Rank and file : personal histories by working-class organizers / edited by Alice and Staughton Lynd.

This item contains a list of abbreviations of the names of relevant organizations after the body of text.

People who cannot be bought / Christine Ellis --

How I became part of the labor movement / John W. Anderson --

Back of the yards / Stella Nowicki --

Your dogs don't bark no more / George Patterson, Jesse Reese, and John Sargent --

You have to fight for freedom / Sylvia Woods --

Liberi couri [liberated hearts] / Mario Manzardo --

I appeal the ruling of the chair / Burr McCloskey --

How the International took over / Nick Migas --

The informal work group / Stan Weir --

Working for survival / George Sullivan --

It got my back up / Ken Tucker --

An absolute majority / Wayne Kennedy --

Going for broke / Jordan Sims --

A common bond / John Berbero and Ed Mann --

Miners for democracy / Bill Worthington, Lee Smith, and Ed Ryan.

"In Rank and File men and women, black and white, with extensive experience in working-class organizing, vividly report on their lives and their work. Most, though not all, were union organizers in the auto, meat packing, steel, rubber, longshore, chemical, teamster, and mining industries, and in the federal government. They speak of the smell at Ellis Island, how to get a job if you have been black-listed, what their fathers sang on May Day, how sometimes you can organize better if you are no thinking about organizing, the class content of The Wind in the Willows, why a fellow worker shot a foreman, and the special solidarity of miners. A majority grew up and worked in the Midwest. About half were active mainly in the 1930s and about half since World War II. A third are currently involved in rank-and-file movements. They include the picket line captain at the Memorial Day Massacre in 1937 and the president of the Black Lung Association in 1973, The typical rank-and-file leader seeks to be neither a union man nor a foreman. Like Eugene Debs, rank-and-file leaders feel 'When I risk it will be with the ranks, not from the ranks.' Rank and File is for all who dream of solidarity and human dignity. It is an example of the new interest in using oral history not only to understand the experience of the so-called inarticulate who do not create abundant written records, but to help workers recover their history for themselves. Alice Lynd was until recently Demonstration Project Coordinator for the Child Day Care and Health Canter of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of American in Chicago. She has been a draft counselor and nursery school teacher. In 1986 she edited We Won't Go: Personal Accounts of War Objectors, published by Beacon. Straughton Lynd, teacher, writer, historian, and community organizer, is the author of many books including The Resistance with Michael Ferber and Strategy and Program with Gar Aplerovitz, both published by Beacon." -- From the dust jacket

From the library of Roscoe and Oletta Proctor.