Thanks, Les, for posting https://groups.io/g/marxmail/wiki/36111, Les. The graph is shaped like Charlie's and is what I recall: The 70's experienced a retreat in labor action that never recovered. It's arguable that it was the 1980's when the drop in labor actions never recovered (unlike after the 1959 steel strike), but why argue about it?
More interesting to me is why does the curve look like that and what the US left did about it. Parts of the US left did recognize a shift in the posture of an important sectors of the capitalist class like Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's who wrote his famous memo to the US Chamber of Commerce: "But what now concerns us is quite new in the history of America. We are not dealing with sporadic or isolated attacks from a relatively few extremists or even from the minority socialist cadre. Rather, the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts." The Democratic Party had shifted left while chasing their base and pulled many Republicans with them thereby making the reactionary Richard Nixon the last progressive president in the US. The organized reaction was clear to the SWP. But what to do about it. The Barnes' cult used the opportunity for a purge, which accelerated in the 1980s when the failure of the SWP industry strategy was obvious. It's arguable that the degeneration of the SWP into a cult started in the 1970s rather than the 80's, but why bother? We should note the historical and material conditions of the time: By the end of the 1960s, Europe and Asia had been rebuilt from the destruction of WWII with the former customers becoming US competitors. Apart from Les and Charlie's graphs on the number of labor actions, union density in the US peaked by 1960, and that downturn has continued to this day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there has been significant decline in parts of Europe during this time do to the decline of industrial sectors, growth of the service sectors, and outsourcing jobs to more exploitable workers in other countries. While that has been pronounced in the US for a half century, I think it is more recent in Europe, and the falloff in union membership was less overall, with a lot of variation by country. Mark > On Feb 26, 2024, at 5:50 PM, Group Notification <[email protected]> wrote: > > > The wiki page BLS work stoppage data has been updated by Les Schaffer > <[email protected]>. > Compare Revisions > > > The wiki page BLS work stoppage data has been updated by Les Schaffer > <[email protected]>. > Compare Revisions > > > The wiki page BLS work stoppage data has been updated by Les Schaffer > <[email protected]>. > Compare Revisions > > > Change your notification settings > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29145): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29145 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/104608543/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
