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The rank and file strategy is a socialist strategy of union organizing that entails socialists gaining employment in key industrial sectors as a means of developing the class consciousness of workers and building a broader socialist coalition through working class solidarity. The strategy has its roots in the organizing efforts of the United States International Socialists in the 1960s and 1970s. First described by labor writer and former International Socialist member Kim Moody in a 2000 pamphlet entitled The Rank and File Strategy: Building a Socialist Movement in the U.S, the strategy has since been adopted by the Democratic Socialists of America. The strategy has largely been employed in primary, secondary, and higher education unions in the United States in the 2010s and 2020s. The strategy has been criticized for its association with party politics and from a feminist perspective.
Definition edit
The rank and file strategy was first developed by labor writer Kim Moody in a pamphlet issued in 2000, entitled The Rank and File Strategy: Building a Socialist Movement in the U.S.[1] The strategy has been described as "the idea ... that radicals should orient themselves toward the strata of worker activists, at the base of unions, who are most engaged in shop-floor militancy and resistance to management, rather than 'attempt to gain influence by sidling up to the incumbent bureaucracy or its alleged progressive wing.'"[2]
Background and history edit
description of international socialist efforts
Usage edit
describe recent rank-and-file efforts
Criticism edit
from the left[3]
feminist critique. - King article (also has good cites)
https://spectrejournal.com/the-rank-and-file-strategy-on-new-terrain/
Notes edit
- ^ Moody 2022; Moody 2000.
- ^ Early 2008, p. 172, quoting Moody 2000, p. 18.
- ^ Koslowski 2021.
References edit
Books edit
- Blanc, Eric (2019). Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. Jacobin series. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-78873-575-9.
- Brenner, Aaron; Brenner, Robert; Winslow, Cal, eds. (2010). Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt From Below in the Long 1970s. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-173-1.
- Moody, Kim (2000). Rank and File Strategy: Building a Socialist Movement in the U.S. (PDF). Detroit: Solidarity. OCLC 826913418.
- Moody, Kim (2007). U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above and the Promise of Revival from Below. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-844-67154-0.
Journal and magazine articles edit
- Early, Steve (March 2008). "Remaking Labor—From the Top-Down? Bottom-Up? Or Both?". Review Essay. WorkingUSA. 11 (1): 171–178. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2008.00193.x. ISSN 1089-7011.
- Griffiths, Kade Doyle (August 5, 2020). "Moody on Moody, Part I: Preliminaries". Spectre. The Rank and File Strategy on New Terrain.
- King, Adam DK (June 2021). "A Feminist Political Economy Critique of 'the Militant Minority'". Debates and Controversies. Work, Employment and Society. 35 (3): 584–594. doi:10.1177/0950017020954746. ISSN 0950-0170.
- Koslowski, Jason (January 3, 2021). "A Critique of the Rank-and-File Strategy". Left Voice. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
- Moody, Kim (July 25, 2022). "Origins of the Rank and File Strategy". Tempest. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.