Horace R. Cayton - Black Workers and the New Unions
Here you can read online Horace R. Cayton - Black Workers and the New Unions full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2010, publisher: UNC Press Books, genre: Politics. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:Black Workers and the New Unions
- Author:
- Publisher:UNC Press Books
- Genre:
- Year:2010
- Rating:5 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
Black Workers and the New Unions: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Black Workers and the New Unions" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
Horace R. Cayton: author's other books
Who wrote Black Workers and the New Unions? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
Horace R. Cayton
Horace G. (Horace Gordon) Hutchinson
Rohini Hensman
Horace Walpole
Graham Wootton
Noah Berlatsky
Horace Cooper
Black Workers and the New Unions — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Black Workers and the New Unions" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
BLACK WORKERS AND THE NEW UNIONS
COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE SEEMAN PRINTERY, INC., DURHAM, N. C.
BY THE SEEMAN PRINTERY, INC., DURHAM, N. C.
FOREWORD
BY CHARLES S. JOHNSON
UNTIL recently the Negro laborer has been an agricultural worker, and the scene of his labors has been almost wholly limited to the South. With tenancy rates increasing and ownership decreasing, the condition of agriculture in this section has been unfortunate; and, to add to the dismal prospect, there has been a steadily accumulating population surplus. The historic role of the Negro worker, his cultural isolation, and the consistently meagre returns from his labor have contributed to a status that Booker Washington once described as that of a the man farthest down. However, what has been for two generations virtually a racial caste in southern agriculture is in process of slow disintegration.
One effect of the decline of southern agriculture, notably in respect to cotton, has been, as far as concerns the insecure and desperate white agricultural workers, the breaking down of the traditional occupational taboos, which had hitherto inhibited their acceptance of a status that, historically, had been limited to Negroes. This, in turn, has had interesting results. It has intensified competition on lower levels of agricultural production, and it has contributed to the forces that were expelling Negroes from the farms.
The black workers, in response to the demand during the labor shortage created by the World War for crude labor in the cities, began for the first time to desert the land. The rural South, when measured in terms of its ability under present conditions to provide adequate support for its workers, is still over-populated. Short of a reduction of the birth rate and the industrialization of the rural areas, there seems to be no obvious way for the South to absorb this surplus labor.
The South was already suffering from the effect of a long depression when the nation felt the severe shock of a more general dislocation of the economic structure. The plight of the Negro tenant and farm worker was intensified as his condition became more critical and threatened widespread social as well as economic consequences. It was the urgency of the situation that prompted a general study of the effects of the depression and the recovery measures on this population. The present volume is the result of the effort to follow the Negro worker into the new field of industry where new social as well as technical skills are essential to his survival. It is the third of a series of studies projected in 1933 by a special Committee on Negroes in the Economic Reconstruction.1
The grim and at times tragic struggle of labor for recognition and security in industry is one of the incidents of our industrial expansion. This struggle, however, has been seriously complicated by the racial factor introduced with the arrival of Negroes in the industrial centers. The long tradition of racial separateness, the inevitable prejudices associated with race and caste distinctions, and the new antagonisms aroused by the appearance of a new and inexperienced competitor, have brought about a disastrous struggle within the ranks of workers who, under other circumstances, would have been united in the consciousness of a common economic interest.
The relation of black and white workers in organizations designed for their mutual protection is in many respects more significant to the student than the relation of these black workers to their employers or to the processes of industry itself. For here, in the readjustment of social patterns and ideologies, we find reflected a profound transition in Negro life as well as in the economic outlook of American workers generally. What has been for generations a racial stratification in occupations is, under present-day conditions, in process of transformation. Class interests and class solidarity have measurably relaxed racial tensions and, by so doing, have mitigated the divisive effects of racial antagonism.
Students of modern labor problems cannot fail to be impressed by the brilliant analysis of the early development stages of the race factor in American labor unionism as presented by Spero and Harris.2 This analysis, however, ends short of what is perhaps the most important change in labor sentiment and organization in the history of the movement. This change began with the attempts of the New Deal government to reinvest labor with a strength and dignity it had somehow lost. The power and authority of the national government, in its bargaining with industry, accomplished in a brief period what labor had not, and perhaps could not, have accomplished of itself. The inadequacy of labor was due in part to the superior strength and sagacity of employers, and no small part of labor's inadequacy seems to have had its source and origin in its own policies.
The principle inspiring the New Deal's concern for labor seems to have its basis in a conception of a more wholesome economic democracy. The difficulties encountered, however, were not wholly economic. Out of the clash of interests, within and without, the labor movement has developed a new labor front and a new labor consciousness.
It might be said that the changes here referred to were precipitated by the Codes which required of industry that it give recognition to labor in the more important role assigned to it. Industry has undergone progressive reorganization under the stimulation of technology. Many of the changes affected labor profoundly, but no corresponding change had taken place in the organization of labor or in labor's conception of itself and its role. Some readjustment was necessary, however, if labor itself was to keep pace with the rapid development of industry. If it failed, it ran the risk of increasing the insecurity of the economic structure, of which there were already obvious indications.
It is significant that the new labor innovations affecting Negro workers have not only reached the submerged masses, but have also been found essential to the fulfillment of the new policies and ideologies.
It is easier to incorporate Negroes into a new movement, before racial distinctions can become traditional and fixed, than to find a secure place in an older order, even though the theories that rationalize and direct the movement may have undergone alteration. This is a social fact of great importance as affecting the success of Negro workers in finding their way in this new occupational field.
The new technology is so complex and physical and social changes are taking place so rapidly that it has become extremely difficult for industry to preserve racial and caste lines without either abandoning some measure of the economy and efficiency it seeks or provoking new and profound confusion. Herein lies the hope at once of the Negro's and of labor's future in industry. The penetrating and detailed examination which the authors of this volume have given of the factors involved in this most recent contest of labor with its employers and with itself constitutes the burden and the contribution of this book.
1. Other volumes are The Collapse of Cotton Tenancy, by Charles S. Johnson, W. W. Alexander, and Edwin R. Embree (Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1935); and A Preface to Peasantry, by Arthur Raper (Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1936).
2. Sterling D. Spero and Abram L. Harris, The Black Worker (New York, Columbia University Press, 1931).
Introduction
THIS WORK is a study of the economic status and industrial position of the Negroes as industrial laborers and of their participation in labor unions. The developments in those fields are of paramount importance in determining the future of labor in general and of Negro laborers in particular. It was not possible to present a resume of the history of Negro labor in the United States. However, some analysis of the background of the problem is necessary to acquaint the reader with the point of view from which this research was developed.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Similar books «Black Workers and the New Unions»
Look at similar books to Black Workers and the New Unions. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
Horace G. (Horace Gordon) Hutchinson
Rohini Hensman
Horace Walpole
Graham Wootton
Noah Berlatsky
Horace Cooper
Reviews about «Black Workers and the New Unions»
Discussion, reviews of the book Black Workers and the New Unions and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.