The Battle over the State

This chapter examines how the state influenced the struggle between labor and employers in terms of both practical assistance and conferring or denying legitimacy. The first section explores the power that workers could wield at the level of the city and the ways in which employers tried to counter that power. The second section examines the judicial branch: courts frequently intervened in labor disputes with injunctions. The next section turns to the national level, focusing on what the American Federation of Labor tried to accomplish in Congress and what strategies the National Association of Manufacturers employed to torpedo those efforts. The final section uses some examples of the NAM’s electoral campaigns to explore the limits as well as the impact of employer power.