Teamster Rebellion

THIS REVIEW IS ALSO BEING USED FOR TEAMSTER POWER WHICH IS A CONTINUATION OF THE STORY PRESENTED HERE. THE POLITICAL POINTS ARE VALID FOR BOTH BOOKS. ORGANIZE WALMART! ORGANIZE THE SOUTH! These are the slogans which outline the tasks that the American labor movement, particularly the organized trade union movement under the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition, need to address. With those tasks in mind it was refreshing for this old militant to re-read Farrell Dobbs' analysis of the fight to organize the truckers in the 1930's. This volume, and an earlier one detailing the struggles to organize truckers in Minneapolis, are little handbooks for model labor organizing. Dobbs himself was instrumental in organizing the truckers of Minneapolis in the great strikes in that city in 1934 and as documented here the later, successful organizing of the over the road drivers in the Midwest which created the modern, powerful Teamsters International Union. He was, more importantly, a supporter of what later in the decade became the Socialist Workers Party- American section of the Trotsky-led Forth International. Whatever else may be true about Dobbs this man could organize workers. Why? The last sentence in the previous paragraph gives the answer. In the modern labor movement it is not enough to be a militant on the picket line but one must also have a political approach to labor actions. With the merging of corporate and governmental interests on the labor question in the modern state militants better think politically. As the December, 2005 unsuccessful struggle of the transport workers in New York City demonstrated militants better know the enemy and his tactics well. Moreover, these days, unlike in the 1930's when it went without question by advanced workers, it is as important to know there is an enemy. On the other hand think what it would be like to have a political militant like Dobbs organizing the drivers of those 7000 trucks that Wal-Mart owns to distribute its merchandise. You get my drift. Read what he has to say carefully. To even introduce this militant labor leader of the 1930's is to state the fundamental problem of today's labor leaders. They do not exist in the modern labor movement. Yes, there are militants out there in the rank and file but militant leaders are no longer produced and that is the rub. Unlike the strategy of independent political action which underlined Dobbs' work the strategy of today's labor leaders can be summed up in two words- class collaboration. That is a strategy of dependence by the labor movement on the good will of the `friends of labor', essentially the Democratic Party- not to fight for victory in the streets but by what at times amounts to parliamentary cretinism. Just start to organize Wal-Mart seriously or organize the South and militants will quickly see who their `friends' are. The natural audience for this book are today's labor activists so the reviewer would draw attention to the following issu

Farrell Dobbs was a coal-yard worker and one of the central leaders of the 1934 strikes when in his twenties. Some forty years later Dobbs was the national secretory of the Socialist Workers Party and wrote down an account of his experiences working in the coal yards and becoming involved in unionist movement organizing the drive to establish Teamsters Local 574 and the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) as an effective nation-wide instrument to better working conditions for men and women like himself. Teamster Rebellion is Dobbs account of the hard-fought strike actions which were often all out battles with law enforcement and hired thugs operating as strike breakers in the employ of the exploitative company owners and such big-business fronts as Citizen Alliance. Teamster Rebellion is a welcome and recommended addition to academic and community library American Labor History collections.

Dobbs, a leader of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike, which became a citywide general strike, tells its story. The battles with the companies, cops, strike breakers, and their hangers-on are told with masterful effect. It also shows the rising industrial unions as organizations of working-class struggle, taking on the employers and its government. But the real gem at the heart of this tale is how the unfolding struggle transformed ordinary workers, including Dobbs himself, into extraordinary fighters, thinkers, and revolutionary leaders.

To any working person who wants to know how to fight the bosses and win, you have to read this book. The author, Farrell Dobbs, was born into a working-class family in Missouri in 1907, worked his way into a management job, started his own business, and hoped to go to law school and become a judge. But his plans were cut short by the great depression of the 1930s. In 1933, he found himself working in a Minneapolis coal yard and met coworkers who asked him to join an effort to organize the workers into a branch of the Teamsters union. The rest is history. In 1934, Dobbs played a central role as the members of Teamsters Local 574 carried out a series of three dramatic strikes that succeeded in making Minneapolis a union town. To do this, they had to battle the boss-led Citizens Alliance, the police, the top Teamster bureaucrats, as well as a "friend of labor" Governor, who talked out of both sides of his mouth. This book gives a blow-by-blow account of all of this, and is a real handbook for how to conduct a strike effectively. Key to their victory was a union leadership that included members of the Communist League of America, a revolutionary socialist group, which later became the Socialist Workers Party, which Dobbs joined and led on a national level for decades. If you like this book, you'll also want to read the three other books in Dobbs' Teamster series, Teamster Power, Teamster Politics and Teamster Bureaucracy.