Resources For Defending Rights in the Workplace

Preface

No one organization “controls” the Right. No single funder is “behind” the Right. Some large organizations are important, but many others appear to be more influential than they really are. Recognize that there are multiple networks of organizations and funders with differing and sometimes competing agendas. Find out as much as you can about the groups you see. Incorporate this information in your educational work.  It is helpful in organizing to know a great deal about your opponents.  Be alert to evidence of the Right’s “new racism.” The Right has replaced simple racist rhetoric with a more complex, “colorblind” political agenda which actually attacks the rights of people of color.

This advice is from the PRA flyer “Ground Rules & Tips for Challenging the Right.”
 

Studies of Right-Wing Attacks on Working People

For many years the newsletter Group Research Report published information about right-wing organizations and their attacks on working people. While Group Research is now defunct, the newsletter is availbale in some libraries and archives, and remains a useful resource for historical material. See also these other historic muckraking newsletters: In Fact, the newsletter of George Seldes; and I.F. Stone's Weekly.

Studies by Unions & Labor Advocacy Groups

National Focus

AFSCME Public Policy Dept. (1998). The Assault on Working Families. Washington, DC, American Federation of State, County and Municiple Employees, AFL-CIO.

National Education Association. (1998). The Real Story Behind "Paycheck Protection:" The Hidden Link Between Anti-Worker and Anti-Public Education Initiatives (An Anatomy of the Far Right). Washington, DC, NEA.

Hunter, William. (1980). The New Right: A Growing Force in State Politics. Washington, DC: Center to Protect Worker's Rights.

Michigan Education Association. (circa 1980). The New Right. Michigan Education Association.

Who Funds the Attack on Working People?

Studying Right-wing Funding & Policy-Making

Foundations & Funding: Web Resources

Understanding the U.S. Political Right

Introductory Books

Himmelstein, Jerome L. (1990). To the Right: The Transformation of American Conservatism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Edsall, Thomas Byrne and Mary D. Edsall. 1991. Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics. New York: Norton.

More Books

Links to Conservative and Right-wing Groups

Directory of Right-wing Groups and their Allies

Studying the Right - A Scholarly Approach

What's Really Going on Here?

Collins, Chuck, Betsy Leondar-Wright, and Holly Sklar. (1999). Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap. Boston: United for a Fair Economy.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. 1989. Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class New York: Harper Perennial.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Metropolitan Books.

Faludi, Susan. 1999. Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. New York: William Morrow.

Greider, William B. (1987). Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Greider, William B. (1992). Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Johnston, David Cay. (2004). Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.

Shipler, David K. (2004). The Working Poor: Invisible in America. New York: Knopf.

Labor History

Boyer, Richard O., and Herbert M. Morais. (1980). Labor’s Untold Story. 3rd ed. New York: United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

Foner, Philip S. (1978). History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Vol. 1. From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor. New York: International Publishers.

Foner, Philip S. (1955). History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Vol. 2. From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism. New York: International Publishers.

Foner, Philip S. (1965). History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Vol. 4. The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905–1917. New York: International Publishers.

Foner, Philip S. (1976). Labor and the American Revolution. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Foner, Philip S. (1976). Organized Labor and the Black Worker 1619–1973. New York: International Publishers.

Foner, Philip S. (1979). Women and the American Labor Movement: From the First Trade Unions to the Present. New York: Free Press.

Greenberg, Irving. (1988). Theodore Roosevelt and Labor: 1900–1918. New York: Garland Publishing.

Milkman, Ruth, ed. (1991). Women, Work and Protest: A Century of US Women’s Labor History. London: Routledge; Chapman and Hall.

Oshinsky, David M. (1976). Senator Joseph McCarthy and the American Labor Movement. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

Powerful Elites and Political Power

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1973). “The NAM as an Interest Group.” Politics and Society, vol. 4, no. 1.

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1980). Elites in American History: Vol. 3. The New Deal to the Carter Administration. New York: Holmes & Meier.

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1981). Elites in American History: Vol. 1. The Federalist Years to the Civil War. New York: Holmes & Meier.

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1981). Elites in American History: Vol. 2. The Civil War to the New Deal. New York: Holmes & Meier.

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1997). Reagan, Bush, and Right-Wing Politics: Elites, Think Tanks, Power, and Policy: Part A. The American Right Wing Takes Command: Key Executive Appointments. Supplement 1, Vol. 16, Research in Political Economy, Paul Zarembka (Ed.). Greenwich: CT: JAI Press.

Burch, Philip H., Jr. (1997). Reagan, Bush, and Right-Wing Politics: Elites, Think Tanks, Power, and Policy: Part B. The American Right Wing at Court and in Action: Supreme Court Nominations and Major Policymaking. Supplement 1, Vol. 16, Research in Political Economy, Paul Zarembka (Ed.). Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.

Domhoff, G. William. (1970). The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America. New York: Random House.

Domhoff, G. William. (1979). The Powers That Be: Processes of Ruling Class Domination in America. New York: Vintage Books.

Domhoff, G. William. (1998). Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the Year 2000. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing.

Lyons, Matthew N. (1998). “Business Conflict and Right-Wing Movements.” In Amy E. Ansell (Ed.), Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics (pp. 80–102). Boulder, Colo.: Westview.

Political Repression and Working People

Donner, Frank J. (1980). The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America’s Political Intelligence System. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Donner, Frank J. (1990). Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Huberman, Leo. (1937). The Labor Spy Racket. New York :Modern Age Books,1937.

Material from Political Research Associates

Check the PRA website for other publications & resources.

On the Web

Studying the Right - A Scholarly Approach
Studying Right-wing Funding & Policy-Making
Foundations & Funding: Web Resources
Links to Conservative and Right-wing Groups
Directory of Right-wing Groups and their Allies
Web Research Resources
Topical Contents of PRA's Public Eye Website