Unions, Strikes, Shaw Book Reviews

Unions, Strikes, Shaw by Bernard F. Dukore Book Summary

Unions, Strikes, Shaw: ‘The Capitalism of the Proletariat’ is the first book to treat Bernard Shaw—socialist, dramatist, public speaker and union member—in relation to unions and strikes. For over half a century he urged workers to join unions, which he called, paradoxically, “the Capitalism of the Proletariat,” because as capitalists try to get as much labor as possible from workers while paying them as little as possible, unions try to gain as high wages as possible from employers while working as little as possible. He opposed general strikes as destined to fail, since owners can hold out longer than workers, whose unions have less money to support them during strikes. This book offers background on major strikes in and before Shaw’s time —including the Colorado Coalfield War and the Dublin Lockout, both in 1913—before analyzing the causes, day-by-day events and consequences of Britain’s 1926 General Strike. It begins and ends with examinations of their and Shaw’s relevance to actions on unions and strikes in our own time.

Bernard F. Dukore is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Theatre Arts and Humanities, Virginia Tech, USA. His books on theatre and film include Bernard Shaw and the Censors: Fights and Failures, Stage and Screen (2020) and Crimes and Punishments and Bernard Shaw (2017). 

“An excellent book to put on the Bernard Shaw shelf that will serve a wider audience as well. Bernard F. Dukore’s study is enlightening as it engages with recent scholarship to support questioning and provide answers that are fuller and better developed in specific contexts. It is well written and is high on my list of the most convincingly developed studies in this field. It fills an empty space in Shaw scholarship, and there’s no need for, or likelihood that, another book would try to contest it.”

 — Richard F. Dietrich, Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida, USA
 “Unions, Strikes, Shaw surveys general strikes, including the 1913 Dublin Lockout and 1926 British General Strike, and nationalization in Major Barbara and On the Rocks. Using Bernard Shaw’s writings and speeches, and the words and actions of union organizers and members, government officials, and the public, this lively account illustrates how “unions, strikes and efforts by those in power to break them are as much a part of our lives as they were of Shaw’s.” Bernard F. Dukore has written extensively and perceptively on Shaw as social reformer, exploring crimes and punishments, censorship, and race. This thoroughly researched monograph is another valuable perspective on Shaw.”
—     — Michel Pharand, retired, freelance copyeditor and former general editor of SHAW: The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies

“In Unions, Strikes, Shaw, Bernard F. Dukore uses vivid examples of workers struggling to exert collective power during the first “Gilded Age” to demand the reader to consider quintessentially Shavian questions that remain startlingly relevant: What is the relationship between human labor and the economic and moral organization of society? Are unions a function of capitalism, or a mechanism for radical change? Under what conditions can collective worker power overcome the entrenched power of capital? Dukore’s discussion of Shaw’s interest in Marxism and Fabianism, as well as his insightful examination of the debate over these questions in Shaw’s speeches, treatises, and plays - especially Major Barbara and On the Rocks -illuminate Shaw’s thinking and invite us to sharpen our own.”

— Pam Egan, Director, Labor Management Partnerships Program, UC Berkeley Labor Center, USA

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