RADICAL LABOR SUBCULTURE: KEY TO PAST AND FUTURE INSURGENCIES

Abstract

Notions developed by cultural anthropologists intersect with Marxist theorizations to suggest the analytical concept of “radical labor subculture.” The actuality of this subculture was an essential element in the development of radical class‐consciousness within the U.S. working class, and sheds light on the growth of the powerful and influential left‐wing currents within the mainstream of the U.S. labor movement from the 1860s through the 1930s. Political, economic, social, and cultural transformations stretching from the 1940s through the 1960s resulted in the erosion and decline of that subculture, with a consequent disconnect of left‐wing radicalism from the working class. Political, social and economic transformations since the 1970s have generated cultural shifts and openings that appear to be feeding into the recreation of a new radical labor subculture.