Negro And White Unite And Fight

This pathbreaking study traces the rise--and subsequent fall--of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). Roger Horowitz emphasizes local leaders and meatpacking workers in Chicago, Kansas City, Sioux City, and Austin, Minnesota, and closely examines the unionizing of the workplace and the prominent role of black workers and women in UPWA. In clear, anecdotal style, Horowitz shows how three major firms in U.S. meat production and distribution became dominant by virtually eliminating union power. The union's decline, he argues, reflected massive pressure by capital for lower labor costs and greater control over the work process. In the end, the victorious firms were those that had been most successful at increasing the rate of exploitation of their workers, who now labor in conditions as bad as those of a century ago. "The definitive study of unionism in the meatpacking industry for the period since the 1920's." -- James R. Barrett, author of Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894-1922 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz Supported by the Illinois Labor History Society

Ambitious in its historical scope and its broad range of topics, Tied to the Great Packing Machine tells the dramatic story of meatpacking’s enormous effects on the economics, culture, and environment of the Midwest over the past century and a half. Wilson Warren situates the history of the industry in both its urban and its rural settings—moving from the huge stockyards of Chicago and Kansas City to today’s smaller meatpacking communities—and thus presents a complete portrayal of meatpacking’s place within the larger agro-industrial landscape. Writing from the vantage point of twenty-five years of extensive research, Warren analyzes the evolution of the packing industry from its early period, dominated by the big terminal markets, through the development of new marketing and technical innovations that transformed the ways animals were gathered, slaughtered, and processed and the final products were distributed. In addition, he concentrates on such cultural impacts as ethnic and racial variations, labor unions, gender issues, and changes in Americans’ attitudes toward the ethics of animal slaughter and patterns of meat consumption and such environmental problems as site-point pollution and microbe contamination, ending with a stimulating discussion of the future of American meatpacking. Providing an excellent and well-referenced analysis within a regional and temporal framework that ensures a fresh perspective, Tied to the Great Packing Machine is a dynamic narrative that contributes to a fuller understanding of the historical context and contemporary concerns of an extremely important industry.

This volume joins the preceding volumes in this distinguished series in presenting contemporary research by leading political scientists addressing topics of interest to those concerned with African-American affairs. It captures the expanding boundaries of black politics and the persistent interests of the black community at large. The anchoring symposium, "The Expanding Boundaries of Black Politics," presents the scholarship of a cadre of young black political scientists actively engaged in the critical tasks of moving forward the study of black politics. Their concerns include expanding the boundaries of black politics along the lines of epistemology and methodology, especially in regard to core issues and areas within this field. In an introductory essay by Todd Shaw, the work of these scholars is situated within the context of temporal shifts in scholarly emphases. Overlapping issues and concerns across time as well as black political scholarship as defined in the field since its beginning are addressed. The second part of this volume, entitled "Maximizing the Black Vote; Recognizing the Limits of Electoral Politics," concentrates on serious lingering social concerns. These include the policy significance of black mayors affecting the concomitant impact of the black vote, the boundaries being pushed concerning the conjunction of black theology and sexual identity, a gendered analysis of familial policies, and the deepening social and economic plight of young black males including felon disfranchisement. The Expanding Boundaries of Black Politics carries forth the search for an understanding of the relationship between religion, the black church, and black political behavior; cross-racial group coalitions as concerns matters of immigration, growing multiculturalism, and the impact on black politics; maximizing the impact of the black vote focusing on voting rights enforcement, the black vote in presidential elections, and the voice of the Congressional Black Caucus in American foreign policy; and persistent social inequalities especially as it concerns ideology, federalism, and social welfare policy.

aRecognized between 1880 and 1910 by its trademark label Iowa's Pride, John Morrell and Company is best known for contributing one of the most important local unions to the progressive United Packinghouse Workers of America. During the 1930s and 1940s, its members pursued a militant brand of unionism. By the early 1950s, the local's militancy became a source of contention among the membership. By explaining the effect of Morrell-Ottumwa's union leaders on local and state Democratic politics, especially in the development of the Congress of Industrial Organizations' Iowa State Industrial Union Council and the AFL-CIO's Iowa Federation of Labor, Wilson Warren makes an important contribution to the literature on labor's involvement in the Democratic party's ascendancy across much of the industrial North following World War II. This history of Ottumwa's meatpacking workers provides insights into the development of several forms of labor relations, including the evangelical Christian paternalism, welfare capitalism, and unionism that were distinctive to one blue-collar community but that also reflected workers' experiences in many other rural midwestern industrial communities. By carefully analyzing all relevant labor and industrial sources and by revealing the deeply held aspirations and concerns expressed by both workers and managers, Warren constructs a window through which Iowa's industrial and labor history over the past 120 years can be viewed."

Collects nearly four decades’ worth of writings by Detroit political and labor activist James Boggs.

This collection of 20 essays brings together a variety of articles-theoretical, historical, and experiential-that address multi-racial, multi-national unity. The book provides examples theoretically and historically, of efforts to build multi-racial unity in the twentieth century.

A history professor describes the impact and history of the opening speech made during the March on Washington by the trade unionist Philip Randolph, whose vision and fight for equal economic and social citizenship began in 1941.

During the Roaring '20s, African Americans rapidly transformed their Chicago into a "black metropolis." In this book, Christopher Robert Reed describes the rise of African Americans in Chicago's political economy, bringing to life the fleeting vibrancy of this dynamic period of racial consciousness and solidarity. Reed shows how African Americans rapidly transformed Chicago and achieved political and economic recognition by building on the massive population growth after the Great Migration from the South, the entry of a significant working class into the city's industrial work force, and the proliferation of black churches. Mapping out the labor issues and the struggle for control of black politics and black business, Reed offers an unromanticized view of the entrepreneurial efforts of black migrants, reassessing previous accounts such as St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's 1945 study Black Metropolis. Utilizing a wide range of historical data, The Rise of Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1920–1929 delineates a web of dynamic social forces to shed light on black businesses and the establishment of a black professional class. The exquisitely researched volume draws on fictional and nonfictional accounts of the era, black community guides, mainstream and community newspapers, contemporary scholars and activists, and personal interviews.