DISRUPTION, ORGANIZATION, AND REFORM: A CRITIQUE OF POOR PEOPLES MOVEMENTS
Massad, Timothy G.
"What the poor win in American politics, they win by mass defiance, not by the use of the regular political system"; in their book Poor People's Movements, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward...
...I suggest that Section 7a was not passed in response to disruption, since strike activity was very low at the time...
...At that point Roosevelt decided it was necessary to pass some policy to clarify 7a, because the NLB was practically paralyzed...
...But distinctions between these two arguments are lost, obscured by the manner in which they are woven into the narrative...
...6870...
...The federal government was compelled to intervene in these strikes in order to clarify its policy on the issues...
...The authors' assessment of unions provides the empirical foundation for their general criticism of organization...
...There is no mention of the NLB/ NRA conflict, or of the various aspects of labor law that were left unresolved by 7a and were to be the subject of the political conflict in the period 1933-35...
...14 Piven and Cloward do not examine the 1950s, 60s, or 70s...
...They concentrate on four "upheavals" of 1934— strikes that won notoriety for intense and often violent conflict...
...Piven and Cloward's critique of organization is inadequate as well...
...Piven and Cloward believe that, had organizers incited more disruption, the poor might have won more relief...
...92-93...
...Furthermore, many of the cities with the highest per capita expenditures or highest monthly relief payments — e.g., Rochester, Buffalo, Portland, or Racine, Wisconsin—were not even cited by Piven and Cloward in their discussion of protest...
...in their book Poor People's Movements, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward draw this lesson from the study of protest movements...
...To assess these arguments, we must ask: Were there serious institutional disruptions or crises that compelled the government to act...
...The level or seriousness of protest counts for less than the degree of third-party support for the protesters' demands...
...cit., pp...
...But formal organization of industrial workers does yield power...
...Piven and Cloward seem to assume an antithesis between disruption and organization...
...Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), pp...
...Their tactics won them momentary fame in the successful Lawrence textile strike of 1912 and in a few other strikes at the time...
...Perhaps most revealing is the pattern of protest and relief around March of 1930...
...At times the authors suggest that the majority party enacted reforms in order to satisfy a key group—labor--in its electoral constituency...
...also U.S...
...Their evidence, however, does not support these contentions...
...Although they seem to consider themselves Marxists, they do not ask how structural changes in the system might be achieved, nor do they express any hope for the creation of a mass-based left in America...
...Instead, they suggest their purpose was to criticize the strategy of forming "mass membership bureaucracies...
...mOn these issues and the Wagner Act, see Irving Bernstein, Turbulent Years (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), or his The New Deal Collective Bargaining Policy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950...
...Although they have some valid complaints against membership organizations, their hostility to organization per se clearly goes further...
...These were not won by the work of individual agitators...
...Labor leaders proposed and lobbied strongly for 7a...
...They point out the pitfalls in forming mass-membership organizations of the unemployed in both the 1930s and 1960s...
...This third step of the argument is difficult to understand...
...50, 55...
...It did, however, provoke a wave of strikes that quickly revealed the ambiguities of the legislation: would the right to organize be enforced, and by whom...
...The chronology leads one to doubt it...
...There was a change from local organization to national organization...
...For many, protest probably was a one-shot affair...
...But 7a, as Bernstein noted, initiated a political battle over labor law that culminated in the passage of the Wagner Act...
...The National Industrial Recovery Act and its Section 7a were formulated in the spring of 1933, when FDR took office, and it passed in June...
...38-44...
...7 1n an earlier book, Piven and Cloward suggest federal relief was the result of party competition, not protest...
...As for the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935, the authors merely say, "A year later the timing was right, and labor agitation had helped make it so...
...nor can they demonstrate a qualitative difference...
...And now, with the public's growing confidence in the government and the economy, the earlier widespread acceptance of the need for relief disintegrated.' There is little reason to believe that disruption could have prevented this change in attitudes...
...How the state chooses to respond to disruption ultimately seems to depend on the balance of interests supporting and opposing the protesters...
...During this time protest was apparently much less extensive, leading one to doubt whether protest caused the increases...
...15 Today, such a strategy would have even less of a chance for success...
...Because the Alliance was an internally democratic membership organization, taking on national instead of local targets, it was organizationally more rigid than its component groups had been...
...Although Piven and Cloward recognize that Taft-Hartley was a significant defeat for labor, they ignore one of the most important facts about the act: namely, that it was passed in response to the strike wave of 1946-47, the largest in the country's history...
...Because at such moments political instability is likely, disruption may force vulnerable political leaders to grant concessions in order to maintain social stability and the legitimacy of their own rule...
...It is true, as many have pointed out, that the AFL generally failed to organize industrial workers in the early 1930s...
...The unemployed began abandoning the movement as they discovered that "all their 'radical militancy' got them was a crack on the skull from a police club...
