l exploitation, and unions became the most powerful instrument for social change. Honey acknowledges that while black workers used industrial unions to expand their freedoms, the labor movement itself imposed ôsevere constraintsö upon them (171); these constraints included segregation in the workplace, low-level jobs and lack of direct union representation.
Other themes Honey deals with include the negative effect of the contemporary global capitalistic economy, most particularly how globalization has harmed the earning power of poor people such as African American southerners. Honey contends that by the mid-1970s unionized black industrial workers ôhad torn down most Jim Crow barriers within their workplaces and unionsö but a growing de-industrialization in the U.S. coupled with companies moving their factories to other countries ôhad a devastating impactö on unionized black industrial workersö (322-333). Honey faults the federal government for this turn of events.
Although the book deals with several key themes, it is organized in a manner that ties them all together with clarity. The book is organized thematically and chronologically, with narratives crossing back and forth between the two frameworks. The first chapter provides the context for the oral histories and includes firsthand eyewitness accounts. Chapter 2 centers on the 1930s, while chapter 3 is devoted to the struggles of black women and chapters 4 and 5 to the struggles of black men during the post World War II and Cold War eras. Chapter 6 focuses on the 1960s and the union rights and civil rights struggles o
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