10 November 2005

New Book: 'Mobsters, Unions and Feds. The Mafia and the American Labor Movement'

James B. Jacobs
  • Softcover 304 pages (January 2006)
  • Publisher: NYU Press
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 0-8147-4273-4
  • Price: $32,95

  • Synopsis (provided by the publisher)

    Nowhere in the world has organized crime infiltrated labor as effectively as in the United States. From the early 1930s to the assassination of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa in 1975, the federal government neglected this illicit marriage. Since 1975,the FBI, Department ofJustice,and other federal agencies have pursued a relentless battle against labor racketeering in mobbed-up unions all over the country.This struggle continues today.

    Mobsters, Unions, and Feds is the first book to tell the full story of the relationship between organized crime and organized labor,as well as recent federal efforts to clean up unions. One of America's leading experts on the mafia, James B. Jacobs explains how the Cosa Nostra families first gained a foothold in labor during violent struggles between workers and employers in the early twentieth century, then after Prohibition's repeal,made labor racketeering its top priority. Jacobs also outlines the failure of law enforcement to address the problem, especially the inaction of the FBI under J.Edgar Hoover.

    Since Hoover's death and Hoffa's murder, the U.S.Department of Justice has aggressively prosecuted many of the mafia's activities using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute. Jacobs places the federal efforts to liberate the unions in the context of this larger war, which has sent hundreds of organized crime members and bosses to prison. Though there have been some impressive victories, there have been many frustrating defeats in a struggle that continues to this day.

    No comments: