About the Book:The Revival of Labor Liberalismis a careful analysis of the twentieth-century decline of the labor-liberal coalition and the important efforts to revive their political fortunes. Andrew Battista chronicles the efforts of several new political organizations that arose in the 1970s and 1980s with the goal of reuniting unions and liberals. Drawing from extensive documentary research and in-depth interviews with union leaders and political activists, Battista shows that the new organizations such as the Progressive Alliance, Citizen Labor Energy Coalition, and National Labor Committee made limited but real progress in reconstructing and strengthening the labor-liberal coalition. Although the labor-liberal alliance remained far weaker than the rival business-conservative alliance, Battista illuminates that it held a crucial role in labor and political history after 1968. Focuses on a fraught but evolving partnership, Battista provides a broad analysis of factional divisions among both unions and liberals and considers the future of unionism and the labor-liberal coalition in America.Table of Contents: Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 PART 1: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE LABOR-LIBERAL COALITION 1. Understanding the Labor-Liberal Coalition 9 2. The Rise of the Labor-Liberal Coalition 27 3. The Decline of the Labor-Liberal Coalition 43 4. Labor Redivided 61 PART 2: THE REVIVAL OF THE LABOR-LIBERAL COALITION: CASE STUDIES 5. The Progressive Alliance 83 6. The Citizen Labor Energy Coalition 103 7. The National Labor Committee 122 8. The Political Strategy and Social Bases of the Dissident Unions 147 PART 3: THE PAST AND FUTURE OF LABOR-LIBERAL POLITICS 9. Toward, and Beyond, 1995 165 10. The Labor-Liberal Coalition: Retrospect and Prospect 191 Appendix 213 Notes 215 Index 261