Operation Dixie: Lessons for Southern Workers

Operation Dixie was launched by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in early 1946 and ended in 1953. It was an ambitious attempt by the CIO to organize industry, particularly textiles, across the South. However overdue and necessary this initiative was, it is largely regarded as a failure. As the United Autoworkers (UAW) opens up new organizing drives across the South, and workers in many sectors in the region are stepping forward to organize and fight back, what lessons can be learned from this period and applied to our work today? How can we build a workers movement that can address the urgent need to build worker organization and power across the U.S. South? Featuring: Ed Bruno, former UE Director of Organization, Labor Party National Interim Committee, and National Nurses Organizing Committee Organizing Director Jim Wrenn, founding member of UE 150 local at Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant and Vice President of the Phoenix Historical Society of Edgecombe County Sharon James, National Domestic Workers Alliance