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792

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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Note: Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.

Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 38. Negro Popular Theories - 6. Some Critical Observations - 7. The Pragmatic “Truth” of the Labor Solidarity Doctrine

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792 An American Dilemma
It is argued, however, tha^, from an interest viewpoint, white workers
^‘should” feel an identity with Negro workers, and that they are working
against their own interests by wanting to discriminate against Negroes. Such
a split prevents the formation of strong labor unions j
if white workers want
effective union power, they will have to try to align Negro workers with
them. This is true in those fields of employment where Negroes are already
entrenched, and where they cannot be pushed out by the whites. It is true,
for instance, in longshore work and coal mining.® But it is not so true in the
greater number of industries where Negroes are at present effectively
excluded or safely segregated in “Negro jobs.” In those latter fields this
reason for labor solidarity with Negro workers will become even less signifi-
cant for white workers to the degree that they come to control employment
by their unions.
A feeling of “common interest” can be promoted, however, by the
actual spread of the ideology of class solidarity. Of this there is as yet
comparatively little in America. It is true that both the A.F. of L. and the
C.I.O. are, in principle, committed to nondiscrimination. So is the whole
American nation. Actually the record has been worse on the union front than
in many other fields of American culture. We have reviewed these facts and
discussed the relations between the American trade union movement and
Negro workers.^ Our tentative conclusion was that the future development
of those relations is important for the welfare of the Negro people but also
uncertain. The outcome will probably depend upon political decisions by
governments and legislatures, which, in their turn, depend upon electorates
in which labor is an important element but not the only one. For the out-
come, the strength of the American Creed as a social force will be important.
The civil rights and the votes which American Negroes will be able to hold
are going to be important in this struggle to open further the labor unions
to them.
7. The Pragmatic “Truth” of the Labor Solidarity Doctrine
The eager intent to explain away race prejudice and caste in the simple
terms of economic competition, and the exaggerated notions about the
relative unimportance of caste, is an attempt to escape from caste into class.
As such, it is closely similar to the tendency of certain Negro upper class
persons, already described, who also want to forget about caste and want to
align themselves with the white upper class."^ The differences are, however,
* See Appendix 6. It is true also in Southern agriculture, since all Negro sharecroppers
can never be pushed out, even though many of them have been. There will always be
enough Negro sharecroppers who can be used by the plantation owners to destroy an
all-white union which excludes the Negroes.
*’See Chapter 18, Section 3.
* See Chapter 36, Section 6.

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