Class Struggle Histories

We believe that it is important to connect to the history of class struggle. Not only is it inspiring to know past struggles, but it is necessary for communists to learn from what those before us have done. Today’s liberalism constantly erases these histories, remaking them into an alternative history of liberal progress. We encourage all to study these books, essays and films. We will add to this list as the caucus grows.

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To Read:

Balestrini, Nanni – We Want Everything (link)

Balestrini’s book is not a history exactly, but a fictionalized accounting of what is one of the most intense waves of revolutionary struggle: Italy in 1969. Working class history has always been passed down through stories and narrations that describe real situations and actual strategic problems in fictionalized terms. Since Balestrini was a part of the Italian revolutionary movements—commonly called workerism and autonomia—we can get a real sense of what struggle looked like at its peak.

Barrios de Chungara, Domitila – Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, A Woman of the Bolivian Mines (link)

First published in English in 1978, this classic book contains the testimony of Domitila Barrios de Chungara, the wife of a Bolivian tin miner. Blending firsthand accounts with astute political analysis, Domitila describes the hardships endured by Bolivia’s vast working class and her own efforts at organizing women in the mining community. The result is a gripping narrative of class struggle and repression, an important social document that illuminates the reality of capitalist exploitation in 1970s Bolivia. Domitila Barrios de Chungara was born in 1937 in the Siglo XX mining town in Bolivia.

Beal, Fred E – Proletarian Journey (link)

Beal worked at age 14 in a Massachusetts mill, slowly becoming a labor union member, then a labor agitator, and, directly as a result of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, a member of the US Communist party. Beal goes to organize a union in Gastonia NC, and gets mixed up in riots, near lynchings, and finally, is framed in the murder of a police chief. Beal’s story concludes with an account of the Ukranian famine in the USSR and his ensuing disillusionment with Stalinism.

Dobbs, Farrell – Teamster Rebellion (link)

This classic book shows how labor union organizing was not only about the careful construction of union structure, but also the more broad construction of a militant movement. In today’s US labor unions are often inactive, bureaucratic entities that are averse to fighting bosses, a problem commonly described called “business unionism.” This text exposes the radical origins of the labor movement, and gives us an idea about the kind of energy that was necessary for building power.

Georgakas, Dan – Detroit I Do Mind Dying (link)

This book charts the rise and fall of two important moments in workplace organizing: the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Both took off in the automobile assembly lines, during the 1960s and 1970s. Their ultimate defeat came about with the general decline of working class militancy in the 70s, and prestaged the eventual rise of neoliberal capitalism. Suggested reading: chapters 2, 4, 6.

Gornick, Vivian – Romance of American Communism (link)

The Romance of American Communism is the definitive text on the emotional content of American Communism in the 20th century. Through engaging narrative accounts, it seeks to find what drew people to communist organizing and the party, even when it meant living against the grain of contemporary society at large.

Hudson, Hosea – Black Worker in the Deep South: A Personal Record (link)

Black Worker in the Deep South is the autobiography of an unsung black leader who, as so many others, has been blotted out from history. It tells the odyssey of Hosea Hudson from a poor Klan infested country town in Georgia, before the turn of the 20th century, to his triumph as one of the south’s greatest black union presidents and civil rights leaders in Birmingham, Alabama.

Lynd, Staughton and Alice – Rank and File (link)

In Rank and File, Alice and Staughton Lynd chronicle the stories of more than two dozen working-class organizers who occupied factories, held sit-down strikes, walked out, picketed, and found other bold and innovative ways to fight for workers’ rights.

Shapiro, Paul – The Necessity of Organization: The League of Revolutionary Struggle and the Watsonville Canning Strike (link)

This is a historical account of how organization can help bolster labor struggles, even in instances where the union bureaucracy itself opposes action. This is a helpful demonstration on how communist organization can support workers militancy—a dynamic that significantly broadens the scope of the “rank and file” strategy adopted by the DSA. Shapiro’s telling of the strike also accounts for how already-existing networks within the workplace were important for building and sustaining strike activities.

Kelley, Robin D. G. – Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (link)

This history demonstrates how the communist party operated in the South through the great depression. What’s remarkable about this period of time is how the communist party was able to focus on organizing black workers, in the midst of intense, legally-enforced racism. The party still managed to build a militant sharecroppers union and engage in labor organizing all while opposing anti-Black racism. Suggested reading: chapters 1,2,3.

Weir, Stan – Singlejack Solidarity (link)

Written throughout Stan Weir’s decades as a blue-collar worker and labour educator, ‘Singlejack Solidarity’ offers a rare look at modern life and social relations as seen from the factory, dockside and the shop floor.

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To Watch:

Broomfield, Nick – Behind the Rent Strike (link)

Set in 1970s England, this film gives us an idea of the international history of housing struggles. Organized by Big Flame, a Marxist organizing group, we see a massive rent strike in an industrial town. This is a must see for anyone interested in housing organizing.

Choy, Curtis – The Fall of the I-Hotel (link)

Choy’s film documents the struggle against gentrification in San Francisco. The international hotel was a low-income building that housed hundreds of working class tenants, many of which were Fillipino American. As developers moved into San Francisco during the 60s, a fight ensued which lasted until 1977. This movie gives us a view of early struggles for affordable housing.

Kopple, Barbara – Harlan County, USA (link)

This film is a documentary of a strike that occurred in the early 1970s. The movie has some amazing scenes, as about 180 coal miners dared to take on the coal company, Duke Power Company just before the full neoliberal assault took hold. One thing to note is how important non-workers were to the strike; some of the most militant organizers were women who carried out important social reproductive functions.

sub.Media – This is Parkdale (link)

In the summer of 2017, in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, over 300 tenants living across 12 apartment buildings went on rent strike to protest a wave of rent increases that would have displaced members of their community. Through months of organizing and a series of escalating actions, working-class people took on the biggest corporate landlord in their neighborhood and won. This short documentary demonstrates how we can fight back against contemporary gentrification.