REBELLION IN THE RANKS example, lnspired Peter Kropotkln to wrlte two artlcles In the Bulletln ot the Jura (Swlss) Federatlon: cThls movement wlll have certalnly lmpressed profoundly the proletarlat of Europe and exclted lts admlratlon ... • The reviva! ot mllltancy traces back to thls tradltlon and partlcularly to the revolts of the 1930s; a perlad marked by spontaneous «slt-down• strlkes ot the unorganlzed agalnst the employers and of the organlzed workers agalnst both the capltallsts and the class collaboratlonlst unlon leaders. e . .. the country Is full ot spontaneous wlld cat strlkes (wrote an actlvlst In December 1933) . . . wherever one goes there are plcket Unes ... > The number ot strlkers In 1930 was 158,000; In 1933, 812,000; and In 1934, 1,353,600. Serlous assessments about the character ot the American worklng class must take these facts lnto conslderatlon. Revlval of mllltancy A GROWING llterature documentlng reviva! ot rank-and-flle members o! the unlons and analyzlng the lmpact o! thls movement on the social system Is belng lssued by leadlng commerclal publlshers and dlscussed, not only In obscure, llttle radical Joumals, but by such lnfluentlal organs ot American capltallsm as Fortune Magazine, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, etc. as well as In academlc clrcles. Stanley Aronowltz, an exceptlonally well quallfled wrlter on labor problems sums up the sltuatlon: • ... the conflguratlon o! strlkes In the past tour years Is unprecedented In the hlstory of American workers. Slnce 1967, there have been more strlkes, rank-and-flle reJectlons of proposed unlon settlements wlth employers than In any similar perlod In the modern era. . . the most notable feature of the present sltuatlon Is that the unlons are no longer In a posltlon o! Ieadershlp In workers' struggles; they are runnlng desperately to catch up to thelr own membershlp. In many cases, unlon sanctlons for strlkes have !ollowed the workers own actlon. In others, the leadershlp has attempted to thwart membershlp lnltlatlve, and havlng falled, have publlcly supported the strlke, whlle secretly sabotaglng lt In Ieague wlth bosses ... for the most part, natlonal bureaucracles have slded wlth employers In trylng to lmpose labor peace on a rebelllous membershlp. . . what Is remarkable Is that the rebelllons have been large!y successful desplte enormous odds ... 97
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