It is essential reading for anyone who truly wishes to understand the history of labor and class struggle in this country.” -Ahmed A. 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. “Toni Gilpin’s The Long Deep Grudge is a remarkable accomplishment, which succeeds on multiple levels. "Written with clarity and grace, Toni Gilpin’s The Long Deep Grudge examines the conflict between International Harvester and the Farm Equipment Workers Union in order to provide new and trenchant insights into both the strengths and weaknesses of “radical” unionism from the 1880s through the 1970s." -2020 Taft Labor History Award honorable mention award “A capitalist family dynasty, a radical union, and a revolution in how and where work gets done- Toni Gilpin's The Long Deep Grudge is a detailed chronicle of one of the most active battlefronts in our ever-evolving class war.” -John Sayles "Generously appointed with period illustrations and rare photos, the volume is a tour-de-force of labor history related through a personal lens of family commitment to labor organizing." - International Labor History Association Book of the Year, 2020 It touches on pivotal moments and movements as wide-ranging as the Haymarket "riot," the Flint sit-down strikes, the Memorial Day Massacre, the McCarthy-era anti-communist purges, and America's late 20th-century industrial decline.īoth Harvester and the FE are now gone, but this largely forgotten clash helps explain the crisis of yawning inequality now facing US workers, and provides alternative models from the past that can instruct and inspire those engaged in radical, working class struggles today. Biographical sketches of McCormick family members, union officials and rank-and-file workers are woven into the narrative, along with anarchists, jazz musicians, Wall Street financiers, civil rights crusaders, and mob lawyers. This evocative account, stretching back to the nineteenth century and carried through to the present, reads like a novel. On the other side the militant Farm Equipment Workers union, connected to the Communist Party, mounted a vociferous challenge to the cooperative ethos that came to define the American labor movement after World War II. International Harvester – and the McCormick family that largely controlled it – garnered a reputation for bare-knuckled union-busting in the 1880s, but in the 20th century also pioneered sophisticated union-avoidance techniques that have since become standard corporate practice. The Long Deep Grudge makes clear that class warfare has been, and remains, integral to the American experience, providing up-close-and-personal and long-view perspectives from both sides of the battle lines. This rich history details the bitter, deep-rooted conflict between industrial behemoth International Harvester and the uniquely radical Farm Equipment Workers union. International Labor History Association.
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