The Industrial Workers' Movement

This piece stood out to me, especially in relation to our modern society. After familiarizing myself with some of the history behind how unions and strikes have developed considering their motivations, I thought a lot about our workers today.

In the past, events such as the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Wagner Act motivated workers to ban together for social and economic reasons. I find the "spirit" behind such vigor to be very characteristic of a society. After all, a large group of people with a strong voice and willingness to act can be very powerful and coercive.

So, I find myself thinking back to Durkheim with the assumption that we are becoming highly specialized and individualistic in our work and personal lives. The value of such extreme individuality in our modern society led me to wonder how will we achieve large scale justice in certain realms of society pertaining to workers' rights, wages...etc? As collectivity declines, the dynamics of how our society acts collectively will also change.

I lived in Toledo, Ohio (close to Detroit) and found it very interesting that the GM discussion was brought up in the Industrial Workers' Movement piece. Even now, Detroit is still vividly destroyed from the crash of the automotive industry and industrial revolution. In today's society, how will workers fight against injustice and unhappiness?