LABOR, CAPITAL, AND COMMUNITY: THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER.

The article focuses on the impact of the local conditions and the labor consciousness on the struggles for power among leather workers in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts. Locals of national organizations had little connection with the national unions. Consequently, when they did affiliate with national organizations, local concerns and group loyalty transcended national policies. The important ties with other outside unions were of an informal nature. Ties to nonlocal workers and unions were usually confined to feelings of brotherhood and solidarity, which manifested themselves in aid for union struggles. The paper shows how the workers rallied their community of fellow workers to fight against the companies. Since Lynn's wage earners viewed their city as a community of workers, the strike provides a picture of a community in struggle. The community gave the workers strength and support to resist the employers, their friends and relatives were workers and union members, and their unions controlled most of the shops in Lynn. The same community, however, also gave them a false sense of their power to affect their demands against organized capital.