Episode 5: Little Steel

Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/organize-the-unorganized-cio-episode-5-little-steel This episode is devoted to the Little Steel strike in the summer of 1937, a tragic failure for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and the CIO, and one that illustrated the limits of the New Deal order. It might appear excessive to devote an entire episode of the podcast to one strike, but Little Steel was in many ways a turning point, a key hinge in our story. To capture it well we also need to delve into the more general history of steel organizing in America, a fantastically brutal affair that reveals the soul of American capitalism. Guests in order of appearance: David Brody, Professor Emeritus of History at UC-Davis; Ahmed White, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; Daniel Nelson, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Akron; Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at Binghamton University Clips in order of appearance: Gus Hall, “U.S. Communist Party 75th Anniversary,” October 23, 1994, https://www.c-span.org/video/?61145-1/us-communist-party-75th-anniversary (0:00); “AFL vs. CIO split in 1935,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IsJZAknuIQ (7:47); John L. Lewis, “Industrial Democracy in Steel,” July 6, 1936, The John L. Lewis Papers 493A/39, Wisconsin Historical Society (9:26, 45:29); “UAW Audiovisual Collection: 1955 Documentary on the CIO,” Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University (19:10); Quotes in order of appearance: Mary Heaton Vorse, Labor’s New Millions, p. 132, https://ia802602.us.archive.org/3/items/laborsnewmillion00vorsrich/laborsnewmillion00vorsrich.pdf (32:16) Songs in order of appearance: Pete Seeger, “Homestead Strike Song,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xysm_JNnLqw (5:58); Joe Glazer, “Memorial Day Massacre,” Songs of Steel and Struggle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6KsMlgCokI (20:12); Joe and Esther Zane Gelders, “The Ballad of John Catchings (Part 1),” The Lomax Kentucky Recordings, https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/197 (38:36) Theme music by Drake Tyler. Quote music is Martin Tallstrom’s cover of “Freight Train,” used here with permission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9LEUMgBkX8.