One Big Union

The setting of Valerio Evangelisti's latest novel is the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century, when One Big Union meant a new conception of unionism, a common front to fight the power industry, more and more large and organized. Robert W. Coates is a mechanic who works in one of these industries. He is a young model citizen of good character, very religious and devoted to his family. The downside is that it cultivates a patriotism that borders on nationalism, as well as having some racial prejudice. And these are precisely the reasons that led him to work on behalf of the specialized agencies infiltrating unions and the labor movement. His assignment is to dissuade the workers to participate in strikes, inhibit their ability to associations so that the workers get back to discipline and productivity. Through the eyes of the protagonist, Valerio Evangelisti shows the beginnings of American unionism, with its tragic moments and events that happened over a half century. This work speaks of the great railroad strikes until the Wobblies, the innovative communication tools to unify the workers and extend the protests, such as multilingual leaflets, songs and cartoons. Valerio Evangelisti, with One Big Union, reveals the subtle mechanisms that have marked the history of espionage trade union in the United States.