Labor organizer and author Yvonne Martinez’s latest book, “Scabmuggers” (She Writes Press, September 16, 2025), is based on true events that occurred during her time at Harvard’s Trade Union Program in the 1990s.
An allegory for the way racism and misogyny have historically divided the labor movement, “Scabmuggers” shows how marginalized workers have to fight for their rights both within their union and without, and explores what it would take for us to unify under a common cause.
In this Five by Five, Martinez talks about the real-life inspiration for Ana, her own experience at the race union, and the challenges of marginalized workers and what they can do
Let’s begin with your time at the Harvard Trade Union and what you experienced there. What was that like?
Exhilarating at first. And it was really, really cold. I’m a working-class nerd woman of color; had to work my way through college and would now at Harvard, mid-career as a labor negotiator/organizer be able to have time to read, study and reflect with other labor leaders about the state of the labor movement. I looked forward to lectures from Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, James Green and others and discussions with labor leaders from all over the world.
Who is Ana and what is her role in the story?
Ana was my classmate, one of six women in a class of 30. She was from Rhode Island and went away on the weekends. She was a secretary for a teacher’s union and her dorm was across the hall from mine. A white woman, she was being stalked by a black classmate. She wouldn’t name names because she didn’t want to get anyone kicked out of the program. A group of us organized to protect her, including some sympathetic men. She played a key role in bringing us together. At the end of the program, she thanked me for teaching her how to fight. I thanked her for teaching me how to win.
What are the challenges facing marginalized workers today?
Less than 10% of the entire US workforce is organized into a union, down from a peak of near 40% during the 40s post-war boom. Each year that number gets smaller. The NLRA, National Labor Relations Act, was set up 90 years ago to protect American workers. However, it specifically excluded agricultural workers and domestic workers; jobs historically held by women and people of color, in a concession to the racist South; yet another legacy of slavery. It is no accident that it is still nearly impossible to organize in the South. The system was set up to protect white males in craft jobs.
How can workers "find a way out of no way"?
They can do what we have always done; find ways to resist and to build community at the same time. That’s what was remarkable about Ana, she, like our Scabmugger foremothers during turn of the century textile strikes used their wits to baffle police, hide weapons and protect one another. Ana kept finding ways to bring us together, with food and the award at our graduation when the white men in an effort to silence us, decided that there would be no class speaker. She was the everywoman worker. Her leadership grew as we fought back during the campaign. In the end she saw to that we had the last word at our graduation when the right-wing racists tried to silence us.
Is there a message you hope readers take from "Scabmuggers"?
I’d say it’s a message of hope. Anything is possible if you organize. What we face is a crisis and an opportunity to rebuild our institutions from the bottom up to reflect the multi-racial base of American workers. “In political life under Apartheid,” Kenny, our South African colleague said at our Harvard graduation, “We had no voice. In the union, we did. The union was the training ground where the disenfranchised learned to fight for democracy.”
In the worst conditions, they built power based on the only thing they had, their labor power. We can too.
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