Labor Organizing and Communist Influence in the 1930s

This week our crew at Fragile Juggernaut is delivering our first special bonus episode. Tim and Ben talk with Sam-Adler Bell—an excellent writer and one-half of the brilliant Know Your Enemy podcast—about our series.

Appearing on Know Your Enemy gave us a chance to explore a new dimension of our project: to think about the CIO not only as a moment when new social forces on the left converge or spring into action, but also as a cauldron for conservatives and reactionaries—a pre-history of the modern conservative movement—some of which would continue to dominate the American political scene for generations. The episode also was an occasion to return to some core themes: an account of the American working class as internally stratified, riven with internal struggles, and shot through with competing strategies and interests. In particular, we talk plenty about the political right within the labor movement, and the vaciliations of what some might call the “middle class,” whose zigzags so often stamp the outcomes of open political contests.

Fragile Juggernaut is a Haymarket Originals podcast exploring the history, politics, and strategic lessons of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the rank and file insurgency that produced it. Support Fragile Juggernaut on Patreon and receive our exclusive bimonthly newsletter, full of additional insights, reading recommendations, and archival materials we’ve amassed along the way. 

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