...One may argue that labor's leaders are too complacent, that they do not represent the true interests of the rank and file, or that labor would be better off as the base of a third party rather than wedded to the Democrats...
...Nationally based radical parties formed many of these groups—which, in practice, usually operated independently or with citywide coordination, and only occasionally on a state or even national level...
...This form of organization was probably unsuited to the unemployed, a highly unstable constituency...
...40-44 and his "Radicals and the Jobless," Labor History, Winter 1975...
...Apparently, Piven and Cloward believe these activities occur without the benefit of organization, or that organization diminishes their impact...
...They reject the notion that tactics should be designed to arouse support for the protesters' demands...
...Moreover, the authors' argument about disruption loses meaning when they describe normal political processes in the language of disruption: they speak of the "early phase of protest at the polls" and say that "defiance is first expressed in the voting booth...
...Before the Supreme Court acted, Wagner got his bill passed in the Senate...
...Rosenzweig, "Organizing . . . " pp...
...By 1930, every fourth factory worker in Middletown was unemployed...
...Whereas the American left has traditionally been pessimistic about ends— reformist victories fall short of revolutionary aspirations—Piven and Cloward are also pessimistic about means: they doubt whether those reformist victories can be won through organization, and whether they can be won frequently...
...12 Piven and Cloward's argument about unions 87 and political power also has its problems...
...Organizers not only failed to seize the opportunity presented by the rise of unrest, they typically acted in ways that blunted or curbed the disruptive force which lower-class people were sometimes able to mobilize...
...Grave institutional disruptions, the authors argue, create social and economic crises that will compel the state to act...
...Measured by the number of strikes or workers involved, strike activity was very low in the period 1928-32, compared to previous or subsequent years...
...A close reading suggests that disruption is not the only factor that determines whether the state offers concession, or chooses to repress or ignore the protesters...
...Daniel Leab, "'United We Eat': The Creation and Organization of the Unemployed Councils in 1930," Labor History, Fall 1967, pp...
...102-22...
...Hence, the Communists turned to a less militant approach...
...Why was the bill rejected in 1934 but approved in 1935...
...Perhaps, but the legislative history suggests that the state can respond swiftly...
...Organization not only failed to win new victories from government, but "those already won were whittled away...
...This data is insufficient to infer that protest was commonplace or nationwide...
...But it is doubtful that these isolated unions could have taken on U.S...
...According to both Piven and Cloward's evidence and students of the unemployed movement, protest was most visible and involved the most people at this time...
...The main point . . . is simply that the political impact of institutional disruptions depends upon electoral conditions...
...Spontaneous, localized outbursts of disruption will do little to modern corporations with their automated technologies and international capital flow...
...So, in late 1930, the Communists, followed by the Socialists and Musteites, began forming local organizations that resolved many individual grievances of the unemployed...
...Authors' emphasis.] Turbulent times are marked by political instability, with leaders unsure of their support and electoral alignments "unpredictable...
...Because of its historical richness and provocative conclusions, this book deserves the attention of all those interested in the fate of protest movements in America, and of would-be organizers who wonder what is to be done.' The book offers histories of four protest movements—the unemployed workers' and the industrial workers' movements of the 1930s and the civil rights and welfare rights movements of the 1960s...
...Forming organizations may not be merely ineffective...
...This is an insufficient explanation, and so it yields an inadequate strategy...
...Factory workers had their greatest influence . . . before they were organized into unions...
...The many ambiguities of the legislation soon became the focal points of labor disputes...
...Two arguments concerning disruption and organization give the book its innovative force...
...Second, once industrial unions were formed, workers suffered a decline in economic and political power...
...The NLB said all workers, the NRA disagreed...
...A more reasonable conclusion would be: at this stage, the AFL failed, and new organizations were formed by those interested in industrial unionism...
...Another factor was the constitutionality of the NIRA, now being tested in the courts...
...There was a pattern of nationwide relief increases, beginning in late 1929 and continuing through 1934 with seasonal fluctuations...
...12The literature is voluminous...
...But these arguments condemn labor's politics, not the principle of organization...
...We attract the crowds...
...In 1946, the number of man-days lost because of strikes was more than five times greater than in the peak year of strikes during the Depression (1937), and ten times greater than in 1935...
...The authors also suggest that reforms may be granted even when no disruption occurs— when there is simply a "threat of electoral defeat...
...There is little reason to believe that strikes forced the government to grant reforms...
...In large part because of the accomplishments of unions, it seems improper to call industrial workers "poor people...
...They seem to believe that organizations cannot even generate disruption, but few of the incidents they mention can be considered either spontaneous or unorganized, and incidents on which they dwell—the March 6, 1930 rallies, the sit-down strikes, the Birmingham campaign in the 88 civil rights movement—were indeed elaborately organized...
...From the cases examined here, one doubts the wisdom of "pushing turbulence to its outer limits...
...Almost all of the large demonstrations occurred on March 6, 1930, when the Communists staged rallies of the unemployed around the world...
