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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
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Author Archives: Working-Class Perspectives
Fair Time Legislation Is Achievable, Not Just for Rail Workers But for Everyone
Even as President Biden signed legislation imposing a contract without paid sick leave on 115,000 rail workers, he made it clear that the fight for paid leave — not just for rail workers but for everyone — wasn’t over. As … Continue reading
Meeting Labor’s Moment
In my thirty years in the labor movement, I’ve never seen a moment quite like this one. We’re living through a pivotal moment for America’s working class and for the future of U.S. labor, but it’s more than that. This … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Lane Windham
Tagged labor movement
2 Comments
Which Side Are You On? Four Facts and Two Promising Prescriptions for Dampening Inflation
As mine owners and their goons terrorized striking miners and their families during the Harlan County Coal wars in 1931, Florence Reece penned the iconic labor song, “Which Side Are You On.” It pleads for unity and collective resistance. As … Continue reading
Deadbeat Creditors and Other Tales of Moral Hazard
Some twenty years ago, three years out of law school, my partner and I attended a friend’s wedding in New Jersey. Both of us had racked up a lot of debt and were struggling to find permanent jobs in NYC. … Continue reading
Democracy Is on the Ballot
“Democracy is on the ballot” must be the most ubiquitous phrase in political speechmaking and commentary during this election season. One can scarcely go a day without hearing it or reading it multiple times. It is a phrase repeatedly invoked … Continue reading
Working 9 to 5: Class Diversity and Clerical Organizing
“Get your 9 to 5 newsletter! Get your 9 to 5!” The early 1970s was a time of profound economic transformation. Women from across the class spectrum were flooding into the workforce by the millions. I was one of them. … Continue reading
Essential Workers Take Action
During the pandemic, the working class that had been invisible to many suddenly became “essential.” In some cities, people came on their balconies in their homes to applaud these workers whose jobs in food service, to health care, transportation, and … Continue reading
The Bear and the Contradictions of Work
Hulu’s series The Bear, oddly labeled as a comedy, takes viewers inside a hectic, crowded, struggling Chicago sandwich shop that Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen Wright) inherited from his brother, Michael, who committed suicide. The store is a chaotic mess and … Continue reading
Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, John Russo, Sherry Linkon, Work
Tagged contemporary work, great resignation, quiet quitting, The Bear
2 Comments
Working-class Academics in Poland: Translating working-class studies into the post-communist context
When I encountered Western working-class studies for the first time, I was a little bit confused. Being born in Poland a few years before the democratic change of 1989, I was raised to value Western culture over so-called “relics of … Continue reading
Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues
Tagged working class in Poland, working-class academics
1 Comment
Media War in Ukraine: Class and Gender
Like all physical conflicts, the current war in Ukraine is also an ongoing war of narratives, in this case one making heavy use of visual imagery. As they have played out, the threads of these narratives have a telling sequence … Continue reading
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