We publish this issue of New Labor Forum two months in advance of what promises to be a watershed convention of the AFL-CIO. Nearly everything is up for grabs: how the labor movement is going to reverse it slide into irrelevance;  should the Federation itself continue to exist in its present form; will some large unions on labor’s left and/or right bolt from the federation. After ten years under the Sweeney helm—one that has been committed to the mass recruitment of new members, and the recapturing of labor’s New Deal-era political power—labor’s leaky ship has taken on even more water. By way of repairing the ship, a number of unions have offered reform proposals and counterproposals, while some continue to dangle the threat of abandoning ship altogether.  On the brink of extinction, labor will either lay out a bold new program, or disappear.

   In this pre-convention issue three articles examine this historic turning point. The formation of the New Unity Partnership, initially a grouping of five unions, that had threatened to leave the AFL-CIO barring adoption of their proposals for re-organizing the labor movement, played a key role in defining the fateful choices ahead.  Some of the NUP union leaders, and many onlookers, have compared the NUP—its proposals for the sectoral alignment of unions, dramatic new organizing, and willingness to break away from the federation—to the birth of the CIO. Here, Jack Metzgar examines the validity and usefulness of this analogy. Although we solicited this article prior to the dissolution, in January, of the NUP, an examination of this analogy remains apt, nonetheless, in this period when labor contemplates major reforms, and split-offs remain possible. The second article evaluates the SEIU’s Unite to Win proposal—around which the ideologically diverse NUP unions had cohered—with regard to its implications for rebuilding social movements, and for U.S. society broadly. Juan Gonzalez chastises the proposals for their silence on what he argues is the central question for reformers:  U.S. labor’s relationship to the American empire. Gonzalez further proposes that labor make a bold effort to create its own media of mass communication to counter the propaganda of corporate dominated mainstream outlets.  In a further article devoted to evaluating the Unite to Win proposal, Kate Bronfenbrenner assesses its contribution to labor’s key organizing challenges, among them: cracking the south and southwest, responding to globalization, and reigning in Wal-Mart. 

   Some of the NUP reformers have pointed to the multiple unions representing workers in the troubled airlines industry as a prime argument in favor of the need for mergers.  Despite the industry’s high rate of unionization, airlines unions are confronting a set of challenges that threaten their viability. Thomas Kochan, Andrew von Nordenflycht, Robert McKersie, and Jody Hoffer Gittell from the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research offer these unions a series of recommendations that address the problems posed by deregulation, post-September 11th bankruptcy law, and the craft structure of the multiple unions representing airlines workers.   Patricia Friend, of the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, responds to these recommendations, as do Robert Roach, Jr. and Beth Almeida, of the International Association of Machinists.

   Given the power Wal-Mart wields over the domestic and global economy and its entirely non-union U.S. workforce of 1.2 million, many labor activists and their allies view organizing the behemoth as vital to resuscitating the labor movement.  Here, we provide two articles that offer insights into how that might be done. Wade Rathke puts forth an ambitious and outside-the-box strategic proposal to organize Wal-Mart, arguing that, of all the labor reform proposals afloat, only a campaign of this magnitude and importance can leverage labor’s revival. Examining Wal-Mart’s reliance on the timely and reliable delivery of its goods manufactured throughout the globe, Edna Bonacich argues that the global logistics chain may present vulnerabilities that, if properly exploited, could bring the company to its knees.

   Juan Gonzalez’s call for international labor solidarity is echoed in Dana Frank’s article about Central American women banana workers. Not only have these women forged transnational alliances, they have as well transformed the gender politics of their unions. Frank describes how these women unionists have managed to meld women’s empowerment with international solidarity, and have been able to count on the financial support of European labor and non-governmental organizations.

   New Labor Forum continues our probe into the sources and nature of working-class conservatism in U.S. politics. Here, Ira Chernus argues that President Bush’s 2004 electoral victory owes much to the Republican success in repackaging the potent American frontier myth in the post-9/11 environment. Can Democrats rewrite this American story, he asks, in compelling ways that serve working-class interests, or is it a story destined to serve conservative and imperial interests?

   With this issue, we inaugurate two new regular features. The first will comprise a series of kaleidoscopic views of working-class life in post-industrial America. We expect this series to present first person accounts, interviews, and, on occasion, outsider reflections on the diversity of contemporary working-class experiences.  In this issue, we are fortunate to begin with an essay by Nelly Rosario, an up and coming novelist, who describes the trauma, as well as the hope, of her Dominican working-class childhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  We invite your ideas and proposals for future installments in this series.

   This is also the inaugural issue for a new column by Kim Philips-Fein, entitled “Caught in the Net,” highlighting labor news, views, and resources online worthy of your attention, but likely to have escaped it. This column will describe and assess these online developments, providing what we expect to be a valuable service to labor activists and scholars.

   We open this issue’s Books and the Arts section on a tragicomic note with a review by Kent Worcester of How to Succeed at Globalization: A Primer for the Roadside Vendor, by the famed Mexican cartoonist, El Fisgόn.  Jefferson Cowie discusses the documentary The Corporation, Mark Achbar’s and Jennifer Abbot’s searing and ambitious examination of a monstrosity that has come to dominate every aspect of our public and private lives.  Ruth Milkman reviews Mae Ngai’s important new book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, that traces the historical development of U.S. immigration law. Heather Boushey examines Stephanie Luce’s Fighting for a Living Wage, an assessment of why some living wage ordinances get enforced and others do not..  Phil Thompson reviews Nikhil Singh’s Black is a Country, an exploration of the diversity of black political thought and a lens on the failures of American liberalism. Paul Buhle discusses the trials, limitations, and singular contributions of Herman Benson, champion of union democracy, as revealed in his autobiography Rebels, Reformers and Racketeers: How Insurgents Transformed the Labor Movement.  Finally we offer a selection of post-industrial poetry from a nurse on the night shift and an ex-miner on his first day of work at McDonald’s.