[lbo-talk] The Attack on Unions in Selig Perlman's Wisconsin

[michael perelman]

The Wisconsin attack on unions is sadly ironic, given the progressive 
tradition of the state.  One of the progressives who whom I have not 
seen mentioned was Selig Perlman (1888-1959).  He was an important 
economist at the University of Wisconsin and teacher of the son of 
Robert LaFollette, who was, like his father a governor of the state. 
Later, I had the privilege of knowing his son Mark, I wonderful man with 
an amazing breadth of economic knowledge and experience.  Putting 
information together from Mark and my father, our families came from 
nearby each other.  I always addressed him as Cousin Mark.

In an undergraduate class, we read Perlman's book, A Theory of the Labor 
Movement.  I remember my teachers' explanation of the book more than the 
book itself, which I have not read in the last 50 years.  Perlman was a 
former Marxist, who saw the unions as a bulwark against communism. I 
don't know whether he influenced later scholars' ideas that, by giving 
workers a voice, unions dampened their revolutionary spirit.  I suspect 
that his analysis had some influence on Jay Lovestone's CIA-sponsored 
project to encourage (capitalist-friendly) trade unionism around the world.

Obviously, Perlman was not radical, but he still was sympathetic to the 
working class. Now that the Soviet Union is gone, unions no longer serve 
such a purpose. Instead, they are treated as a parasitic force that eats 
into the profit rate.  Hopefully, this nonsense will cause a strong 
enough reaction to ensure that nothing like this happens again.

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

mperelman at csuchico.edu

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com