The right’s obsession with union-busting is nothing new; sadly, neither is the Democratic Party’s indifference to it. For 35 years, Democrats have ignored, acquiesced in and even supported the dismantling of the American labor movement. Believing that demography is destiny, big data is strategy and framing is persuasion, the liberal elite cast off the working class. Read More
It’d be more than alarming and resoundingly condemned if any institution in the United States tried to take our country back to the days before Dred Scott, or to when people of color in this country fell under the racist and dehumanizing “three-fifths rule.” But the Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Read More
Making money off illness is sickening. Depriving the needy of life-saving healthcare should be criminal. Last month, I lost my too-young-to-die sister to a BRCA#1 breast cancer. When I was a toddler not yet in kindergarten, breast cancer robbed me of my mother. I am a BRCA#1 gene carrier, and recently wrote about it in my memoir, Raising Expectations and Raising Hell. Read More
Last year Sarah Jaffe wrote a piece on 6 Ways to Juice Up the Labor Movement. The following is my answer to her question. McAlevey points out that the entire structure of work has changed over recent years. That means that there are many workers who don’t see how unions could work for them, and who have to be reintroduced to the entire concept of unions. Read More
Laura Gottesdiener writes about seven fights for workers that show a return to militant direct action. While much of the news cycle this year was dominated by the presidential election, a quick look back at worker protests in 2012 reveals a historically significant series of labor struggles. Building off the momentum established by the 2011 Wisconsin teachers’ union occupation of the state capitol, 2012 saw a building number of direct actions by workers—particularly in non-unionized, low-wage professions. Read More