...But at the time of its passage in 1947, PAC was still inexperienced, and the AFL had no political organization...
...THESE AND OTHER STUDIES also suggest that protest was not as disruptive as Piven and Cloward imply...
...We still must ponder, why did America's protest movements achieve so little...
...Here they reinterpret the history of the 1930s in fundamental ways, and the arguments closely conform to their general theory...
...A mass-based left will be created only through some form of "organization...
...We can compare Piven and Cloward's evidence on the incidence of protest with studies of relief expenditures across the country...
...After that legislative defeat, the CIO realized it needed a political organization...
...We have a fairly thorough picture of relief expenditures across the nation during the Depression, although Piven and Cloward cite very few relief statistics...
...Authors' emphasis...
...Organizations tend to curb militancy at moments when disruption might bring about concessions...
...Most confusing is the authors' use of the language of disruption to describe electoral processes: "The strike movement threatened electoral disruption...
...Instead, organizers formed the Workers' Alliance of America, a national organization that lobbied for welfare legislation...
...The crucial point, then, is that in the wake of these strikes and strike threats, Congress and the President rejected the Wagner bill and passed instead a measure of less benefit to labor...
...It seems we can better account for labor's political victories and defeats in the Depression by looking at labor's emerging position in the Democratic coalition than merely by noting its ability to strike...
...workers had a "disruptive impact in electoral politics...
...While Roosevelt's relations with business had oscillated over the previous year, a publicly recognized split occurred in the spring of 1935...
...Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People's Movements (New York: Pantheon, 1977...
...It would be more appropriate to test labor's political effectiveness in these decades than in the 1940s, since, after 1948, labor was fully involved in electoral politics...
...All quotations, unless otherwise identified, are from this book...
...The enactment of public-works programs and a slight decrease in unemployment began to divide the ranks of the unemployed, who believed FDR had their best interests at heart and now were less inclined to protest...
...Local organization, however, could more easily tolerate the high turnover in 84 membership, the participants' lack of resources, and the need for quick victories...
...While many fought for the Wagner bill, they lost out to FDR's forces...
...It is unclear what "spread upward" means, particularly if the subject is disruption...
...Instead, several organizations, which existed prior to the strikes, were responsible for planning, inciting, and directing them...
...Moreover, they note a high turnover in participation...
...Nevertheless, from 1929 to 1933, Middletown relief costs rose by 600 percent...
...We give them thrills, we do hair-raising stunts and send the crowd home to wait impatiently for the next sensationalist to come along...
...Rather than suggest some casual connection between protest and voting behavior, it may make more sense to say that the discontent that led some to protest led many others to vote Democratic...
...But the authors exaggerate: "At this stage, organization failed, and perhaps for that reason, the workers' movement grew...
...The authors select the 1940s as the period in which to evaluate labor's political muscle...
...Piven and Cloward's argument has two parts...
...The two agencies clashed, particularly on the question of majority representation: would the representatives elected by a majority of workers be entitled to represent all workers before management, or only their supporters...
...Proponents felt a greater sense of urgency, now that labor did not even have 7a—and FDR too stepped up his support...
...These and other factors—too complex to examine here so briefly—have long been discussed by those who seek to account for the absence of a mass socialist movement in the most advanced industrial capitalist society...
...The AFL established its political arm after passage of Taft-Hartley...
...Thus, ten days later, the House approved the bill without a roll call...
...Indeed, Piven and Cloward say that "when the political leadership is unsure of its support," the state may respond to disruptions that are "isolated within peripheral institutions...
...Their principle argument in Poor People's Movements is that institutional disruptions force the state to grant reforms...
...At other times, their analysis resembles Michael Lipsky's theory of protest...
...Poor People's Movements: A Manual for Organizers...
...It is true, as Piven and Cloward argue, that rank-andfile steel workers formed many locals on their own...
...According to Roy Rosenzweig, the March 6, 1930 demonstrations representated the movement's "peak of visibility...
...The sit-down strikes in particular would never have succeeded without the careful planning provided by such organizations...
...The poor may riot, break laws, and disrupt institutional operations...
...The task, they write, is to push "turbulence to its outer limits...
...But while the NLB was prolabor, it depended on the probusiness NRA for enforcement of its rulings...
...The authors' first argument rests on an unjustified antithesis between disruption and organization...
...but their insights are not surprising and not much different than the arguments of many organizational theorists...
...However, PAC was not even created until a month after passage of Smith-Connally, in July of 1943...
...They provide evidence in support of this assertion for only two reforms, Section 7a of the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Wagner Act...
...As an alternative to the vague and seemingly contradictory explanations provided by Piven and Cloward, I offer the following explanation of the passage of these reforms...
...23-24...
...But in Lawrence and elsewhere, the IWW failed to protect workers from management's reprisals after the strike...
