Writing
Organizers with substantial, direct experience in the field have an entirely different focus than authors who have not been involved in campaigns: we focus on how the work gets done (methods), and how to win.

keystone pipeline demonstration

Nation Conversations: Building a Real Blue-Green Alliance

The labor-environmental partnership, or, more colloquially, the blue-green alliance, has fallen into a state of disrepair. Even though pro-union environmentalists and a few unions worked together to fight the Keystone XL pipeline, the two camps ultimately remain divided, to their own detriment. In this episode of Nation Conversations, Jane McAlevey joins executive editor Betsy Reed to identify the failings of both sides and the types of solidarity that could help them combine forces. Read More

The Nation: Labor’s Last Stand

I’ve penned another piece for The Nation titled “Labor’s Last stand” Emboldened by November’s election results, corporations and their right-wing allies have launched what they hope will be their final offensive against America’s labor unions. Their immediate target is government workers’ unions. While New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie has gained national fame by beating up on public school teachers, the threat to unionized workers is playing out in all fifty states, to the drumbeat in the media about states going broke because of government workers’ wages, pensions and benefits. Read More

Nation Conversations: Why Unions Are Not the Problem

This week, thousands of public employees, students and their allies flooded Wisconsin’s streets to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plan to take away workers’ right to collective bargaining. This very public display of workers’ power is a much-needed reinvigoration of a beleaguered labor movement, and as Jane McAlevey outlines in her article in this week’s issue of The Nation, could be the first step toward rebuilding an ethical American economy. Read More

Nation magazine cover, 12/20/2010

The Nation: Making Unions Matter Again

I recently published a cover story in The Nation title “Making Unions Matter Again” Union organizers–paid staff and rank-and-file workers–should begin to take to the doors and begin to meet hundreds of thousands of workers and galvanize a movement to demand economic justice. If unions do this with unorganized workers and together they win campaigns, it’s more likely these same workers will consider unionization to be a good option in their work life. Read More

AlterNet: Don’t Just Mobilize – Organize

Don’t mourn — organize! The classic union motto. So simple. We all agree with it, right? It is not something we need to seriously reflect on, right? We can just print it on a placard and stick it up on the wall by the coffee machine, right? Wrong. In fact, for the past few decades the progressive movement has worked under a different motto: Don’t mourn — mobilize! Read More