Often Poetic Picture of the Gritty Side of Labor Organizing

Labor Pains is a good read and a thoughtful and perceptive description of the work of a labor organizer for SEIU Local 73. The author, Suzan Erem, is a woman with the soul of a poet who fought on behalf of workers to organize. Much that I had read previously about such efforts to establish and maintain unions has been either inspirational, like the splendid song of the French Revolution, the Marseillaise, or tedious, like descriptions of Madam Lafarge's knitting. This is neither: it is the well-observed descriptive account of activities of a dedicated witness to, and participant in, the efforts by the labor movement to secure power and justice. In some senses it is about love and perhaps even the ecstasy of the moment but more important it is as the title, Labor Pains, perceptively suggests, about what comes after the love and the moment and before the exhilarating and painful moment of birth.

Labor Pains is about Suzan Erem's moments of discomfort and doubt. It is also about her persistence and her effort to maintain balance and idealism. She does not always succeed and tells us about the failure of her marriage and the organizing efforts that didn't work. But she also provides graphic descriptions of efforts that did work and the pleasure she took in those moments.

Erem is particularly good at describing the people she worked with and the role of the media in the struggle to organize. Her primary job was not only to organize, but also to get the story out. The story is not always happy or glamorous but it is well described. In one scene a small band of organizers hang a banner over an overpass to draw the media's attention to a strike they are organizing against a Chicago hospital. It is a very cold early winter Chicago morning on Lake Shore Drive and the effort seems almost futile, perhaps crazy. But it works and the media event draws attention to the union's struggle and helps in the winning effort organize the hospital and bring about an improved wage scale and other benefits through the protection of the union.

Erem describes her work in the labor movement both as an attempt to "scratch our mark on history" and to tell the story of the workers, a story that might otherwise not be told. She has done this well in Labor Pains and she has also told us her own story. It was a story worth telling. I expect she will have more stories to tell us.

An extraordinary work of labor, social, economic, and political history. Thank you Steven Fraser, for an exquisitely detailed, penetrating, expansive, and sophisticated analysis of an inspiring person and his times. Bravo.

The Los Angeles Union passenger Terminal was the last of the great passenger railway stations built in the United States, opening in 1939. Bill Bradley has prepared a significant work in text and illustrations which includes information on predecessor depots, the political ramblings surrounding the site selection and plans, and the celebration of the opening of this great station. Model railroaders will find ample photos and track plans to help them recreate the station. Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific fans will delight at the photos of their favorite consists Paper, 120 pages.

I found a lot of new and interesting facts!

Gotta Read It!!

I read this book after reading the author's recent article in Washington Quarterly (superb) and this book did not disappoint. Well written. A very smart analysis. A must read for anyone interested in Soviet history or in foreign policy making generally.

A searing analysis of what the factors are that bring about dissent and organizing within the military. An unusual work,
but highly readable. A serious attempt to study the phenomena
of progressive dissent within the militaries of several nations in the mid to late 20th century. This book is difficult to find, but a rare treasure for scholars of the military.

Left Out tears the veil of anti-Communism away to reveal the insurgent origins of Communist-led unionism in America. The Communists didn't "infiltrate" or "colonize" unions, but were instead the backbone of popular struggles for decent working conditions, racial equality, women's rights, and participatory democracy. Culling and compiling data from many sources, Left Out reveals a broad, grassroots support for the Communists in America's industrial unions stretching from the long decade of the 1930s through the early 1950s. The postwar decline of organized labor is, then, tied to the aggressive purge of Reds and radicals of all hues and the failure of the expelled Communist-led unions to forge their own labor federation. Left Out goes against the shibboleths of our time and questions the inevitability of American labor's self-destructive accommodation to corporate capitalism. Courageous, clear and compelling, this is counterfactual history at its best -- history returned to the actors who make it.

Banchoff and Smith present readers with an edited volume that distinguishes itself on two counts: its chapters integrate theoretical concepts and empirical research in case studies that are original and timely; and the scholars' contributions to the volume provide a balance of European and American viewpoints in a dialogue that leads to fruitful inquiry.

The book analyzes legitimacy through the conceptual lenses of three approaches: policies; institutional changes; and identities. As an ensemble, the chapters in this volume strengthen our understanding of the European Union as a polity unprecedented in world affairs whose decision making is characterized by multi-level governance. By assessing critical analyses made in selected chapters utilizing each approach, the reader appreciates the volume's method and scope of inquiry.