...Bureau of the Census, Relief Expenditures by Governmental and Private Organizations, 1929 and 1931 (Washington: GPO, 1932), pp...
...As far as making Industrial Unionism fit the everyday life of the workers we have failed miserably...
...if anything, 7a provoked disruption...
...Let us consider the authors' theses on disruption and organization in light of their four case studies—of the unemployed and of the industrial workers' movements of the 1930s...
...11 But what about the aftermath of a strike...
...This is inadequate support for a general argument...
...Three days later, the Supreme Court declared Title I of the NIRA unconstitutional...
...The experience of labor unions in the United States is the historical bedrock on which the organizer's credo is grounded...
...They state, "Of the 219 Democratic congressmen who had voted for Smith-Connally, 191 had been supported by PAC," the CIO's Political Action Committee...
...Around 1935, relief expenditures started to decline...
...Some townspeople feared radicalism might develop, and perhaps for that reason supported an increase in the relief budget, but no protest occurred...
...Since the 1950s, studies comparing workers in different industries or in the same industry have found that union members receive higher wages...
...It passed the second time around, I shall argue, because of labor's enhanced position in the Democratic party and the increased strength of the Democrats—not because of labor's strike power...
...29-30...
...This chronology suggests that disruption did not force the government to grant 7a...
...Besides, as is generally agreed, the exhaustion of local finances spawned a lobby for federal relief...
...2 Ultimately, Piven and Cloward seem to reject both these positions...
...What then does Poor People's Movements give us...
...They do not have the resources to form and sustain organizations to represent their interests in the political process...
...Winslow's data and a U.S...
...It is easier to sustain disruption where it is legal (some strikes and economic boycotts...
...However, relief expenditures decreased during the next four months, following the normal seasonal pattern...
...According to Irving Bernstein, Roosevelt supported 7a, belatedly, in order to claim labor's endorsement of the recovery package...
...But, instead, Congress reacted by approving a bill that was bitterly antilabor...
...Similarly, Piven and Cloward overlook the months of preliminary organizing and elaborate planning that made the 1936 auto strike a success...
...See Bernstein, Turbulent Years, p. 453...
...Finally, the only evidence they offer that protest increased up until 1933 is that the number of demonstrations in Chicago rose...
...Thus, the more original first step of the argument—that disruption produced local relief—will be our focus here...
...First, the incidents of protest they cite are concentrated in a few cities...
...One can argue persuasively that the Workers' Alliance, like the National Welfare Rights Organization, was a failure...
...The epilogue came in 1937: labor's foes were unhappily surprised when the Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act...
...However, proponents of the measure, realizing they did not have the votes to win, planned to delay action on labor law reform until after the November elections...
...Because of their failure to examine these influences, Piven and Cloward can explain the demise of protest solely by pointing to the axis of disruption and organization...
...Steel without the centralized Organization provided by John L. Lewis's Steel Workers Organizing Committee, or the $2.5 million provided by the Mine Workers' treasury...
...Second, in only a few of the cases described do they claim that relief increases followed protest...
...Strike activity rose dramatically in the second half of 1933...
...IsMelvin Dubofsky, We Shall Be All (New York: New York Times Books, 1969 and 1974), p. 188...
...Rosenzweig suggests that demonstrations and organizations of the unemployed "helped create pressure" but concludes that their major accomplishment was resolving individual grievances of the unemployed...
...But the authors also use a second line of argument, emphasizing the workers' electoral power...
...Several factors, specific to the American experience, have put limits on protest movements and, generally, on working-class oppositional politics...
...The Census study found an average increase between 1929 and 1931 of about 250 percent per city—and many cities had increases of 400 percent or more...
...Rather, they tell organizers to generate as much disruption as possible, in order to provoke a crisis: "Strategies must be pursued that escalate the momentum and impact of disruptive protest at each stage in its emergence and evolution...
...The chronology of disruption and reform makes it difficult to claim that either 7a or the Wagner Act was passed in response to disruption...
...In such times the government may offer concessions if it believes that any other action would alienate more supporters...
...The violent demonstrations organized by the Communists in the spring of 1930 were repeatedly and brutally repressed, and were apparently no more successful than the less belligerent tactics used by other unemployed groups...
...UAW and CIO leaders developed a plan for strategic, selective sit-downs, by which a small number of men succeeded in stopping GM...
...The authors also disdain all formal membership organizations in these cases...
...Were protests generally spontaneous, or were there organizations responsible for planning, inciting, and directing protest...
...The study of welfare rights is a hypothetical illustration of the theory...
...Another source of evidence, the Lynd's Middletown in Transition, fails to support Piven and Cloward's argument...
...131 D. Greenstone, Labor in American Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), pp...
...Obviously, a number of factors limited the movement's potential impact, no matter which strategy it followed...
...See Regulating the Poor, (New York: Vintage, 1971), pp...
...5 Some of Piven and Cloward's key sources on the unemployed workers' movement also reach conclusions that differ sharply from those presented in Poor People's Movements...
