Poor workers' unions: rebuilding labor from below

Vanessa Tait, South End Press, 272 pages, paperback, £14.99

This book is a real wake-up call for trade unionists in the USA but also includes valuable lessons for unions everywhere.

The author describes how the mainstream labour movement in the US, the AFL-CIO, systematically failed to organise many black, Latino and women workers from the 1950s onwards.

The book explains how diverse movements developed outside the existing union structures but are now increasingly influential within official unions. It catalogues the development of this alternative labour movement known as the “Poor Workers’ Unions” and gives vivid examples of their direct action methods and democratic structures. It presents a model of union organising that can help unions rebuild their memberships and more effectively represent workers, both in the US and in countries such as the UK.