In 2005, the nuber of workers organised in unions reached a 100-year low in both the public and private sectors in the US, even though more and more people would like the protection of a union and real wages for most people have stagnated or declined since the early 1970s. Sharon Smith shows how a return to the fighting traditions of US labour history, with their emphasis on rank-and-file strategies for change, can turn around the labour movement.