Hi y'all -- I'm looking for a book or a few articles that explain Gompers's economic views, with particular reference to the role of the state.
In "Out of Our Past," for example, Degler wrote: "All during [Gompers's] leadership of the AFL, labor had consistenly refused to accept … government intervention at the bargaining table of labor and business." I'd like to understand the reasoning behind this a bit better.
I know that a new book by Norman Finkelstein is forthcoming, but reviewers say it's "fact-filled but interpretation-light," hence probably not what I'm looking for.
Thanks in advance
I don't have a ton of time to answer this, I'm unfortunately traveling for work.
Basically, the federal and state governments did not have a history of being a neutral arbitrator when it came to labor issues. When a government intervened in a strike, it was usually first with a court ordered injunction to halt the strike. That would be followed with the Army or National Guard to enforce.
Gompers figured that if the courts and troops left workers and companies to their own devices, there would be more favorable outcomes for union organizing. Without the government propping up industrialists, industries which depended on highly skilled labor to operate (which was what the trade union focused AFL mostly worked for) were very vulnerable to labor action.