Feldman's chapter explores the relationship between reconciliation and legitimacy on two levels: the internal dynamics of the Community/Union for which reconciliation and institutionalized cooperation from the Schuman Plan through crises in the 1980s/1990s provides a source of stability and legitimacy; and external relations by which "some of the character of the EU as a system of reconciliation and a peace community" offer a basis for the EU's role as a "civilian power." This is the only chapter that focuses on enlargement as a contested policy for the Union. Clearly a second edition would benefit from increased attention to the interplay between contestation and legitimacy in an enlarged Union.

Feldman's analysis confirms that member states recognize the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) as "a framework for contestation." Her conclusion that this framework exists in a polity which is hybrid challenges scholars not to limit their research to analyses that contrast neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism. Instead we may inquire about the ways in which reconciliation could be a resource in the quest for increased legitimacy as the Union seeks definition as a polity and as an "international actor" in global politics.

Wessels and Diedrichs' analysis of legitimacy focuses on the European Parliament and the need to reconceptualize its role as an institution that cannot fit into either federalist or realist frameworks. This chapter displays the empirical excellence that distinguishes Wessels as one of the foremost theorists of integration. His articulation of a "fusion thesis" suggests that the European Parliament must legislate within a system characterized by competition for powers and differentiation of decision making procedures. This institutional context, which engages national and European actors in an expanding spectrum of interactions, renders citizens' understanding of the Parliament less transparent.

The authors touch on the relative lack of citizen interaction with the European Parliament, the challenges it faces to acquire internal discipline to enhance its use of the leverage acquired via the Maastricht and Amsterdam reforms and the fact that Parliament must compete with other institutions to be a focus of legitimacy in the Union. Each of these points is important to consider in light of the future accession of countries from central and eastern Europe. In these countries, citizen identification with national parliaments is particularly sensitive in the aftermath of decades of "rule from above." The ways in which these national parliaments interact with the European institutions may well determine, along with the economic benefits that can be perceived by average citizens, a degree of popular acceptance of the Union and its policies in associate member states.

Banchoff's analysis of legitimacy from the perspective of identity explores the challenges the European institutions pose to sovereignty in the French and German cases. This chapter utilizes a diachronic comparison or a comparison across time. Its focus on cases of treaty-making in the early 1950s and early 1990s offers the reader insights into two crucial periods in the history of European integration. The comparison is an informative one, although as Delors points out fruitful parallels could also be drawn between the negotiations and ratifications of the Treaty of Paris creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and those that led to the Single European Act (SEA) which relaunched integration in the mid-1980s. (Interview, Delors, June 22, 1999). This is primarily because of the impact of the Community method on both sets of negotiations and their impact on cooperation between the member states and European institutions.

Banchoff's assessment that French national identity is inextricably linked with popular sovereignty suggests that the changes introduced by European integration must be embedded in the life of national political institutions. This assessment is all the more relevant in the aftermath of German unification and the ruling of the German Constitutional Court on the Maastricht Treaty. In the post-1989 context, it is important to understand the meaning of sovereignty in Germany, which differs markedly from that in France, and to grasp the necessity to construct a European polity that is viewed as a "legitimate framework for politics" by the populations of the member states.

In the book's closing chapter, Banchoff and Smith explain that the conflict surrounding the Maastricht ratification brought the centrality of European politics in national decision making to light. The search for legitimacy, however contested in a multi-level polity, may lead state leaders to take decisions that reconstruct national identities in ways to promote compatibility with the integration project. The conclusions drawn by the editors illustrate the extent to which this volume is essential reading for those interested in the European Union. Its chapters contribute significant insights to our understanding of Europe's impact within national polities, thereby enhancing our knowledge of legitimacy in the Union as its complex system of decision making evolves in the 21st century.

This is a very good book about how Lenin was made into a god to Russia. There is a lot of detail about Lenin's life, but more about what happened to Lenin after he died. It was not to surprising his body was preserved and put on display. In this way he was treated as the Orthodox Church has always revered its saints by keeping relics and body parts. Lenin's wife was angry that Lenin was not properly buried, but Stalin's idea was to make him into a saint. For all the years following Lenin was practically worshipped. This book shows how the cult was created by the Communist Party and forced on Russian citizens. The book treats Russians and Lenin with respect, and it has very good history.