“There is much talk about ‘audacity’ these days, but true chutzpah is when the workers take over the factory and take on the bank. Kari Lydersen’s invaluable account of the Republic sit-down strike is an instruction manual for worker dignity.”

—Mike Davis, author of Buda’s Wagon and City of Quartz

December 5, 2008: It wasn’t supposed to work like this. Days after getting a $45 billion bailout from the U.S. government, Bank of America shut down a line of credit that kept Chicago’s Republic Windows & Doors factory operating. The bosses, who knew what was coming, had been sneaking machinery out in the middle of the night. They closed the factory and sent the workers home. Then something surprising happened: Republic’s workers occupied the factory and refused to leave.

Kari Lydersen, an award-winning Washington Post reporter, tells the story of the factory takeover, elegantly transforming the workers’ story into a parable of labor activism for the 21st century, one that concludes with a surprising and little-reported victory.

THE LIVE BOOK: Revolt on Goose Island grew out of the “live book” series hosted by MobyLives, the Melville House blog. For the series Kari Lydersen tracked unfolding events in the Republic Story and reported daily on the takeover. Click here for all posts from that series. The book component of the project was reported and written from the start of the occupation in early December 2008 through mid-April 2009.

Free and open to the public.
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