Now in its fourth edition, From Consent to Coercion: The Continuing Assault on Labour remains an invaluable tool for understanding how the state and capital manage the subordination of labour. The new edition contains timely material that wrestles with the pressing issues of precarity and polarization and the dire need to rebuild and renew socialist politics. The following is excerpted from the book.

This Labour Day there are hopeful signs that this transformation is beginning. The strategy of community-based initiatives that CUPW developed to save Canada Post from further cuts and privatization was a crucial part of the union’s strategy going into this round of negotiations. Victory at the bargaining table could not have been achieved without them.

Activists need to find ways to put pressure on the leaders of both public and private sector unions, insisting that they go beyond perfunctory statements of support, and even promises of financial assistance, to communicate the importance of the issues to their members and to commit significant resources to mobilizing concrete solidarity with postal workers.