AmericanLaborMovement Rebellioni the ranks 5amDolgoff T HE rncoRPORATIONo! the American Labor Movement lnto the «Labor Front> of the emerglng American «welfare• capitallst State, plus the alarmlng extent to whlch bureaucracy and corruptlon -ali the vices of capitallst socletylnfects the unlons has had a devastatlng effect upan the morale of the antl-totalltarlan left and undermlned falth in the revolutlonary capaclty of the labor movement. Sincere mllltants, lncludlng many anarchlsts, reluctantly reJectlng the labor movement as a force for social regeneratlon, are now searchlng for other alternatlves. In rightfully stresslng the indisputable degeneration of the labor movement, the pessimists underestlmate or Ignore an equally formidable and more important development, namely: the spontaneous mass revolts of the rank-and-flle cordinary, members agalnst the triple exploltatlon o! the labor bureaucracy, the employers and the reglmentatlon o! the State. The myth of the happy, uncomplalnlng American worker satlsfled wlth his lot Is not sustalned by the facts. The revolutionary tradltlon THE AMERICANlabor movement has a long record of herolc class struggles. The great rallroad strlkes of 1877; the movement for the 8 hour day which culminated in the hanglng of the Chlcago anarchlsts and the general strlke on May Flrst 1886, now commemorated throughout the world as Internatlonal Labor Day; the Homestead steelworkers strlke of 1892; the epic battle of the American Rallroad Unlon; the Anthraclte Mlners strlke of 1902, the monumental battles fought under the banner of the IWW; «Bloudy Ludlow, In 1914; the great Steel Strlke of 1919; the Southern Textlle strlkes of 1877, for 96
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