Tom Harrison, back row, center; Joanne Landy, second row, right This interview was originally published in Left History. This version is reposted from New Politics, where it was republished in 2018. Joanne Landy died in 2017. See here for a brief obituary. Introduction
The new unionists think in terms of the organizing drives of the mid- to late-1930s, a near-century’s worth of hind-gazing. It’s a perspective that interferes with their ability to act in the here-and-now, a perspective that misses opportunities to reimagine what a union can accomplish. This was the case for the part-time faculty (adjuncts) union at Rutgers University in New Jersey, whose strike recently ended in a major victory. A lucky, and to some extent unanticipated, confluence of factors helped win the clash with management.