US Communists as Early Social Movement Unionists Circa 1930 to 1956?

Abstract

Through the examination of three recently published volumes, in this review essay I argue that US Communists were “premature social movement unionists” in the quarter century circa 1930 to 1956. US Communists had adopted social movement unionism (smu), which did not officially emerge as an accepted type of trade unionism until the late 1980s/early 1990s, approximately a half century before becoming accepted throughout the world. This demonstrates that US Communists recognized the enormous potential of what trade unionism could achieve beyond the American Federation of Labor’s craft-oriented business unionism and the Industrial Workers of the World’s shopfloor based revolutionary syndicalism. Thus, the Communists’ smu can be interpreted as a precursor to the twenty-first century Bargaining for the Common Good.