Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO

Benjamin Y. Fong, Jacobin•jacobin.com

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Episodes

Episode 9: Lessons

This final episode of Organize the Unorganized is devoted to key lessons of the CIO moment. All of the guests on this program were asked about this basic question, and we try to represent all of their answers on this episode. The negative lessons, points where guests were keen to note the differences between the 30s and the present moment, focused on the changed economic situation and the issue of labor law. The more positive lessons pertained to union democracy, overcoming divisions in the work...

Mar 12, 2024•44 min

Episode 8: Is There an Ending to the CIO?

This penultimate episode of Organize the Unorganized concludes the story of the CIO. We cover first the communist purge in the late 1940s, as well as Operation Dixie, the failed campaign to organize the south. We then get to merger with the AFL in 1955, and the afterlife of the CIO in the Industrial Union Department and its contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Guests in order of appearance: Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; James You...

Mar 05, 2024•47 min

Episode 7: War

The early period of the CIO could be said to have ended with the Little Steel strike in 1937, when the limits of the New Deal order were dramatically illustrated in the brutal repression and failure of the strike. But the CIO continued to grow through the 40s, and it was the war escalation that provided the context for it to do so. This episode will be devoted to the CIO's role in and relation to the war effort, and what it meant for this labor upsurge. Guests in order of appearance: Melvyn Dubo...

Feb 26, 2024•41 min

Episode 6: From the Docks to the Killing Floors

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/organize-the-unorganized-cio-episode-6 On this week's episode of Organize the Unorganized, we cover some of the key CIO unions not yet discussed in great detail, including the UE, ILWU, TWOC and PWOC. There were many other unions that formed the CIO - unions in oil, printing, transport, retail - but the four that we’re covering on this episode were four of the biggest and most influential that we haven't yet gotten into. Guests in order of appearance: James Young, Pro...

Feb 19, 2024•52 min

Episode 5: Little Steel

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/organize-the-unorganized-cio-episode-5-little-steel This episode is devoted to the Little Steel strike in the summer of 1937, a tragic failure for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and the CIO, and one that illustrated the limits of the New Deal order. It might appear excessive to devote an entire episode of the podcast to one strike, but Little Steel was in many ways a turning point, a key hinge in our story. To capture it well we also need to delve into the mor...

Feb 05, 2024•47 min

Episode 4: Taking Stock

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/cio-organize-podcast-left-unity How was it that the CIO was finally able to make good on the decades-old dream of industrial unionism? In this episode, we outline four factors that were the keys to the CIO’s success. First, there was a political opportunity that the CIO took advantage of. Second, there were militant and disruptive tactics employed that were effective given that political opportunity. Third, there was the great energy and commitment of the Left as chan...

Jan 30, 2024•50 min

Episode 3: Sit Down!

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/cio-organize-podcast-sit-down-strikes/ On the third episode of Organize the Unorganized, we examine the three initial major victories of the CIO in rubber, auto, and steel. We begin by recounting the story of the “first CIO strike” at the Goodyear complex in Akron, Ohio, a victorious strike that put the CIO on the map. We then turn to the great General Motors strike in the winter of 1937, perhaps the most iconic confrontation of the period and generally recognized as ...

Jan 23, 2024•43 min

Episode 2: Powerful Personalities

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/cio-organize-podcast-hillman-lewis On the second episode of Organized the Unorganized, we kick things off with an account of the institutional formation of the CIO, and then get to the organization’s key personalities. John L. Lewis, the founding president of and driving force behind the CIO, unsurprisingly gets a fair amount of time, and we focus in particular on the reasons for his bold leadership at this decisive moment in history. We also introduce Sidney Hillman,...

Jan 16, 2024•37 min

Episode 1: Under the Blue Eagle

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/organize-cio-podcast-bridges-trucker-strikes The first episode of Organize the Unorganized sets the stage for the story of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, first getting into the history of the organization from which it broke off, the American Federation of Labor, and then describing three developments that raised workers’ expectations in the lead-up to the founding of the CIO: the broken promises of welfare capitalism, the National Industrial Recovery Act, ...

Jan 08, 2024•42 min

Trailer

Organize the Unorganized delves into the transformative era of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), a labor federation that unionized millions of workers in the 1930s. Through the voices of leading labor historians, the podcast will recount tales of heroism, factory occupations, and power struggles, highlighting the CIO's scale unmatched by other labor upsurges. Its core aim is to extract vital strategies and insights from this pivotal historical period for contemporary private-sector labor organizing.

Dec 30, 2023•4 min

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