Author Archives: Christopher R Martin

We Told You So: On Trade, the Working Class Was Right

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Christopher R Martin

It seems impolite to say “we told you so,” but the working class and labor unions were so unjustly maligned more than two decades ago—when they fought the push to expand unfettered global trade—that it seems more than fair to … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

How Government Statistics Define the Stories of the Working Class

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Christopher R Martin

One of my favorite media criticism works is British journalist and media professor Brian Winston’s “On Counting the Wrong Things.” He argues that the categories we use to count can themselves lead to misleading conclusions. Deciding to count the number … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Bringing Ourselves to Say “Working-Class”

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Christopher R Martin

Would it make a difference if this was called the Middle-Class Perspectives blog? Would the writers be discussing the same issues in the arts, in education, in politics, and the relationship between race, gender, and class if we were talking … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and the Media, Issues, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

After the Election: Finding Our Dignity and a Way Out of This Mess

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Christopher R Martin

It’s almost 50 years old, but the 1972 book The Hidden Injuries of Class by Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb accurately identified the problems of class in the U.S. that have fed the divisiveness of Donald Trump. If only we … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Contributors, Issues, Understanding Class, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Is There a Working-Class Cable News Channel?

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Christopher R Martin

The country just began its long march through caucuses and primaries toward the presidential election in November. How will this political story spin out on the major cable news networks, and what will it look like to working-class viewers? The … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

The News Media’s Blind Spots Covering the Working Class

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Christopher R Martin

At midnight on Sept. 15, 49,000 UAW-GM workers walked out on strike at locations across the country, a day after their 2015 collective bargaining contract with General Motors expired and the union declined to extend the provisions of the agreement. … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments