Book 1: Bonnie Laboring Boy, Three Strikes Summary and Analysis

Bonnie Laboring Boy focuses on the push to organize workers during the Depression. He begins the chapter with the interview of Larry Van Dusen, who provides an overview of the life of an organizer, constantly hunted by police and hired muscle. The violent reaction to attempts at organizing recurs throughout the chapter.

Perhaps the most brutal depiction comes in Jose Yglesias's description of the cigar rollers strikes of this period. The rollers intentionally call wildcat strikes at times when the tobacco leaves will dry out. Old women attack other old women who are scabbing. This passage also depicts the movement to replace the conservative—and thus toothless—American Federation of Labor with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

In this section, we first learn in detail about the Bob La...