Join the conversations around this book in our Laborwave Discord by becoming any type of patron of the show at patreon.com/laborwave!!!
This is our second episode of Comrades Read Together where we're discussing, chapter by chapter, the book No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age.
We follow up our conversation tackling the introduction and chapter 2 with a review of the book by Nick Driedger, labor activist and contributing writer to Organizing Work!
Driedger asks the tough questions about the political horizons achievable under a labor relations framework, and whether it's possible for "business unions" to break out of such constricting frameworks. He also argues that McAlevey's ultimate aims in labor organizing leads us down the path of left electoral politics, where the power that has been built by workers through these deep organizing methods are undercut by the top-down system of politics available within the electoral realm.
We also talked about the IWW approach, why it succeeds and why it fails, and speak about the prospects for independent radical unions.
Read his full review, No Shortcuts, But to Where? at organizing.work/2019/12/no-shortcuts-but-to-where/
We're continuing with this series by reading chapters 3-4 and engaging with folks on our Laborwave Discord!