U.S. Labor History: Militant Unions, Red Scares, and Class Struggle
Rev Left Radio
Breht O'Shea
4.8 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2021
⏱️ 110 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Professor Peter Cole returns to the show, this time to do an overview of labor history in the United States.
We discuss the earliest worker movements, the Great Uprising of 1877, the Pullman and Homestead strikes, various coal miner strikes, the Seattle General Strike, the IWW, the intersections of race and class, the impact of the Russian Revolution on American class politics, the first and second Red Scare, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, the rise of neoliberalism and its impact on workers, and much more!
Learn more about the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project: https://chicagoraceriot.org/
Follow Peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/profpetercole
Dont forget to check out our previous episodes with Peter on Ben Fletcher, the history of the IWW, and Dockworker Power!
Outro Music: "Revolt Resist Rebel" by The Haymarket Squares
-----
Support Rev Left Radio: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio
or make a one time donation: PayPal.me/revleft
LEARN MORE ABOUT REV LEFT RADIO: www.revolutionaryleftradio.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody and welcome back to RevLeft Radio. |
| 0:08.9 | On today's episode we have back on the show for the fourth time I believe, a professor |
| 0:14.2 | of history Peter Cole. |
| 0:16.2 | This time he is on to talk about really labor struggles in the United States since its founding, |
| 0:22.8 | since industrialization in the 1800s all the way up through neoliberalism and into the present |
| 0:28.5 | day. |
| 0:29.5 | So we talk about the great uprising of 1877, the hay market affair, Pullman in Homestead |
| 0:35.6 | Strikes as well as mining strikes in the West etc. |
| 0:39.4 | And then we move into the 20th century discuss the first and second red scares, how legislation |
| 0:45.3 | like the Taft Hartley Act of 1947 impacted unions and laborers and ushered in the era of |
| 0:52.7 | right to work and the entire states embracing that. |
| 0:55.8 | And we follow the trail all the way through the neoliberalism period with Reagan and |
| 1:00.7 | Thatcher and then Clinton with NAFTA, the air traffic controller strikes and labor discipline |
| 1:07.2 | more broadly. |
| 1:08.6 | And just trace the entire history to show how we got where we are today with historic |
| 1:13.5 | levels of inequality, working class power at an all time low and widespread suffering |
| 1:20.4 | and precarity for the US working class in particular. |
| 1:25.5 | So we cover a lot of fascinating history and Peter does an amazing job as the fountain |
| 1:31.2 | of wisdom as he is of summarizing these events and really fascinating ways in connecting |
| 1:37.3 | them up with all these other events. |
| 1:39.1 | I couldn't have asked for a better guess. |
| 1:41.1 | And I didn't get to tell this story this episode is full of personal stories related to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Breht O'Shea, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Breht O'Shea and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.