''The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions'' is a book by American politician

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

(assisted by John Seigenthaler) first published in 1960, and republished in 1994.

Edwin Guthman Edwin O. Guthman (August 11, 1919 – August 31, 2008) was an American journalist and university professor. While at the ''Seattle Times'', he won the paper's first Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1950. Guthman was third on Richard Nixon ...

, chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial provided the introduction to the 1994 edition. As Robert Kennedy was intimately involved, the book is somewhat autobiographical. The work details events and information uncovered between 1956 and 1959 by the

United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (also known as the McClellan Committee) was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957,Hilty, James. ''Robert Kennedy: Broth ...

in which Kennedy served as chief counsel. The book focuses on corruption, crime and graft within American labor unions, with an emphasis on

International Brotherhood of Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...

, as well as

union busting Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace. Union busting tactics can refer to both legal and illegal activities, and can range ...

by employers. Kennedy describes the Teamsters as the most powerful institution in the United States aside the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

itself (1994, p. 161). According to Robert Kennedy,

George Meany William George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American labor union leader for 57 years. He was the key figure in the creation of the AFL–CIO and served as the AFL–CIO's first president, from 1955 to 1979. Meany, the son ...

, former president of the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

, has called Jimmy Hoffa organized labor's No. 1 Enemy (1994, p. 161). In 1961,

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

bought the film rights to ''The Enemy Within''.

References

Works by Robert F. Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy Political books Trade unions in the United States 1960 non-fiction books Jimmy Hoffa {{US-poli-book-stub