Michael Goldfield
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Michael Goldfield (May 2, 1943) is an American political scientist, author, labor activist, and former student activist. He is an emeritus professor of industrial relations and human resources in the department of political science at
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, and a faculty associate at the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
.


Early life and activism: Sojourner Truth Organization 1968-1972

Prior to his academic career, Goldfield was an activist and organizer, first with the
Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
and later with the Sojourner Truth Organization, where he was a founding member and a part of the organization's Westside branch. Goldfield was employed at the
International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated IH or International) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It wa ...
plant in Melrose Park, IL where he sought to engage in workplace organizing as a part of the Sojourner Truth Organization's political work. At the International Harvester plant, Goldfield was involved in establishing a dissident caucus within the plant's union chapter organized by the
United Auto Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...
. Despite resolutions adopted by the Sojourner Truth Organization calling on membership to engage in more mass organizing, which entailed a further openness to engaging with
industrial unions Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same Industry (economics), industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industrie ...
, the Organization as a whole remained critical to unions and a significant tendency within the Organization remained skeptical of membership involving themselves in trade union politics., As one of the Organization's most experienced workplace organizers, and a member whose rank-and-file coworkers encouraged him to run as a shop steward at the Harvester plant, Goldfield expressed enthusiasm in greater union involvement, a decision for which certain membership within the Organization criticized him. In 1973, Goldfield, who felt that this criticism led to his marginalization within the Organization, co-wrote a position paper endorsed by the Organization's Westside branch entitled "Crisis in the STO," which issued criticisms of numerous aspects of Organization's positions, from class consciousness to its theoretical positions on party formation. After the release of the paper, Goldfield and his supporters eventually departed the Sojourner Truth Organization, resulting in the Organization's first split.


Career

Goldfield has contributed to scholarly discussions on the
labor history of the United States The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, US labor law, labor laws, and other working co ...
, particularly to debates on the cause of union density decline, and its relationship to
race and ethnicity in the United States The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories (White, Black, Native Amer ...
. In his first book, ''The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States'', Goldfield argues that the decline of American union density beginning in 1955 was the result of both changes in government policy that restricted workers' rights to unionize, including the
Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
, and the growth of anti-union consulting agencies, which businesses employ to deter union organizing. Goldfield's contribution to the debate on union density decline has been recognized as significant in that it attributes the decline in union power not to American demographic and industrial shifts but instead to an increasing political hostility to unions in the United States. In Goldfield's second book, ''The Color of Politics: Race and the Mainsprings of American Politics'', he argues that progressive and
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
politics in the United States have been stifled by racism. Further, Goldfield claims that the failure of American labor unions to confront racism and organize
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
workers contributed to the inability of labor unions to play a greater political role in American society. Francis Fox Piven referred to the book as a "magisterial review of the role of racism in American history". Goldfield has also participated in debates within political science on the origins of the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
. In response to
Theda Skocpol Theda Skocpol (née Barron; May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical- ...
's critiques of
Neo-Marxist Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, ps ...
theories of the state, Goldfield issued a defense culminating in an exchange in ''
American Political Science Review The ''American Political Science Review'' (''APSR'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of political science. It is an official journal of the American Political Science Association and is published on their behalf ...
''. Skocpol's defense of her critiques, and her subsequent assessment of Goldfield's arguments in what have become known as the Wagner Act Debates, are regarded as an important moment in the development of academic theories of the state.


Selected bibliography


Solely authored books

*(1987) ''The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States'' (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press) () *(1997) ''The Color of Politics: Race and the Mainsprings of American Politics'' (New York: The New Press) () *(2020) ''The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s'' (New York: Oxford University Press) ()


Co-authored books

*(1980)
The Myth of Capitalism Reborn: A Marxist Critique of Theories of Capitalist Restoration in the USSR
' by Michael Goldfield and Melvin Rothenberg (San Francisco: Line of March Publications)


Edited Volumes

*(2008) ''Labour, Globalization and the State: Workers, Women and Migrants Confront Neoliberalism'' edited by Debdas Banerjee and Michael Goldfield (London: Routledge) ()


Notes

:a.For a synopsis of this position within the Sojourner Truth Organization see "The Steward's Position" published in 1973, which closes with the lines "The call to stewardship will probably be heard by any communist who is doing good mass work. It should be accepted for what it is ... a call to take a greater role of leadership ... To the extent that it is a call to leadership, the communist should respond not by taking the steward's position but by creating an alternative to it."


References


Sources

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External links


Faculty Profile, Wayne State College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldfield, Michael Living people American political scientists University of Chicago alumni Williams College alumni Wayne State University faculty 1943 births