End of the day, this book is a bloody good read. Don’t be surprised if you open it after dinner and find yourself up til 3am, flipping the pages as fast as you can to find out what happens to a slimy gun smuggler turned professional union buster as exhausted shift nurses develop the courage to tell him where he can shove his intimidation tactics and blackmail. Read More
It’s easy to become disillusioned with the state of the labour movement. With unions immersed in rearguard actions and membership often seen as little more than an insurance policy, it’s fair to say that they are not the fighting organisations called for by the circumstances. It’s instructive, then, to look at what unions can be and can do in the present day. Read More
Sam Gindin wrote a really thoughtful review of Raising Expectations (& Raising Hell). It is hard to pick out any one paragraph, but I keep coming back to a key one near the end of his piece, where he says, “In this context, McAlevey’s book is timely and desperately needed because it convincingly demonstrates that the problem is not in the stars, but in ourselves. Read More
Sam Gindin: “In this context, McAlevey’s book is timely and desperately needed because it convincingly demonstrates that the problem is not in the stars, but in ourselves. If we as the Left can get our shit together, it is possible to build groups of workers into a social force in spite of the times. Read More
There’s a terrific new review of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) in the current issue of New Labor Forum. The signal strength of Jane McAlevey’s bracing, provocative, fantastic-read of a book is that in the act of reading it, you begin to feel the power that strong organizing can help create. Read More