Introducing... Organize the Unorganized
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2024
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There have been many moments of labor upsurge in America: the influx of members into the Knights of Labor in 1886, the dramatic growth of unions during and after World War I, and the great wave of public sector unionism in the 1960s and ‘70s. But none matches the period of the 1930s and ‘40s, when millions of workers unionized under the aegis of the great labor federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. If we’re looking to get millions of private-sector workers into the labor movement today, there’s no better example than the ascendant period of the CIO.
In Organize the Unorganized, a podcast produced by the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University and Jacobin, author Benjamin Y. Fong tells the story of the CIO with the help of prominent labor historians, including Nelson Lichtenstein, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Steve Fraser, Erik Loomis, Jeremy Brecher, Robert Cherny, Lizabeth Cohen, David Brody, Melvyn Dubofsky, and others. The multi-part series begins with a short history of the organization from which the CIO broke off, the American Federation of Labor, and explores central causes for the CIO’s founding: the broken promises of welfare capitalism, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the mass strikes of 1934.
Organize the Unorganized will be available weekly here on Jacobin Radio starting January 9. Subscribe and join us as we explore the rise, importance, and legacy of this crucial labor federation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The records of this country want representation, they want organization, they want |
| 0:07.6 | participation, they want protection, they want employment, and they're going to have those things through the |
| 0:16.3 | leadership and the intimateality of this new labor movement that you for me. That was the voice of John L Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers for 40 years |
| 0:35.0 | and founder of first the committee and then the Congress of industrial |
| 0:39.0 | organizations for the CIO, |
| 0:41.0 | the Great Labor Federation that drove the mass organization of industrial workers in the 1930s. |
| 0:47.0 | There had been many moments of labor upsurge in America, including the influx of members into the Knights of Labor in 1886, the dramatic |
| 0:55.7 | growth of unions during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I, and the great public sector |
| 1:01.0 | unionism surge of the 1960s and 70s but none matches the scale of the CIO moment. |
| 1:08.0 | If we're looking to get millions of private sector workers into the labor movement, |
| 1:11.0 | there's really one time to look to for inspiration, and that is the |
| 1:14.9 | ascendant period of the CIO. |
| 1:18.6 | Hello, my name is Benjamin Fong, and in Organized the Unorganized, a forthcoming podcast from the |
| 1:25.1 | Center for Work and Democracy at Arizona State University and Jacobin magazine, I'm going |
| 1:30.3 | to be telling the story of the CIO. |
| 1:33.2 | It's a story of heroism. |
| 1:35.2 | Factory occupations. |
| 1:37.0 | You know, what better way to disrupt production |
| 1:40.4 | than to just take over the building. It's a story of violence. |
| 1:44.0 | A plainclothes policeman got out, |
| 1:47.0 | guns in both hands, and said, |
| 1:50.0 | you sons of bitches want some of this, |
... |
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