When: Friday, June 2nd at 6:30 PM Langston Room
Where: Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, Wash., DC, 202-387-7638 www.busboysandpoets.org
For more info contact: haymarketdc-AT-gmail.com or 202 667 0049

SUBTERRANEAN FIRE: A History of Working-class Radicalism in the United States by Sharon Smith

About the book
This accessible, critical history of the U.S. labor movement examines the hidden history of workers' resistance from the nineteenth century to the present. Workers in the United States have a rich tradition of fighting back and achieving gains previously thought unthinkable, but that history remains largely hidden. Subterranean Fire brings that history to light and reveals its lessons for today.

"If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, then hang us. Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand." --AUGUST SPIES, labor activist executed during the fight for the eight-hour-day

What the critics have to say
"In urgent prose, Sharon Smith's Subterranean Fire reminds us that the ruling class's grip on power is not absolute, but a tenuous toehold on a shaky edifice that is ready to crumble when the right kind of popular pressure is applied. Times of crisis are also opportunities for revolutionary change. The time for action is now; Sharon Smith has written a roadmap for how to achieve a more just future. The rest is up to us." --JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, coeditor CounterPunch, author, Grand Theft Pentagon

"A veteran worker-intellectual brilliantly addresses the crisis of the labor movement, skewering those who believe that renewal can come from the top down, and encouraging those who are fighting to rebuild it from the bottom up." --MIKE DAVIS, author, Prisoners of the American Dream and City of Quartz

"This book is a timely and valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the U.S. labor movement. At a time when it seems like the labor movement is paralyzed by the onslaught of globalization, Smith reminds us of the rich history of workers¹ struggles in the U.S., and how labor has rebounded from similar impasses to win important gains. A truly inspiring book!" --DEEPA KUMAR, author, Outside of the Box: Labor and the Media in the Age of Globalization, and professor, Rutgers University

SHARON SMITH is the author of Women and Socialism, as well as many articles on women's liberation and the U.S. working class.

Order Subterranean Fire today at: www.haymarketbooks.org/