Book review: ‘Love is Solidarity in Action: Poems from the Frontlines of the Class Struggle’
Left, book cover of ‘Love is Solidarity in Action,’ Right, book talk with author Stewart Acuff on March 29, 2025 | Shannon Duffy/PW
On March 29th, Stewart Acuff, author of Love is Solidarity in Action, gave a book talk in Kansas City, Missouri, organized by the Kansas City club of the Communist Party USA. Acuff’s book, distributed by International Publishers, is a poetry collection by the famed union organizer. For years, the trade unionist was one of America’s most successful union organizers at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), president of the Atlanta AFL-CIO, and National Organizing Director of the National AFL-CIO.
Union activists sometimes lament how their coworkers are uninformed about labor history. To combat this deficiency (without suggesting that our unions might be partially at fault), I recommend picking up this recently released book of poetry by the lifetime labor activist.
Acuff grew up in the Missouri Bootheel, and this is his fourth volume of poetry. His poems are simple yet powerful, chronicling a lifelong struggle to achieve social and economic justice for the working class. His submissions range from his time in the South (“trying to help folks believe in themselves and one another”) to his time spent on national political and legislative campaigns and even serving as an elections observer in Africa for the United Nations.
Acuff mentions dangerous encounters with the Klan who he states threatened to cut him “from asshole to appetite.” He also details some maddening defeats in his life, but there are some victories, too.
The poet addresses labor history, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, 1968. He relates his own organizing attempts amid predatory poverty in rural Southern towns, as he opines on current issues like the Black Lives Matter movement and the divide in the modern Democratic Party. Throughout all his travels, Acuff fought for justice and pursued worker solidarity like a wanderer following the North Star.
Anyone reading this book will come away with a greater knowledge of unionism and a firmer understanding of why people form unions. There is wisdom in these pages.
Stewart Acuff
Love is Solidarity in Action: Poems from the Frontlines of the Class Struggle
International Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-7178-0037-7
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