Toni Gilpin - The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland

Praise for The Long Deep Grudge

The Long Deep Grudge is the gripping tale of another Heartlanda Midwest filled with militant workers who took on one of the worlds largest corporations and, for a time, won dignity, high wages, and power on the job. It is the story of the kind of radicalism that comes from fighting a corporate giant like International Harvester. Union stalwarts like Gilpins father fought not to improve the companys productivity, but to claw back as much corporate wealth as possible. Told with vigor and wry humor, The Long Deep Grudge has lessons for trade unionists, radicals, and anyone struggling for a better world in the here and now.

Tobias Higbie, faculty chair of labor studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Combining the expertise of a historian, detailed eye of a journalist, and flair of a novelist, Toni Gilpin breathes life into an important and fascinating story that, in lesser hands, could be as dull as dishwater. Gilpin aspires to tell no less a story than the epic battle between a corporate behemoth and the working-class radicals whofor decadesfought it tooth and nail. The plucky, interracial, leftist Farm Equipment Workers union that sought to wrest control of the shop floor from the owners and managers of International Harvester is the story of America.

Peter Cole, author, Wobblies on the Waterfront

Toni Gilpin brings us a vivid story of greed, revenge, and the search for justice. Its about the McCormick family, whose passionate anti-unionism helped to bring us the Haymarket tragedy, and the multiple generations of workers who refused to forget, and finally took them on. This is a riveting labor history drama that will stir your soul. Farm equipment workers in the 1930s rekindled the spirit of resistance, providing a model for thinking about how to get power, and how to act with a radical vision. They refused to concede the structuring of the workplace or the economy to corporations; they connected union rights with civil rights; and they learned how to create an effective strike. From Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, they built an interracial coalition and defied the corporate attempt to defeat unionism through outsourcing of jobs. They fashioned a class war, and for a time it seemed they would prevail. We know the costs of the red-baiting that purged this unions legacy: today ten tiers of wages are considered normal, and the McCormicks strategy of divide-and-conquer is triumphant. So there is much to learn here about how solidarity was created in an earlier time.

Rosemary Feurer, author, Radical Unionism in the Midwest

The Long Deep Grudge takes labor history to the barricades, where a small union deeply committed to class struggle on the job squares off against a corporate giant determined to enforce managerial prerogatives. This epic tale is also an entirely human-scale drama that brings to life multiple generations of radical labor leaders, rank-and-file workers, captains of industry, and public officials dedicated to the defense of private wealth. Though they won quite a few battles, the storys chief protagonistscommunist organizers who founded the Farm Equipment Workers and unionized International Harvester when even John L. Lewis thought it couldnt be doneultimately lost the war, for reasons that go a long way to explain why the US labor movement is so much weaker now than it was in the FEs heyday. That labor liberals capitulation to anti-communism ultimately weakened unions comes across loud and clear, as does the folly of dependence on labor-management cooperation as opposed to the FEs maxim that a strong picket line is the best negotiator. More important, the FEs history teaches by example that a union can punch far above its weight when members stand ready to come out swinging, not only because theyre angry at the boss but also for love of one another and an organization that truly belongs to them. For that alone, The Long Deep Grudge ought to be required reading for every labor activist in the United States.

Priscilla Murolo, coauthor of From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend

We need unions like the Farm Equipment Workers, Toni Gilpin proves emphatically in her study of this left-led Midwest once-powerhouse. She shows the direct line between union leaders rock-hard belief that management has no right to exist and the way FE members organized to defend themselves, constantly, on the shop floorwith many thrilling tales of class struggle in the flesh. Without FE leaders socialist politics, the union could well have gone the way of its rival, the United Auto Workers, on a short path to a belief in managements rights and therefore an acceptance of speedupand outsourcing, plant closings, and a bureaucratic grievance procedure instead of quickie strikes. No wonder the rank and file loved that union.

Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes

Toni Gilpins The Long Deep Grudge is a remarkable accomplishment, which succeeds on multiple levels. The definitive history of an important but largely forgotten labor organization and its heroic struggles with an icon of industrial capitalism, this book is also a compelling and deeply moving reflection on the tragic history of radical industrial unionism in twentieth-century America. It is essential reading for anyone who truly wishes to understand the history of labor and class struggle in this country.

Ahmed White, author, The Last Great Strike

In The Long Deep Grudge, Toni Gilpin does more than simply excavate the story of a largely forgotten midwestern union with a small but vibrant heyday more than six decades ago. This highly readable history contains important insights for those concerned with revitalizing a more activist-oriented labor movement to overcome the stark economic inequalities surrounding us today. This saga of the Farm Equipment Workers victories over major industrialists in 1940s Chicago and Louisville offers a vivid reminder that in a nation built on racial capitalism, the hard work of bridging long-standing racial divides and of promoting Black leadership is vital to successful organizing to improve working peoples lives. Unions work best, Gilpins work illustrates, when they inspire their members to push past the norms around them to advance a passionate shared vision for a fairer workplace. Highly recommended.

Catherine Fosl, director, Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research

The Long Deep Grudge

A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor,
and Class War in the American Heartland

Toni Gilpin

2020 Toni Gilpin

Published in 2020 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org

ISBN: 978-1-64259-089-0

Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions. Please call 773-583-7884 or email for more information.

Cover and text design by Eric Kerl.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

To Gary and our own rebel girls, Amy and Esther

Map of Select International Harvester Plants