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A review by matthew4
No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane F. McAlevey
3.0
McAlevey certainly presents in this book a straightforward process for building union power in our current age, and the stories of certain workplaces within the book are definitely inspiring.
However, the book has a number of limitations in my opinion. McAlevey seems so focused on building union campaigns that she forgets to ask the question as to why we, as revolutionary communists, should put effort in these campaigns, and therefore her strategy seems well-placed for ameliorative bargaining but perhaps counterproductive for long term forms of worker self-organisation; for instance, I would argue a more critical perspective on the idea of 'workplace leaders' needs to be had. In failing to critically inquire into the use of unions for building working-class power, and seriously asking how we go beyond demands and build working-class power in and against union structures, I find this book limits itself in its use.
Overall however, it does give useful advice for the short term and is worth engaging with, if from a critical perspective that understands we need to go beyond simply 'organising better', and acknowledges the need to rethink how, why and where struggle occurs, and emphasises the importance of positionality and inquiry in these processes of struggle.
However, the book has a number of limitations in my opinion. McAlevey seems so focused on building union campaigns that she forgets to ask the question as to why we, as revolutionary communists, should put effort in these campaigns, and therefore her strategy seems well-placed for ameliorative bargaining but perhaps counterproductive for long term forms of worker self-organisation; for instance, I would argue a more critical perspective on the idea of 'workplace leaders' needs to be had. In failing to critically inquire into the use of unions for building working-class power, and seriously asking how we go beyond demands and build working-class power in and against union structures, I find this book limits itself in its use.
Overall however, it does give useful advice for the short term and is worth engaging with, if from a critical perspective that understands we need to go beyond simply 'organising better', and acknowledges the need to rethink how, why and where struggle occurs, and emphasises the importance of positionality and inquiry in these processes of struggle.