‘If unions are to maximise their influence in the 21st century they must build alliances with other organisations around economic, social and ecological concerns effecting humanity. This book shows it is possible to build the necessary coalitions to achieve this end.’
Jack Mundey, instigator of the 1970s Green Bans movement in Sydney
‘At last a scholar/activist who understands that coalitions are not merely a way of advancing union goals! Building on three successful coalitions in Australia, Canada, and the United States, Amanda Tattersall identifies three main mechanisms that lead to successful coalition formation between unions and community organizations: identifying common concerns, building organizational relationships, and finding the right scale. She shows how unions can transcend the narrow corporatism of ‘business unionism’ to return to the social movements they once were in a world that has become more complex and more indifferent to the needs of both workers and communities.’
Professor Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University
‘Amanda Tattersall’s book is the most insightful study of coalitions to date. It is not your typical gauzy view of coalition building, but offers a clear-sighted, practical road map to building more effective labor-community coalitions and in turn an opportunity to transform the labor movement.’
Jeff Blodgett, Executive Director, Wellstone Action
‘Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how to build the power of working people in a changing world, Amanda Tattersall’s book is at once timely, practical, inspiring and challenging. Combining analysis of action with useful theory, it provides an important new tool for activists everywhere—in unions or beyond them—who want to build sustained and sustaining coalitions that have the potential to change the world.’
Professor Barbara Pocock, Director, Centre for Work + Life, University of South Australia
‘Power in Coalition is a rare book by an even rarer writer — an organizer with extensive practical experience and a respect for the complexity of reality who also appreciates the importance of theory and the presence of useful patterns. Here you have the best of both worlds, practice and theory, woven together smartly, in clear and accessible prose.’
Co-Director, Industrial Areas Foundation/Senior Organizer Metro IAF
‘A fascinating insight into the potential for coalitions to restore the balance of power between governments and the communities they are supposed to serve.’
Julian Burnside AO QC
‘Amanda Tattersall shows that coalitions, though hard work at times, are the best means we have to rebalance power, beat poverty and injustice, and build a future that includes all of us, especially the weakest.’
Tim Costello AO, CEO, World Vision Australia
“Here is a book that looks at the lessons we all learned during the Big Box Living Wage campaign of 2006, as well as strategies from community labor coalitions in Australia and Canada as well. I don’t know of a more incisive and useful critique of coalition building. Amanda Tattersall has managed to identify the general rules we should be employing in the next big struggle, even as she tells an exciting war story of working families winning against the odds.”
Madeline Talbott, Lead Organizer Action Now and leader in Chicago’s Grassroots Collaborative
