Haymarket Originals: Fragile Juggernaut

Episode 12 of Fragile Juggernaut turns the lens on the situation and activity of white-collar, professional, and creative workers in the 1930s and 1940s. Together with guests Nikil Saval (state senator from Pennsylvania and author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace) and Shannan Clark (historian at Montclair State University and author of The Making of the American Creative Class: New York’s Culture Workers and Twentieth-Century Consumer Capitalism), Alex and Gabe dig in on a few key sectors: office workers, journalists, academics and scientists, and workers in the culture industries—art, film, radio, theater, and publishing. How did the labor movement and the left conceptualize these kinds of workers and what role they might play? What was the relationship between their organization and struggle, on one hand, and the content and function of their work, on the other?Sonically, this episode is a bit of a concept album, interspersed with excerpts from Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 musical play The Cradle Will Rock (actually a higher-quality 1964 recording). Inspired stylistically by the plays of Bertolt Brecht and institutionally sponsored by the WPA (until it panicked and backed out), The Cradle Will Rock is set in Steeltown, USA: a sex worker is thrown in jail after refusing a cop free service. There, she meets academics, artists, and journalists who have been arrested in a police mix-up at a steelworkers’ rally, which they were monitoring as members of the anti-union Liberty Committee of steel baron Mr. Mister. While these anti-union professionals and creatives wait for Mr. Mister to come clear things up and bail them out, they explain how he recruited them to the Liberty Committee. Also with them in jail is steelworkers’ leader Larry Forman, who warns them that the cozy “cradle” where they sit will soon fall.A correction: Gabe says in the episode that the Disney strike was in 1940. In fact, it was in May 1941.Featured music (besides The Cradle Will Rock): “Teacher’s Blues” by Pete Seeger.Archival audio credits: “I Want to Be a Secretary,” Coronet Instructional Films (1941); Dan Mahoney Oral History, San Francisco State Labor Archives and Research Center; Oppenheimer (2023); “WPA Helping Theaters All Black Production of Macbeth”; Isom Moseley oral history, Federal Writers Project (1941); Dumbo (1941).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.Buy Ours to Master and to Own, currently 40% off: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/366-ours-to-master-and-to-own

Episode 11 of Fragile Juggernaut concerns the Communist Party and its complex role in the creation of the CIO. Andrew and Ben trace the strategic zigzags of America’s far-left, recount their pioneering role in organizing drives, and measure the Party’s own accounts of its politics against the often ambiguous, even contradictory realities of its practice. Did Communists merely supply the shock troops for someone else’s political ambitions, or did they put their stamp on the CIO, in ways that were durable and lasting? Did their practice of unionism conform to the mainstream of the labor movement, or did it contain the germs of another kind of CIO? What, ultimately, did the CIO do to the Communist Party? We discuss this and more amongst our co-hosts, and with our special guest, the historical sociologist Judith Stepan-Norris, co-author of Left Out and Talking Union (our interview begins around 1:25:00).Featured music: “The Bourgeois Blues” by Lead Belly; “The United Front” by New Singers; “Our Line's Been Changed Again” by Joe Glazer; “Internationale” by New Singers)Archival audio credits: Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists (1983)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. Buy Rank and File, 20% Off: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/396-rank-and-file Read Gabriel Winant on the Popular Front in The London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n15/gabriel-winant/we-can-breathe

This week our crew at Fragile Juggernaut is delivering our second special bonus-episode: while we are on a brief summer hiatus, Andrew and Ben sum up the first half of our mini-series, drawing together the core themes of our show so far and discussing where we’ll go in the second half.  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. Support us on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FragileJuggernaut/posts

Sam-Adler Bell, from the Know Your Enemy podcast, discusses the CIO's influence on American politics, labor history, and the rise of the conservative movement. Topics include the internal struggles of the American working class, the role of communism in labor organizing, and the evolution of labor movement ideologies from progressive to right-wing. The episode explores historical figures like Father Charles Coughlin, challenges within the labor movement, and the impact of cultural alliances on the working class.

Episode 10 of Fragile Juggernaut surveys the wide range of workers who united–and sometimes fought each other–under the banner of the CIO. We begin in the slaughterhouse, with special guest Rick Halpern explaining how the United Packinghouse Workers of America (PWOC/UPWA) brought together black and white workers despite segregation inside and outside the workplace. Then, the hosts discuss two of the largest CIO unions: the United Steel Workers (USWA/SWOC) and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE). These two unions are often thought of, respectively, as emblematic of the “right” and “left” wings of the CIO. But what does that mean? And why did these two unions develop the way they did?   Featured music: “The Cloakmaker’s Union” (Joe Glazer); “Killing Floor” (Howlin’ Wolf); “Hard Times Killing Floor” (Skip James); “Odpocivam v Americkej pode/I Lie in the American Land” (written by Andrew Kovaly, performed by Vivien Richman); “Spirit of Phil Murray” (Sterling Jubilee Singers).  Archival audio credits: UPWA oral histories recorded and generously provided by Rick Halpern; Deadline for Action (UE, 1946); James Matles Retirement Speech via UE History; oral histories of James Downey, Tom Girdler, Jr., and Harold Ruttenberg via AAPB. Buy Rick Halpern's Down on the Killing Floor Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904-54: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p066337Fragile 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. Socialism 2024 is coming up soon! Visit socialismconference.org to learn more about the conference and register today.

Exploring the roots of American fascism in the 1930s, connection between Italian fascism and US events, parallels between Jim Crow laws and fascism, the global spread of concentration camps in the 1930s, violent strikes in California, rise of fascist and anti-fascist ideologies, collaboration between leftist groups, cultural diversity within workers' movements, complexities of the popular front movement, and the impact of WWII and the Cold War on labor movements.

Exploring the political landscape of 1936, FDR's re-election prospects amidst workers' insurgencies, the CIO's relationship with electoral politics, and the evolving links between leftwing intellectuals, the CIO, and the Democratic Party. Delving into the historic shift in economic strategy during Roosevelt's administration, the significance of the Social Security Act, labor party movements, challenges to Roosevelt's re-election, labor movements, espionage, and the Lefallet Committee's investigation. Examining election dynamics, coalition building, and the transformation of the Southern economy.

Explore the powerful impact of sit-down strikes in the labor movement, the global spread of the strike tactic, and the fight against spies. Hear about the street battles in Flint, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Atlanta. Discover the architectonics of capital and the union insurgency that shaped the labor movement.

Special guest Eric Blanc discusses the passage of the Wagner Act and the founding of the CIO, highlighting the significance of transformative labor laws and the raucous AFL convention in Atlantic City. The episode delves into high politics, institutional history, and the impact of autonomous state actors on historical change.

Exploring the strikes of 1934 in Toledo, San Francisco, and Minneapolis showcasing the power of working class self-activity and fighting unionism. Highlights include the revolutionary ethos, challenges faced by the workers, intense confrontations, and the rise of the CIO. Delve into the struggles of auto workers unions, ideological divisions in the strikes, escalating tensions, and the strategic importance of rank-and-file leadership in union movements.