...The Wobblies distrusted organization, refused to enter into contract agreements, and preferred direct and often spontaneous agitation in strikes...
...Such a comment may not be sufficient— but neither is that given by Cloward and Piven...
...0 The key question is: why was the Wagner Act rejected in June of 1934, but approved in the same essential form in June of 1935...
...Large and frequently violent demonstrations were common in the spring of 1930...
...However, in the section in which they consider "Organization and Economic Power," they discuss only whether unions curb strikes—not whether they win economic benefits...
...And if we desire something more than periodic concession, then Piven and Cloward's advice is woefully inadequate...
...23-28...
...But the constant repression and the failure of this tactic to win concessions prompted leaders to change their strategy...
...it may also be harmful...
...Most important, the argument does not account for the decline in relief after March 1930, even though this was one 83 of the few times when protests in some cities received national press attention...
...Seymour doubts that the movement influenced relief appropriations significantly...
...Similarly, Piven and Cloward regard Taft-Hartley as the prime indication of the failure of organization...
...Piven and Cloward do not give an adequate explanation...
...If the N1RA, and with it Section 7a, was struck down, most 86 people reasoned, the Wagner bill would meet the same fate...
...Resources were invested in building the organization rather than in local activities...
...3) the Supreme Court ruling declaring the NIRA unconstitutional...
...To consider protest the primary cause of the increases, one would have to argue that protest in a few cities prompted local governments everywhere to increase relief...
...3 This evidence on protest and relief expenditures discredits the Piven and Cloward thesis...
...The dominant explanation, which mirrors their general theory, is that the state conceded to the disruptive power of the strike...
...The Wobblies' reliance on spontaneity and their failure to form permanent unions may have spelled their doom...
...Many opponents, meanwhile, believed they could vote for the bill to win labor's support, and rely on the courts to nullify it in order to please business...
...These include the absence of workers' class consciousness, the two-party dominance of the political system, and ethnic divisions among workers...
...Congress, Unemployment Relief, Hearings on S. 5125, Pt...
...Yet, according to the Lynds, no protest occurred in Middletown during the Depression...
...Bernstein says the strike situation in the late spring led some to support the Wagner bill...
...The answer lies beyond the scope of Piven and Cloward's inquiry into disruption and organization...
...Most of the subsequent protests took place in three cities: New York, Chicago, and Detroit...
...They say that probably only a small fraction of the unemployed, or of the relief population, was involved in protests and organizations of the unemployed...
...The leading authorities on the movement, Helen Seymour and Roy Rosenzweig, both conclude that the size and impact of the movement were less significant than Piven and Cloward contend...
...See also Eleanor Kahn, "Organizations of the Unemployed as a Factor in the American Labor Movement," unpublished M.A...
...The role of organization is best seen in individual cases, as those of the steel and auto industries...
...Organizing drives were launched, and the number of strikes escalated...
...These concessions may be revoked or restricted once disruption subsides, but Piven and Cloward believe that this is the most the poor can achieve...
...Indeed, the argument would be difficult to disprove, since one could claim the slightest protest had national reverberations...
...Newspaper predictions of marches in 1931 and 1933 never came true...
...Moreover, their disruptive tactics increasingly brought police repression...
...The historical bedrock "turns out to be sand...
...Disruption" covers a gamut of tactics—demonstrations, local protest and lobbying efforts, strikes, rallies, etc...
...Section 7a said that workers had the right to organize, but it did not delineate that right...
...14-15, 102-30, 541-42...
...8-16, 69-72, 96-101...
...Seymour notes that occupations of the statehouses in four states during 1935 resulted in many arrests and in condemnation of the protesters, but not in concessions...
...A sense of pessimism underlies not only Piven and Cloward's conclusions but the parameters of their study as well...
...Even serious disruptions, such as industrial strikes, will force concessions only when the calculus of electoral instability favors the protesters...
...But even this point is not well developed...
...Because disruptive tactics can be effective at times, a calculated use of disruption is surely more powerful than blind militancy...
...But even for this goal, the strategy has serious flaws...
...It is easy to overstate the significance of these protests...
...chaps...
...Rosenzweig suggests that the Alliance had limited success as a pressure group from the left within the New Deal coalition, but its influence is difficult to measure.' I would conclude that an emphasis on local organization would have been best...
...Unless we organize the workers without doing the spectacular, we are doomed...
...Wight Bakke, Citizens Without Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), p. 40...
...Some casual relationship between strikes and political change may be implied here, but the language makes that difficult to discern...
...The IWW was perhaps the American labor organization most committed to Piven and Cloward's strategy...
...313-14...
...This emphasis on coalitions approximates liberal or pluralist theory and seems to contradict Piven and Cloward's general argument...
...also Sidney Fine, Sit-Down (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969...
...This larger coordination was indispensible to the most impressive protests of the period—the March 6, 1930 demonstrations...
...304-305...
