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Recording History Before It Disappears: Union Power reviewed by Portside

Union Power: The United Electrical Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania

Union Power: The United Electrical Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania
264 pp, $29 pbk, ISBN: 9781583676172
By James Young

Reviewed by Frank Emspak and Paul Buhle

“So much of a sense of union history is in danger of disappearance with the downward slide of organized labor, we need a refresher—not just a big sweep but the saga in a microcosm. Union Power supplies a lucid case study in the key developments from the 1930s breakthrough of industrial unionism through the grim counterattack by capitalism to the struggle for survival. Whoever is old enough to remember the many campus peace events of the later 1960s with only one speaker from organized labor on hand—that is, from the United Electrical Workers—will have an insight already. ¶ Author James Young, longtime activist, academic historian and now retiree still on the (radical) job, is well suited for the task, and so is the location, Erie, PA….”

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