Education and Organized Labor
STARR, MARK
Education and Organized Labor Universities and Unions in Workers' Education. By Jack Barbash. Harper. 206 pp. $3.00. Reviewed by Mark Starr Educational director, International Ladies Garment...
...To those who think of trade unions as being mostly agencies for strikes and who are influenced by the exaggerated episodic scenes of violence and by the exceptional instances of racketeering, this book will come as a revelation...
...Jack Barbash has reported in this book on this three-year experiment carried out by eight universities with the cooperation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
...In one chapter, which appeared only in galley proof, Barbash made a summary of the trends and the possible results of workers' education which does not appear in the printed volume...
...New methods and materials were developed and a better use of educational meetings and films suggested...
...This book suggests the ways and means by which organized labor can also cooperate with higher education...
...He is fully informed about the wide variety of workers' education activities and recognizes its importance...
...Now that the labor family is once again reunited, it is hoped that, in line with the declarations of its leaders, there will be a greatly extended activity in the important field of workers' education...
...In addition to reporting on the eight specific projects, the book describes in detail the methods and procedures which have been and are being used in workers' education generally...
...In the main, this currently consists of programs and projects operated by individual unions for the training of their members in the immediate skills necessary to the administration of trade unions...
...However, there is, awaiting development, the more general field which should cope with the need for restating labor's philosophy, for dealing more fully with its history, and for examining more closely its economic role in a free community...
...Barbash was the most suitable person to be found to make this survey...
...The IULEC included one representative from each of the eight educational institutions involved, with four representatives from the AFL and four from the CIO...
...Reviewed by Mark Starr Educational director, International Ladies Garment Workers Union With financial help from the Fund for Adult Education in 1952, the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin, Chicago, California, Penn State, Roosevelt, Cornell and Rutgers joined with labor union representatives to form the Inter-University Labor Education Committee (IULEC) to develop interesting projects in publication of special material and in community education...
...Meanwhile, there is no better or more recent source of information about the educational methods and aims of the trade unions than this important volume...
...He knows labor history and is an experienced and effective operator in workers' education...
...Big business at the moment has become more aware than ever before of its responsibility in sustaining higher education...
...The aims of the IULEC included economic understanding, participation in community problems (e.g., health and recreation) and projects for the study and discussion of international affairs...
...The relation between education and organized labor has a tremendous potentiality...
...Nevertheless, he is well aware that in workers' education we need not only know-how but know-why...
Vol. 38 • November 1955 • No. 46
