Kim Moody

“A detailed and provocative study of how capital has changed since the 1980s and its effects on the working class and political parties in the USA.” —Scottish Left Review On New Terrain challenges conventional wisdom about a disappearing working class and the inevitability of a two-party political structure as the only framework for struggle. Through in-depth study of the economic and political shifts at the top of society, Moody shows how recent developments in capitalist production impact the working class and its power to resist the status quo. He argues that this transformed industrial terrain offers new possibilities for organization in the workplace and opens doors for grassroots, independent political action strengthened by reemerging labor and social movements. From the logistics revolution to the unprecedented concentration of business and wealth in the hands of the one percent, On New Terrain examines the impact of the current economic terrain on the working class in the United States. Looking beyond the clichés of precarity and the gig economy, Moody shows that the working class and its own self-activity are essential in the global battle against austerity. “[A] masterful and much-needed book.” —Solidarity “Immediately shakes the reader by offering a hard hitting, concrete and sober analysis of the transformation of both the capitalist and working classes of the USA.” —Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided “He explodes myths about the gig economy and the potential to transform the Democratic Party. Readers will put the book down convinced that there is a way for workers to win.” —LaborNotes

How Capital Is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War

On New Terrain

Over the past decade American labor has faced a tidal wave of wage cuts, plant closures and broken strikes. In this first comprehensive history of the labor movement from Truman to Reagan, Kim Moody shows how the AFL-CIO’s conservative ideology of “business unionism” effectively disarmed unions in the face of a domestic right turn and an epochal shift to globalized production. Eschewing alliances with new social forces in favor of its old Cold War liaisons and illusory compacts with big business, the AFL-CIO under George Meany and Lane Kirkland has been forced to surrender many of its post-war gains. With extraordinary attention to the viewpoints of rank-and-file workers, Moody chronicles the major, but largely unreported, efforts of labor’s grassroots to find its way out of the crisis. In case studies of auto, steel, meatpacking and trucking, he traces the rise of “anti-concession” movements and in other case studies describes the formidable obstacles to the “organization of the unorganized” in the service sector. A detailed analysis of the Rainbow Coalition’s potential to unite labor with other progressive groups follows, together with a pathbreaking consideration of the possibilities of a new “labor internationalism.”

The Decline of American Unionism

An Injury to All

Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present

From Welfare State to Real Estate

"In this thorough collection of inspiring and informed essays, Kim Moody, one of the world's most authoritative and recognized labor writers, analyzes the past, present, and future of unions in the United States. With a sharp understanding of Marxist theory and labor history, Moody charts a well-reasoned course for the future of rank-and-file struggle.Kim Moody was a founder of Labor Notes and is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a senior research fellow at the Work and Employment Unit of the University of Hertfordshire. "--

"THIS EXPANSIVE COLLECTION, Kim Moody, one of the world's most authoritative and recognized labor writers, explores the present state and the future possibilities of the US labor movement, as well as evaluating the forces working against it. These wide-ranging, accessible essays ask the key questions: What has happened to union organizing in the United States? Is there an alternative to the strike? How does the increased presence of immigrant and women workers change the balance of forces? What strategies can workers use to counteract company "union avoidance" campaigns and bureaucratic "business unionism"? What is the role of socialists in the labor movement? Drawing on his own background as a working-class radical, the works of Karl Marx, and the everyday experiences of nurses, miners, autoworkers, and more, Moody sketches a comprehensive picture of the state of US labor--and points the way forward for a rank-and-file union movement that can win real change"--

essays on working-class organization in the United States

In solidarity

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Nancy Fraser

Neil Davidson

Mike Davis

Deepa Kumar

Elizabeth Schulte Martin

Sharon Smith

Justin Akers Chacón

Charlie Post

“This collection contains everything we need to understand the world that gave us Trump, and to arm ourselves for the battles to come” (Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt). The Democratic Party and mainstream liberal organizations have shown themselves to be completely inadequate to address the key questions facing working people today. The corporate-friendly wing of the party, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession in 2008, has created conditions that led to the Trump phenomenon in the international context of rising right-wing populism. These essays from a wide variety of thinkers delve into topics of economic inequality and exploitation, gender and cultural identity, and how the neglect of the working class by establishment politicians has had consequences that urgently need to be addressed.

Essays on a New Reality

US Politics in an Age of Uncertainty

Internal Migration and Organized Labor in Gilded Age America, 1870-1900

Tramps and Trade Union Travellers

An insightful and timely analysis of how global economic restructuring will impact workers' struggles in the US.

How Capital Reshaped the Battleground of Class War

In his latest book, veteran socialist writer Kim Moody masterfully analyzes the political impasse which has shaped the rise of a new socialist movement in the United States: recurring economic and political crises, sharp inequality, state violence, and climate catastrophe proceed apace as the right ascends across the world. Moody situates the historic electoral campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other self-described “democratic socialists” and the growth of organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America in this context, and incisively assesses the revived movement's focus on electoral strategies. Offering an important account of left attempts to intervene in the American two-party electoral system, Moody provides both a corrective and an alternative orientation, arguing that the socialist movement should turn its attention toward a politics of mass action, anti-racism, and independent, working-class activity.

Electoral Politics, Mass Action, and the New Socialist Movement in the United States

Breaking the Impasse

A timely and persuasive discussion of the circumstances, challenges, and possibilities facing the new socialist movement in the US.

The finest historian of the contemporary labor movement uncovers the secrets of its collapse and revival. "U. S. Labor in Trouble and Transition" tells the story of union decline in America and of the split in the labor movement it led to, following the dismal tale of union mergers and management partnerships that accompanied the retreat from militancy since the 1980s. Looking to the future, Moody shows how the rise of immigrant labor and its efforts at self-organization can re-energize the unions from below. "U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition" breaks new ground in the on-going debate within the U.S. labor movement.

The Failure of Reform from Above, the Promise of Revival from Below

US Labor in Trouble and Transition

“One of the leading intellectuals of the labor movement” explores the state of unions in the United States, as well as evaluating the forces working against them (Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Hammer and Hoe). In this thorough collection of inspiring and informed essays, Kim Moody, one of the world’s most authoritative and recognized labor writers, asks key questions: What has happened to union organizing in the United States? Is there an alternative to the strike? How does the increased presence of immigrant and women workers change the balance of forces? What strategies can workers use to counteract company “union avoidance” campaigns and bureaucratic “business unionism”? What is the role of socialists in the labor movement? Drawing on his own background as a working-class radical, the works of Karl Marx, and the everyday experiences of nurses, miners, autoworkers, and more, Moody sketches a comprehensive picture of the state of US labor—and points the way forward for a rank-and-file union movement that can win real change. Praise for Kim Moody “One most of the most experienced working-class organizers in the US over the past few decades.” —Monthly Review “[His] books and articles have for more than forty years provided essential analysis and strategy for the labor left.” —New Politics

Kim Moody

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