...How then do we account for the enactment and expansion of relief programs...
...25-35...
...These conflicts continued until the Wagner Act was approved, which legislated majority (as opposed to proportional) representation and settled other issues to labor's advantage...
...4 Bernstein, Emergency Disputes and National Policy (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), pp...
...Their analysis of the civil rights movement is not as innovative nor does it support their theory as well...
...Harry Scoble, "Organized Labor in Electoral Politics," Western Political Quarterly, September 1963...
...6 From all of the available evidence, I conclude that Piven and Cloward overstate the extent and impact of protest by the unemployed in the 1930s...
...But whether the government favored business or labor in resolving these questions depended more on the dynamics of political coalitions than on the level of disruption...
...He proposed Public Resolution 44, which was less favorable to labor than the Wagner bill...
...To simply wait for the next protest movement, as Piven and Cloward suggest, will only deepen the despair so evident in Poor People's Movement.q Notes •Acknowledgement: I am very grateful to Robert Amdur and Theda Skocpol for their help on this article...
...It was added to FDR's recovery package for political balance, as will be noted below...
...Although we cannot correlate increases in relief with the occurrence of protest in various cities in any precise way, a rough comparison is possible...
...Instead of condemning organization, we must determine what kinds of organizations work best in different circumstances...
...Piven and Cloward argue that protest was widespread, caused relief increases, and increased at least until 1933...
...These local groups united to form the Workers' Alliance...
...See also James Weinstein, "The IWW and American Socialism," Socialist Revolution, Summer 1970...
...As a result, many believe, FDR moved to consolidate his support among workers and farmers...
...Emma Winslow's study of relief in 120 urban areas shows two important trends: first, there was a general upward trend in expenditures from 1929-35, beginning in December of 1929, and second, there was a consistent seasonal variation, with expenditures greater in winter than in summer...
...Local organizations, looser in structure, could cope more effectively with the turnover in membership and the meager resources of participants...
...Must some lag time pass before the state responds to disruption...
...I n light of the foregoing analysis, we can now evaluate Piven and Cloward's "strategy"—that is, their call for disruption and their criticisms of organization...
...That plan was upset when the possibility of a steel strike arose late in May, which was more threatening to the economy and to Roosevelt's recovery plans than the localized strikes in Toledo, Minneapolis, and San Francisco...
...Most observers simply point out that the need indeed was dramatic, widespread, and obvious...
...Unlike the unemployed, this constituency is stable, and there is an institutional context that facilitates interaction and association...
...In Protest and City 81 Politics Lipsky argues that the powerless use protest to activate the support of third parties, whose influence persuades the state to enact reforms...
...Finally, was formal membership organization consistently ineffective, or were there some situations in which it yielded significant power...
...Organization of the Poor Piven and Cloward then argue that poor people lack the resources and adequate incentives necessary to build and sustain organizations...
...3Emma Winslow, Trends in Different Types of Public and Private Relief in Urban Areas, 1929-1935 (Washington: GPO, 1937), pp...
...The strike wave of 1946 was far more disruptive than anything during the New Deal, but the result was Taft-Hartley...
...Joseph Rosenfarb, "Labor's Role in the Election," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol...
...Does the history of events suggest that reforms were enacted in response to disruption...
...Similarly: "It had taken protest and the ensuing fiscal and electoral disturbances to produce federal relief legislation...
...First, disruptions were "unorganized," or occurred "despite exisiting unions rather than because of them...
...Whether or not these factors constitute an adequate explanation for the passage of the Wagner Act, it is clear that Piven and Cloward's explanation does not fit with the evidence...
...Census study also show that relief increased throughout the country...
...Note, for instance, that the Wagner Act, which settled many issues to labor's advantage, was first defeated in 1934 but then passed in 1935...
...In these studies and in a theoretical chapter, Piven and Cloward sketch the following scenario for political change...
...Moreover, Northern and urban members dominated the Democratic majorities...
...This belief leads to the authors' advice to organizers...
...I, VI, VII...
...These attempts to create national poor people's lobbies floundered because the membership was too small, too unstable, and lacked the resources necessary to sustain a national membership organization...
...thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1934...
...And when the poor need the support of other groups—as they often do—a strategy of maximizing disruption can be selfdefeating, because it may alienate potential supporters...
...85 Historians of the Depression have noted that Section 7a was enacted in a period of industrial peace and may actually have precipitated strikes...
...This shift "from disruption to organization" spelled defeat...
...From the evidence presented by Piven and Cloward, one surely could draw more modest conclusions: many protests occurred on March 6, 1930 but subsequent protests were infrequent, and in only a few cities did protest occur more than once...
...Leadership and coordination were crucial to the major strikes of the 1930s, and especially to those strikes Piven and Cloward consider successes...
...And although strikes may have kept the issue of labor law on the public agenda, the passage of a bill favorable to labor did not depend on the exercise of labor's strike power...
