Here is a reading list of philosophy, political theory, history, and legal theory on a right to strike. 

Particular thanks to Alex Gourevitch for his help in generating this list (and to others on Twitter/FB).  And thanks also to the Rutgers and Michigan Philosophy grad students who have been blending theory and praxis with such skill and joy. 

Please email me with additional suggestions!  (I'm working on tracking down digital versions of those currently without links.)

 

Articles

David Borman, "Contractualism and the Right to Strike," Res Publica (2017)

G.A. Cohen, "The Structure of Proletarian Unfreedom," Philosophy and Public Affairs (1983)

Ann Cudd, "Strikes, Housework, and the Moral Obligation to Resist," Journal of Social Philosophy (1998)

Ned Dobos, "Are Strikes Extortionate?" Philosophical Studies (2022)

Mary Gibson, "The Public Worker's Right to Strike," in Gertrude Ezorsky ed., Moral Rights in the Workplace (1972)

Alex Gourevitch, "Quitting Work but Not the Job: Liberty and the Right to Strike," Perspectives on Politics (2016)

Alex Gourevitch, "The Right to Strike: A Radical View," American Political Science Review (2018)

Alex Gourevitch, “Liberty and Democratic Insurgency: The Republican Case for the Right to Strike,” in Republicanism and the Future of Democracy, edited by Yiftah Elazar and Geneviève Rousselière, 173–88. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Alex Gourevitch, "Themselves Must Strike the Blow: The Socialist Argument for Strikes and Self-Emancipation," Philosophical Topics (2020)

Alex Gourevitch, "Strikes, Civil Rights, and Radical Disobedience: From King to Debs and Back," Contemporary Political Theory (2022)

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "Sabotage: The Conscious Withdrawal of the Workers' Industrial Efficiency," IWW Publishing Bureau (1917)

F.A. Hayek, "Labor Unions and Employment," in The Constitution of Liberty (1956)

Don Locke, "The Right to Strike," Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements (1984) 

Cristian Pérez-Muñoz, "Essential Services, Public Education Workers, and the Right to Strike," Political Research Quarterly (2022)

James Gray Pope, "How American Workers Lost the Right to Strike, and Other Tales," Michigan Law Review (2004)

Paul Raekstad and Enzo Rossi, "Radicalizing Rights: Basic Liberties and Direct Action," Political Studies Review (2022)

Diana S. Reddy, ""There Is No Such Thing as an Illegal Strike": Reconceptualizing the Strike in Law and Political Economy," The Yale Law Journal Forum (2021)

Michael Walzer, "Civil Disobedience and Corporate Authority," in Obligations (1982)

 

Books

Jeremy Brecher, Strike! (PM Press, 2014), reviewed by Alex Gourevitch in "Decline of the Strike," Dissent (2014)

Gertrude Ezorsky ed., Moral Rights in the Workplace (SUNY Press, 1972)

Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes (The New Press, 2020)

L.J. Macfarlane, The Right to Strike (Pelican Books, 1981)

Anton Pannekoek, Workers' Councils (1946) (see particularly Part II: The Fight, Sections 1-4)

Arthur Shenfield, What Right to Strike? (1987)

 

 

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The following is a letter signed by many members of the Rutgers Department of Philosophy faculty in support of the Union contract demands.  A .pdf of the letter is available here.  

Letter of Support for Union Contract Demands from Rutgers Philosophy Faculty Members

Faculty, Teaching Assistants, Graduate Assistants, Postdoctoral Scholars, and all other workers represented by Rutgers AAUP-AFT have been working without a contract for nearly nine months.

The quality of education, research, and public service at Rutgers depends on the quality of our working conditions, but these conditions have been impaired by salaries for PTLs and graduate students that have declined significantly when accounting for inflation and rising costs of living. Adjunct faculty receive unfair wages for the classes they teach, and their academic freedom is undermined by lack of job security. Graduate students receive far less than a living wage, which hampers their ability to research, teach, and learn, and threatens the quality and prestige of graduate programs at Rutgers, including the program in Philosophy. The loss of department-level authority over course scheduling continues to frustrate our ability to offer an effective curriculum, with no demonstrated benefit to students and demonstrable harm to faculty. 

We, the undersigned faculty members of the Department of Philosophy, endorse the AAUP-AFT contract campaign demands, including those for fair salaries and stipends, job security for adjuncts, and departmental control over scheduling. We stand in solidarity with all Rutgers workers seeking a fairer and stronger institution, and affirm the right of workers to bargain collectively and to take collective action, including strike action, when necessary to attain just demands. We affirm the spirit of the resolution passed by the English Department, from which this statement is adapted.  

 

• Karen Bennett, Professor and Department Chair
• Susanna Schellenberg, Distinguished Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
• Elisabeth Camp, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
• Alexander Guerrero, Professor and Director of Graduate Admissions
• Dean Zimmerman, Distinguished Professor
• Jonathan Schaffer, Distinguished Professor
• Barry Loewer, Distinguished Professor
• Jerry Piven, Lecturer
• Nicholas Maurer, Lecturer
• Andrew Egan, Professor
• Justin Kalef, Assistant Teaching Professor
• Justin Caouette, Lecturer
• Daniel M. Hausman, Research Professor
• David Sorensen, Lecturer
• Max Bialek, Lecturer
• Richard Fry, Assistant Teaching Professor
• Martin Lin, Professor
• Michael Otsuka, Professor
• Juan Comesaña, Professor
• Carolina Sartorio, Professor
• Jill North, Professor
• Derrick Darby, Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor
• Louise Antony, Regular Visiting Professor
• Michael Glanzberg, Professor
• Jeffrey C. King, Distinguished Professor