On Making a New Deal

As those who read my views are probably well-aware, I don’t love labor history, I find it dense and difficult to make sense of. Histories of labor often devolve into a soup of union acronyms and Marxist mumbo-jumbo. Yet, I absolutely love this book.

Lizabeth Cohen’s starting question is: After the fizzling out of the American labor movement during the 1919-22 Red Scare and nearly a decade of quiet, why did American workers turn to Democratic Party politics and unionization, giving immense amounts of power to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal?

To start off, Cohen gives us an overview of the situation on the ground. The First Red Scare led to the collapse of Chicago’s, as well as America’s, labor movement. There were numerous abortive attempts to create labor unions, but almost none were formed for unskilled labor—the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was dedicated to skilled, craft-based labor. The primary mode of association for American laborers in Chicago was local—most workers were either immigrants, children of immigrants, or African Americans. As a result, they often remained in their own ethnic communities, relying on ethnic associations for aid and purchasing goods and services from their neighbors. Moreover, employers were attempted to ensure worker loyalty through “welfare capitalism”—giving some level of employer-backed social security. However, few workers were convinced by their workers, who often gave too little when they needed it the most. At the same time, brands of goods were consolidating (even monopolizing) the market, movie theaters became more prominent, and consumer society emerged rapidly.

When the Great Depression struck in 1929, earlier forms of community institutions fell through. Employers could no longer offer any sort of welfare and community associations, ethnic banks, etc. went bankrupt. As a result, workers looked for other sorts of means of preserving themselves and FDR’s New Deal fit the bill. Although FDR’s New Deal was a much more conservative program than many workers may have liked, they accepted it and generally were not radicals, they just wanted enough to get by. At the same time, they found further solace in unionization, especially in the nascent Confederation of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which (unlike the AFL) emphasized unskilled labor. Between Democratic Party politics and union organization with the CIO, immigrants and black Americans were transformed into a mutual coalition that would shape the future. That said, we cannot overestimate the close connections between black Americans and their working-class white and immigrant neighbors, as anti-black persecution rose throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Nevertheless, it was a useful coalition at the time, and workers found peace in that.

Cohen’s logic and engagement with source material makes this text eminently readable, and her questions feel peculiarly relevant. Highly recommend this book.