The records of this country want representation, they want organization, they want

participation, they want protection, they want employment, and they're going to have those things through the

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, and

founder of first the Committee and then the Congress of Industrial Organizations,

or the CIO, the Great Labor Federation that drove the mass organization of industrial workers

in the 1930s.

There had been many moments of labor upsurge in America, including the influx of members into the Knights of Labor in 1886, the dramatic

growth of unions during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I, and the great public

sector unionism surge of the 1960s and 70s, but none matches the scale of the CIO moment.

If we're looking to get millions of private sector workers into the labor movement,

there's really one time to look to for

inspiration and that is the ascendant period of the CIO.

Hello, my name is Benjamin Fong, and welcome to Organize the Unorganized, a

podcast from the Center for Work and Democracy at Arizona State University and

Jackman magazine. In this podcast I'm going to be telling the story of the CIO. It's a story of

heroism. Factory occupations, you know what what better way to disrupt production then to just take over the building?

It's a story of violence. A plainclothes policeman got out, guns in both hands and said,

you sons of bitches want some of this I'm ready for you.

It's a story of power. I think that's what it means to say that you live in a society in which these capitalists wield extraordinary power.

And arguably, it's a story of working class revolution.

He ended up saying, if this isn't revolution. I don't know what is.

I've been lucky enough to interview leading labor historians and experts for this project,

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