mississippi Delta, packinghouse and garment workers in Minnesota,         seamen in San Francisco, and labor party campaigns throughout the country,         workers in the 1930s were experimenting with community-based unionism.       Contributors to this volume         draw on interviews with participants in the events described, first-person         narratives, trade union documents, and other primary sources to tell what         workers of the 1930s did. The alternative unionism of the 1930s was democratic,         deeply rooted in mutual aid among workers in different crafts and work         sites, and politically independent. The key to it was a value system based         on egalitarianism. The cry, "We are all leaders!" resonated         among rank-and-file activists. Their struggle, often ignored by historians,         has much to teach us today about union organizing.       CONTRIBUTORS: Rosemary Feurer,         Peter Rachleff, Janet Irons, Mark D. Naison, Eric Leif Davin, Elizabeth         Faue, Michael Kozura, John Borsos, Stan Weir      A volume in the series         The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris,         David Montgomery, and Sean Wilenz  … (more)