No Shortcuts, Jane F. McAlevey
No Shortcuts, Jane F. McAlevey
3 Rating(s)
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No Shortcuts
Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

Author: Jane F. McAlevey

Narrator: Pam Ward

Unabridged: 9 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/22/2019


Synopsis

The crisis of the progressive movement is so evident that nothing less than a fundamental rethinking of its basic assumptions is required. Today's progressives now work for professional organizations more comfortable with the inside game in Washington DC (and capitols throughout the West), where they are outmatched and outspent by corporate interests.

In No Shortcuts, Jane McAlevey argues that progressives can win, but lack the organized power to enact significant change, to outlast their bosses in labor fights, and to hold elected leaders accountable. Drawing upon her experience as a scholar and longtime organizer in the student, environmental, and labor movements, McAlevey examines cases from labor unions and social movements to pinpoint the factors that helped them succeed—or fail—to accomplish their intended goals. McAlevey makes a compelling case that the great social movements of previous eras gained their power from mass organizing, a strategy today's progressives have mostly abandoned in favor of shallow mobilization or advocacy. She ultimately concludes that, in order to win, progressive movements need strong unions built from bottom-up organizing strategies that place the power for change in the hands of workers and ordinary people at the community level.


About Jane F. McAlevey

Jane F. McAlevey is an organizer, author, and scholar. She is currently a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley's Labor Center, part of the Institute for Labor & Employment Relations.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dan on February 07, 2022

This is a good book about union tactics that is at time very frustrating because of the author's liberalism. Her time as a union organizer and her research in that area allow her to use the book's case studies to provide excellent insight into the *tactics* necessary for organizers to revive and bui......more

Goodreads review by Matt on June 24, 2017

There is a solid argument at the heart of this book. Workers are losing and working class communities are losing because the organizing that built the CIO has been replaced by mobilizing, the media, and metrics. The three victories laid out here, among nursing home workers in Connecticut, teachers a......more

Goodreads review by Coleman on November 15, 2024

One of the best books I’ve ever read and required reading for anyone who wants to make the world a better place. No Shortcuts is an academic study, a manifesto, and the story of the American labor movement all rolled into one. It does what effective organizers do: It stirs up righteous anger and tur......more

Goodreads review by Soph on June 04, 2019

This was no-nonsense, piercing reflection & analysis of the strategic thinking, tactics, and possibilities for key segments of the movement. Some may bristle at the insight provided on Alinskyism/mobilizing organizations - I find it pretty convincing, though, and think there’s a lot of value to be d......more

Goodreads review by Dana on December 07, 2017

I have been reading book after book after book trying to get a sense of how the American left can [re]build power in the face of the brilliant, devastating, decades-long strategies employed by the corporate right to dominate our social & political lives. This book is one of the best guides that I ha......more