The most popular misconception in the American labor movement is the idea that the working class can make real gains within the framework of the legal system. This misconception hinges on ignorance of how the official channels actually operate. For decades, the state unions have focused all of their work on maneuvering within the legal system. This takes multiple forms. They petition the national and state Labor Relations Boards for recognition and hash out grievances and contracts in mediation and arbitration. They spend millions lobbying the Democrats to pass the PRO Act or lobbying the Republicans to pass the Faster Labor Contracts Act.

For decades, this has been the dominant strategy in the labor movement, with absolutely nothing to show for it except for historically low union density and a historically low working-class share of wealth. The state union officials and their revisionist hangers-on have essentially reversed cause and effect regarding mobilizing the masses: instead of mobilizing workers to extract concessions from employers and the government by force, they mobilize workers to petition for concessions. This is a demonstrably failed strategy that hinges on an idealist view of the law within class society. It will be shown precisely how at every step the law is biased against working people, and consequently, how only the New Labor line of independent, class-conscious organizing shows the way forward for the American labor movement.

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