Category Archives: Contributors

Biden’s Labor Initiatives and Organizers’ Challenges

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Is Joe Biden, as he claims, the best friend workers have had in the White House either ever or since Franklin Delano Roosevelt?  We could debate that all day, but the President and his administration at least deserve an “A” … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, The Working Class and the Economy, Wade Rathke | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How Their Silence Diminishes Us

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Dear [REDACTED], I’ve started this letter too many times. A few weeks ago, we stood at opposite ends of a small apartment. I’m new to being part of gatherings like this, so I watched warily from the sidelines of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Understanding Class | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Representing Post-Industrial Communities in Culture

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

I grew up on Merseyside in the 1980s and 90s, when this region around Liverpool found itself on the extreme end of the UK’s wave of industrial decline in that period. This had a profound effect on my working-class family … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Making Sense of Working-Class Work

Posted on May 15, 2023 by deindustrial

Forty years ago this July, I left school to start my first career as a railway worker. At sixteen and with few if any qualifications, I was lucky to find a good job which was fully unionised.  As the union … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Tim Strangleman, Work | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Time Is Not On Our Side

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Time is suddenly news.  How little we have, how much we want, and what we do with it for work or whatever.  Is this good news for workers?  Maybe for some, but probably just the same ol’, same ol’ for … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Wade Rathke, Work | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Class Ceilings

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Most of us have stopped believing in the myth of the meritocracy. The myth promises that the ablest or most intelligent or hardest working get ahead of the rest.  Most everyone realizes this is not true, yet we continue to … Continue reading →

Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Understanding Class | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Working Ourselves to Death: Why Increasing the Retirement Age is Bad

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Christopher R Martin

In France for the past three months, a million or more people have filled the streets of cities across the country in daily rolling protests and strikes opposing the national pension reform proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron. The plan … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and Health, Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Work | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Governor DeWine: It’s Never Too Late to Do the Right Thing for Ohio’s Workers

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, the time is always right to do the right thing. In a case where formerly unemployed Ohioans are seeking the reinstatement of pandemic benefits, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has the opportunity to prove he … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Marc Dann, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Labor Spring 2023: Making Campuses Platforms for Labor Renewal

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Everywhere you look this spring, you’ll find evidence that campuses are becoming sites of labor organizing and struggle.  In recent months, faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago staged recently a successful week-long strike, adjunct faculty at the New … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Joseph A. McCartin, Labor and Community Activism | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Why Veterans in Labor Should Not Be Ignored

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Working-Class Perspectives

Even in the era of identity politics, one category of identity has largely been ignored: what UK journalist Joe Glenton calls “veteranhood.”19 million former soldiers — most of them working class — share a strong sense of personal identity as … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Labor and Community Activism | Tagged , , | 1 Comment