Workers, White & Black, in Mississippi

The big, middle-aged man, wearing his hard hat and heavy boots, breathes a long sigh as he pours himself a cup of coffee in the union hall (with such signs on the wall as “SST—Ours or Theirs?” showing the U.S. and British flags, and “Visit Your AFL—CIO Union Barber” and “Keep America Beautiful, Get a Haircut”). He has just come oft the shift in the shipyard, and in some sense he is typical of the American labor force, just as in some way his union is typical of the American labor movement in the beginning of the 1970s. But in other, perhaps crucial ways, neither he nor his union is typical. Neither fulfills the expectations one might have of labor, of the working class—or for that matter, of the ...