[news] The General Strike Can Teach Unions How to Grow

[Resist!ca]

The following article, by U.S. Labour Journalist & Anti-War activist David 
Bacon, is an inspiring example of what working people have historically 
achieved through democratic organization and militant action.  As Bacon 
explains: "The general strike and the creation of the ILWU (International 
Longshore & Wharehouse Worker's Union) had a ripple effect. Other workers saw 
dockers win a hiring hall, freeing them from the humiliating shapeup, when 
workers had to beg a job from a gang boss every morning. The workforce was 
integrated. Today Black, Latino and Asian workers are the majority in big ports 
like San Francisco and Los Angeles, and women drive huge container cranes. 
People called bums and derelicts in the 20s and 30s had some of the 
best-paying, most secure jobs in industrial America by the 50s and 60s. As a 
result, a wave of union organizing spread inland from the ports, a social 
movement inspiring everyone from department store clerks to farm laborers."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/7/15/14384/6645