The Call Radio

This is the last in a series of four lectures, presented by The Call, which we’re titling “Farrell Dobbs: Lessons from the Teamster Rebellions.”

In this lecture, socialist labor organizer Farrell Dobbs describes the years of heightened labor struggle before, during, and after World War II. He finishes by bringing listeners up to the present day, which was 1964, discussing the Cold War, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Civil Rights movement.

Many leaders of Teamsters Local 574, now called Local 544, were imprisoned at the start of the war. This was part of an all-out assault led by the combined forces of Teamsters international president Tobin, the trucking bosses, a new Red Scare, and the federal government.

After the war, a massive strike wave swept the country. At the height of the wave in early 1946, two million workers were out on strike at one time.

Ultimately, the employers were successful, and passed the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. But the 1945 and 46 strike wave demonstrated for Dobbs that there is no crisis in the capacity of the working class to struggle.

Instead, he tells us, there is only a crisis of leadership in the labor movement — one which can be overcome by militant, class-struggle unionism led by socialists and rank-and-file workers.

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

Thanks to the Holt Labor Library — HLL.org, and the Marxist Internet Archive — marxists.org.

This is the third in a series of four lectures, presented by The Call, which we’re titling “Farrell Dobbs: Lessons from the Teamster Rebellions.”

The 1934 strikes established Teamsters Local 574 as one of the most effective and militant “instruments of class struggle” in US history.

In this lecture, socialist labor organizer Farrell Dobbs tells us about the battles that came afterward. Most significantly, Dobbs and Local 574 had to fight against International Teamsters President Daniel Tobin, who unsuccessfully attempted to destroy the militant local union in order to achieve a union-management arrangement.

Throughout this period, Local 574 succeeded in organizing over-the-road truck drivers across the whole Great Plains and Midwest region.

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

Thanks to the Holt Labor Library — HLL.org, and the Marxist Internet Archive — marxists.org.

This is the second in a series of four lectures, presented by The Call, which we’re titling “Farrell Dobbs: Lessons from the Teamster Rebellions.”

This lecture picks up where the first one left off, covering the 1934 general strike. Dobbs talks about the unique role of class conscious and socialist leadership in union struggles.

As you’ll hear, the trucking bosses teamed up with the politicians, the newspapers, and international Teamsters union bureaucrats to attempt to suppress, discredit, and disorganize the strikers.

Dobbs describes the conflict as a “virtual civil war”. There were shootings, bloody brawls, long standoffs, surprise attacks, sieges, and tense negotiations. But the strikers, led by socialists, were successful thanks to heroic mass action, democratic organization, and strategic planning and execution.

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

Thanks to the Holt Labor Library — HLL.org, and the Marxist Internet Archive — marxists.org.

This is the first in a series of four lectures, presented by The Call, which we’re titling “Farrell Dobbs: Lessons from the Teamster Rebellions.”

Farrell Dobbs was a leader in the legendary 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strikes and in the Socialist Workers Party, or the SWP. These four lectures are from 1964, delivered to a gathering of the youth section of the SWP.

These lectures are an incredible window into the history of the US labor movement. The 1934 strikes marked a turning point when the defeats of the 1920s and the early years of the depression were overcome by heroic, militant worker struggles.

There were mass strikes in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Toledo, and elsewhere that year. They demonstrated to workers across the country their own tremendous power to disrupt and transform society. The 1936 and 37 sit-down strike wave and the waves of organization that followed also resulted in millions of workers joining unions and taking part in strikes.

Dobbs’s account of 1934 is essential listening for socialists interested in labor history, and in practical strategies for waging high-intensity, mass-oriented class struggle against capitalists and their lackeys today.

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

Thanks to the Holt Labor Library — HLL.org, and the Marxist Internet Archive — marxists.org.

This is the last in a series of three lectures, presented by The Call, on the fundamentals of Marxist politics by Vivek Chibber.

In this concluding lecture, Chibber turns to a discussion of class struggle.

Marx predicted that the working class would overthrow the capitalist system in short order, but the last century has confirmed that the capitalist system is far more stable than many Marxists expected. If this is true, how useful is Marx’s theory of class struggle?

Chibber proposes two options. Either Marx’s theory was flawed, or he made the wrong predictions from the correct theory. Chibber argues for option two, that Marx’s error was not his analysis of capitalism, but an underestimation of the difficulty of organizing workers in the face of the concentrated power of the capitalist class.

We also know that there have been successful class struggles. From this starting point, Chibber pursues a few critical questions.

Why is it so hard for workers to organize themselves, especially as compared to the capitalist class? If the working class has so little power, how is it that movements ever succeed?

And knowing that movements of the working class will always be difficult to construct and maintain, what social, political, and economic conditions will put these movements in the best position to claim lasting victories?

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

This is the second in a series of three lectures, presented by The Call, on the fundamentals of Marxist politics by Vivek Chibber.

In this lecture, Chibber discusses the state and its relationship to the capitalist class.

In the liberal view, the state is fundamentally neutral, and all groups advocate for their interests within it on an even playing field.

Marxists have a different idea. As Chibber explains, in the Marxist understanding the state works to defend and advance the interests of the capitalist class for structural, institutional, and for personal reasons. What constraints does the capitalist mode of production place on the state? How insurmountable are they?

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.

This is the first in a series of three lectures, presented by The Call, on the fundamentals of Marxist politics by Vivek Chibber.

Chibber is a Professor of Sociology at NYU and Editor of Catalyst. In this opening lecture, first presented in 2008 at the Brecht Forum, Chibber explains how class works under capitalism.

To get there, Chibber first takes a step back and explains how classes were organized under feudalism. He then shows how the capitalist class structure differs from its feudal predecessor.

In contrast to the liberal conception of class as a fluid term for people’s income, education, and/or cultural taste, Chibber concludes that it’s far more useful to understand class in terms of people’s relationship to the means of production.

Do they own the factories, tools, and raw materials that go into making things? If so, then they’re capitalists, and that ownership that puts them at a structural advantage over their employees, who we call the working class.

Please enjoy these lectures, and also be sure to check out The Call at socialistcall.com.