From Here to There

Unions: Modern-Day Condottieri

In the literature of “countervailing power,” the labor union is fully accepted as a constituent element of the so-called “new pluralism.” Heaven knows that the unions bulk terrifyingly large on the horizon: a Jimmy Hoffa threatens to make common cause with a Harry Bridges to tie up all land and water transportation, and it is common knowledge that the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) can dominate national elections by concentrating its money and literature on twelve urban districts in eight states. Even so, there is something suspect about the theory that supinely accepts the labor union as a permanently effective institutional power center.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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Unions: Modern-Day Condottieri

In the literature of “countervailing power,” the labor union is fully accepted as a constituent element of the so-called “new pluralism.” Heaven knows that the unions bulk terrifyingly large on the horizon: a Jimmy Hoffa threatens to make common cause with a Harry Bridges to tie up all land and water transportation, and it is common knowledge that the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) can dominate national elections by concentrating its money and literature on twelve urban districts in eight states. Even so, there is something suspect about the theory that supinely accepts the labor union as a permanently effective institutional power center.