...I, 1933, p. 169...
...But once the turbulence subsides, concessions are revoked, elites are no longer vulnerable, and the poor peoples' organizations collapse...
...Disruption," however, by their definition and examples, refers to a variety of actions—riots, strikes, rallies, boycotts—some of them not very threatening...
...where it is not, the cost and consequences of probable repression should be evaluated in advance...
...But Piven and Cloward do not make that argument, apparently believing that elites respond to real and proximate disruption...
...Unlike most interim elections, in 1934 the ruling party turned its already sizable majorities in both Houses to landslide proportions...
...and Wyndham Mortimer, Organize...
...Thus, they speak of "unorganized" or "spontaneous" disruptions...
...there was an "electoral impact of disruptions...
...Unfortunately, Piven and Cloward ignore these considerations, write off the costs of disruption, and simply advocate mass defiance...
...It is a well-intentioned effort at comparative history, though the strategical conclusions seem faulty, and the empirical material is often inaccurate and simplistic...
...This critique is quite modest in comparison to the militancy that characterizes the book...
...The election paved the way, and the Chamber of Commerce precipitated the break by publicly opposing almost all New Deal legislation at its spring meeting in 1935...
...But I would conclude that some are effective and others not, for reasons more specific than simply "formal organization...
...Their evidence and arguments generally conform to a common view of civil rights protest: well-organized acts of civil disobedience— not serious institutional disruptions—aroused the nation's sense of justice and the support of outside groups...
...pp...
...But while Piven and Cloward believe these defeats illustrate labor's political powerlessness, their argument runs against the chronology of events...
...See H. G. Lewis, Unionism and Relative Wages in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963...
...6 Leab, op...
...Second, they maintain that these increases exhausted municipal finances, prompting local elites to pressure the federal government for help...
...Does "ensuing" mean that protest somehow caused these electoral disturbances, or did it simply accompany them...
...How would the representatives of workers be chosen, and could they claim to speak for all or only some employees...
...Third, 82 in order to explain why Roosevelt, not Hoover, responded to this protest-originated pressure, the authors attempt to tie protest to voting shifts in the following manner: The "unrest that had spurred local leaders to try to respond to the unemployed spread upward to produce . . . the electoral upheaval of 1932...
...also Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959...
...Paperback, with authors' new Introduction, New York: Vintage, 1979...
...In the aftermath, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 45 in the Senate, and by 219 in the House...
...Although their language is often sensational— the state "concedes" to "eruptions" or "in the face of the threat of popular insurgency"—one might argue that Piven and Cloward's theory is not that different from liberal or pluralist conceptions of politics emphasizing coalitions...
...There were major strikes in the auto, coal, rail, and maritime industries, and a national telephone strike occurred during the week of House debate on Taft-Hartley...
...This strategy might have prevented the isolation of the poor...
...Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part I, (Washington: GPO, 1975), p. 179...
...Piven and Cloward believe that building a permanent membership organization constitutes a loss of power, not a means of defending and increasing the gains won in a strike...
...Rosenzweig, "Organizing...
...Historians suggest three reasons: (1) the 1934 congressional elections...
...By 1913, one executive board member, doubting the future of the organizaton, wrote: At present we are to the labor movement . . . what the high-diver is to the circus...
...In May and June of 1934, when Roosevelt and many congressmen chose not to support the Wagner bill, three of the four upheavals had just occurred or were occuring...
...In both cases the constituency was marginal or impermanent...
...Local "disruptions" were neither unorganized nor very disruptive...
...Past organizational achievements are stepping stones for future struggles, even though new leadership or political alliances may be needed to overcome old organizational rigidities...
...Such statements as "the disruptive political force exerted by mass strikes had compelled the federal government [to grant reforms]" exemplify this view...
...At that point, Roosevelt endorsed it...
...industrial workers in the 1930s won a variety of concessions from government because of their disruptions (strikes), not because of the power of organization...
...5 Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown in Transition, (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1937), pp...
...In the 1948 elections—which Piven and Cloward fail to discuss—labor's political organizations were at least partially responsible for the defeat of many supporters of Taft-Hartley and for the reelection of many of its opponents...
...Disruption" in this case refers to a variety of tactics—such as rallies, grievance representation, public hearings—carried out by loosely structured local organizations...
...In addition, 7a seemed innocuous, because of labor quiescence at the time and because the NIRA industrial codes were expected to resolve the ordinary strike issues...
...Thus, their heading "From Disruption to Organization" is used to describe the demise of three of the movements they studied...
...But, despite the flaws in their analysis, we must acknowledge that the pessimistic tone of Poor People's Movements seems to ring true...
...LET US NOW EXAMINE Piven and Cloward's thesis about organization in light of the industrial workers' movement...
...But the evidence tends to disprove that contention...
...What would be considered fair labor practices by employers or organizers...
...Organizers err by attempting to build organizations in turbulent times when elites may offer a few concessions in response to insurgency...
