Look Past Public Workers—the Root of Labor’s Crisis Lies in Private Sector

by Joe Burns

When I remember the heroic upsurge in Madison this winter, the subtitle of labor journalist Steve Early’s latest book comes to mind: “The Birth of a New Workers’ Movement or the Death Throes of the Old?” Although Early was speaking of the grandiose promises of the Change to Win union federation, the question can be applied to the massive demonstrations in Madison.

Will the struggle in Wisconsin be seen as the dying gasp of unionism in America, or the turning point marking the construction of a new labor movement? That depends, of course, on the actions of trade unionists in the coming months and years.