Labor Upsurge and Liberal Decline: The Case of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

• In Event: Labor Politics and Worker Consciousness

Abstract

Labor movements around the globe are experiencing an uptick the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. Based on existing theories of how social change happens and how the political terrain is shaped, we might expect this labor resurgence to translate into more political opportunities opening up for the left and other social movements. But with some important exceptions, this has not been the case. Instead, we have seen a rise of the far right accompanying the current labor resurgence. Why is this? I argue that a key factor driving the disconnect between labor upsurge and political reform is the transformation and decay of party systems. Historically, political parties with organic connections to labor movements served as a “transmission belt” to translate worker protest into political demands, and organized political identities along class lines. In the absence of such a transmission belt, frustrations with existing parties gets refracted, and political identities are reframed in ways that discount class identities and highlight other cleavages, particularly race and immigration. I illustrate this argument through a case study of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), a union that has experienced a dramatic upsurge of labor militancy in recent years, accompanied by a rightward turn of the union’s leadership. The case study identifies key dynamics applicable to the broader pattern of labor upsurge and liberal decline.

Author

• Barry Eidlin, McGill University