...In most of the incidents, we do not know whether there was a response...
...Nor can one say that organization automatically leads to this brand of nonoppositional reformist politics: witness the more radical and highly organized European labor movements...
...These were the strikes of Auto-Lite in Toledo during April and May, of the Minneapolis truckers in May, of the San Francisco longshoremen in May through July, and of the textile workers in New England and the South in August and September...
...Some mildly disruptive tactics were used—crowding relief offices—but many less belligerent methods were employed as well—grievance representation, hunger marches, or public hearings...
...Piven and Cloward may believe that the obstacles to sustained working-class oppositional politics in America are practically immovable—the 89 left can only hope to wrest concessions from the system periodically...
...Although there are good reasons for criticizing the Alliance, it is not clear, from the available evidence, what strategy would have been best...
...They note, for example, the well-known rigidities in the union structure, but they admit in the end that unions do protect workers, and the authors fail to offer any alternatives...
...In their new Introduction to the recent paperback edition of Poor People's Movements (Vintage, 1979), Piven and Cloward seem to retreat from their call for mass disruption and their condemnation of organization...
...Periodically, widespread social and economic change may sufficiently upset everyday life so that people will protest or "defy" the system...
...Most of their chapter devoted to this task is spent describing various strikes...
...That credo—according to Cloward and Piven—was erroneous then and is so today...
...In each annual cycle, expenditures reached a peak in March...
...The Industrial Workers' Movement Piven and Cloward contend that U.S...
...These organizations included the CP and other radical parties, and the unions that formed the CIO...
...Piven and Cloward do not show that there was a quantitative increase in strike activity between 1934 and 1935 (there was not...
...Other reforms are mentioned but not discussed...
...Forming the Alliance may have been a mistake, but Piven and Cloward's analysis—especially their phrase "from disruption to organization"— oversimplifies matters...
...Since most accounts of the Depression emphasize the passivity of the unemployed, one tends to regard Piven and Cloward's examples as exceptions rather than the rule...
...FDR answered the calls for federal mediation of strikes by creating the National Labor Board in August of 1933...
...If we are to criticize or explain labor's reformist politics, we must look at historical and structural reasons specific to the U.S., rather than to the phenomenon of organization as such...
...In that decade, both the AFL and the CIO set up permanent political organizations, and labor also suffered two serious legislative defeats with the passage of the Smith-Connally and Taft-Hartley Acts...
...2) Roosevelt's break with business...
...2 Michael Lipsky, Protest in City Politics (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970), esp...
...They describe at length the major strikes of 1934 and 1936, but mention none in 1935...
...Furthermore, the authors do not provide a consistent explanation of the passage of these reforms...
...Instead, they ask how small gains — "concessions"—can occasionally be wrought from the system...
...According to Piven and Cloward's model, one would expect this disruption to lead to concessions...
...First, they contend that disruptive acts forced local governments to grant or increase relief...
...Disruption may be unnecessary or even harmful if it alienates potential supporters...
...By seeking to achieve more substantial reform through organization and electoral pressure, they forfeited local disruptions and became, however inadvertently, collaborators in the process that emasculated the movement...
...9Seymour, op...
...4Roy Rosenzweig, "Organizing the Unemployed: The Early Years of the Great Depression, 1929-1933," Radical America, July-August 1976, pp...
...Did these upheavals provoke passage of the Wagner Act...
...The authors' critique of organization in the unemployed workers' movement can be summarized as follows...
...Local actions would not necessarily have threatened local leaders, but they could have been designed to show that unemployment was still widespread, in order to sustain the coalition, which had supported relief...
...The Unemployed Workers' Movement There are three parts to Piven and Cloward's argument that protests by the unemployed in the 1930s caused local and federal governments to grant relief...
...In light of labor's at least limited successes on social welfare legislation, and its influence within the Democratic party, it is implausible to conclude that organization does not yield power...
...Had they looked at the latter issue, they would have found a rare consensus among economists: it is generally agreed that union members receive greater economic benefits than nonunion workers...
...For reasons not fully articulated, they apparently regard those goals as futile...
...Their power was not rooted in organization, but in their capacity to disrupt the economy...
...4 Certainly, relief increased even where protest did not occur...
...VIII, 1946...
...Those who call for spontaneity and disdain unions for industrial workers should remember the example of the Industrial Workers of the World...
...It is implausible to argue that the scattered and sporadic protests forced local leaders around the country to increase relief, and it is difficult to claim that the federal government was threatened by the insurgency of the poor...
...The terms are frequently polarized: "organization" refers to highly structured organizations, which often attempt to lobby on a federal level...
...Helen Seymour, When Clients Organize (Chicago: American Public Welfare Association, 1937...
...This had a curious effect on the Wagner bill...
...George Johnson, "Economic Analysis of Trade Unionism," American Economic Review, May 1975, pp...
Vol. 27 • January 1980 • No. 1
