Labor Notes

Amy Bromsen

LABOR NOTES. In 2018, Labor Notes celebrated its fortieth anniversary with the nineteenth biennial conference that brought together union and worker-center activists from forty-seven states and twenty-six countries. Seeking to fulfill its slogan “Let’s Put the Movement Back in the Labor Movement,” Labor Notes evolved from a 1979 newsletter into an institution: national conferences and local schools for the “troublemaker wing” of the labor movement, grounded in waves of a militant democratic current among worker activists. Its roots, however, lie in a left but not explicitly socialist project of the International Socialists (IS). The non-profit Labor Notes has been called “one of the most successful socialist projects in the labor movement in US history…by far the most durable, and one of the most successful, interventions by activists who have come out of an explicitly socialist tradition.”

In 1979, looking back at the post-1975 recession, IS members reacted to unwelcome changes. The recession and layoffs of more than two million industrial workers marked the end of a period of rank-and-file rebellions, wildcat strikes, Black caucuses, contract rejections, if also an end to the fracturing of the much-weakened left within the unions. Labor Notes (LN) sought to present a class view of labor struggles by reporting trends and events across the whole labor movement, and to facilitate contact between rank-and-file activists. The IS membership had a practical understanding of the dynamics of capitalism and unions’ internal contradictions between the bureaucracy and the ranks, between the “militant minority” of activists and more passive members, and the divisions of race and gender exploited by both management and unions. A substantial portion of the membership actually held jobs in communications, transport, auto, and steel. Early LN staffers Kim Moody, Jim West, and Jane Slaughter had all been part of the rank-and-file upsurges in their unions. LN was seen to be a transitional, or intermediary, mechanism in moving militant workers from a limited union consciousness to class consciousness within a broader labor movement. It would presumably also serve as a locus of militant workers, some of whom might be moved toward a socialist, revolutionary perspective.

LN responded adeptly to shifts in politics and the economy that crashed onto the scene almost immediately after its founding, including the firing of the air traffic controllers, neoliberalism and austerity programs, the concessionary era, and deregulation. But attracting radical union leaders, organizers, and even left-inclined politicians depended on successfully establishing a distance between the IS and LN. Developing a base within a broader network of activists and becoming a center for wide-ranging discussion and debate could be counted as early victories. The first conference attracted nearly 600 registrants, and more than 100 women attended a special women’s meeting. Crystal Lee Sutton (the real Norma Rae); Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers’ Tony Mazzochi, calling for a new party of labor, highlighted the event.

The direct role for most IS members in the new operation receded to distributing LN in their plants and bringing their in-plant networks to conferences. For its first decade, the staff relied on stalwarts to keep ahead of the curve, and to carry some organizational and financial weight: Mike Parker developed LN’s response to quality circles and, with Slaughter, to so called “lean manufacturing.” Elissa Karg wrote an early, influential book on preventing sexual harassment; Bill Parker organized the first three national conferences and one local event. Dan LaBotz edited the pamphlet-length Troublemakers’ Handbook while Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle wrote Democracy is Power.

Labor Notes proved most successful when focused on issues within the mainstream labor movement. Labor union leaders 'acceptance of lean manufacturing led to widespread rank-and-file interest in LN’s analyses and handbooks about fighting quality circles and the team concept, technology’s role in worker surveillance, and concessions on wages and benefits. The national union’ sincreasing centralization of authority, top-down leadership, and refusal to develop strong workplace organizations led to widespread acceptance of LN’s emphasis on internal union democracy. Raising issues before actual interest had grown among workplace activists proved least successful. Some large questions, such as political action independent of the Republican and Democratic parties, proved best raised by highlighted speakers such Tony Mazzochi, Bill Fletcher, or Bernie Sanders, rather than by LN staffers.

Labor Notes spread its influence among rank-and-file workers and elected local leaders committed to internal democracy and opposition to labor-management cooperation. LN aided movements within national unions, such as New Directions in the UAW. Rank-and-file worker mobilization, organizing drives, contract campaigns, strike actions, and support of emerging reform movements were the focus of LN. However, LN’s influence on opposition rank-and-filers and reform movements did not go unnoticed by the UAW and SEIU bureaucracies. The 1989 conference highlighted New Directions leaders Jerry Tucker, who sought re-election to the International Executive Board, and Donny Douglas, who aimed to unseat an incumbent director. The two busloads of UAW members and retirees charged the conference to defend the bureaucracy and were turned away easily by conference participants. The banquet speaker, Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of the California Nurses Association, was then engaged in a jurisdictional conflict with SEIU; the latter sent seven busloads of members and staff to break through a cordon of conference attendees to disrupt the banquet.

From the start, LN worked with other progressive labor groups and networks such as Association for Union Democracy or Committees on Occupational Safety and Health groups. Through the 1990s, LN consciously broadened its focus to emphasize cross-border labor support with Mexican and Canadian workers; Black and Latino workers’ struggles; national campaign for worker rights with Jobs With Justice; alliances between labor and environmental groups; and Transnational Information Exchange’s global networks, such as the meeting of US, German, and Brazilian DaimlerChrysler workers in 2001. It expanded from its original base in auto, steel and teamsters, to include transit, health care, telecommunications, and public sector workers, and even received support from the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers (OCAW), United Electrical Workers (UE), and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). But conferences did not grow—only about 1,000 in 2001, and 900 in 2006.

By 2000, however, LN could no longer develop projects with the impact of former cross border work and team concept schools, despite hiring additional writers and organizers. A shift in emphasis to non-industrial sectors, Black and Latino struggles, campus organizing, among others, led to hiring staff members who were not themselves rank-and-file participants in labor struggles. This generational shift to a new wave of younger activists brought expanded contacts in different movements and increased energy, but without the knowledge base or experience in unions. Many new staffers did not consider LN as a permanent locus of their activism. With the exception of Mark Brenner, whose socialist perspective and educational background made him a successful director from 2005 to 2017, turnover was high.

However, as union activism heated-up in unexpected sectors and locations, LN recaptured some of its early excitement. The 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike and the resulting wave of teacher militancy electrified the next conference. Teacher strikes in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arizona led the fight to save public education. Public sector workers mobilized against the Janus decision that endangered their unions. Transport workers waged a victorious 2016 Verizon Strike. UPS workers prepared for their contract fight. Amid this upswing, the LN 2018 conference swelled to more than 3,000 attendees.

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