Category Archives: Nick Coles

Happy Valley: Cops, Killers, and Working-Class Community

  It begins with landscape, the look and feel of industrial West Yorkshire. The smaller towns nestle in valleys between green hills crossed by dry-stone walls and narrow roads.  The Calder Valley, where the river once powered the woolen mills … Continue reading

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Nick Coles | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Black Homes Matter: The Fate of Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh

“I live here.  I’m from here.  My whole family is here.   We try to stay close together.  This is America.  I’m a Marine, I went to war three times.  I served my country.  It feels crazy not to be able … Continue reading

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Nick Coles, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Steinbeck and the Refugee Crisis

“No home no job no peace no rest” — Bruce Springsteen, “The Ghost of Tom Joad” As a British immigrant to the US, one key difference I notice between me and most Americans is that I did not read The … Continue reading

Posted in Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Issues, Nick Coles, Understanding Class | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Class Meets Climate in Barbara Kingsolver’s Fiction

“In American life,” wrote Meridel LeSueur in the 1930s, “you hear things happening in a far and muffled way.” She was referring to the labor conflicts of the time, but she also suggests that awareness of class division and conflict … Continue reading

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Divestment Days and the “War on Coal”

Next weekend, February 13 and 14, hundreds of cities around the world will witness actions as part of Global Divestment Days, calling for an end to fossil fuel addiction and a transition to a clean-energy future. The Fossil Free coalition … Continue reading

Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Nick Coles | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Climate of Change: Students, Naomi Klein, and the People’s Climate March

I was one of the hundreds of thousands filling the streets of New York for the People’s Climate March, September 21, 2014. I was there with a dozen students from my freshman composition course, in which we are reading and … Continue reading

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The Pipeline and the Unions

The controversy over the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline has sharply divided the labor and climate movements. The KXL would provide a new direct route for the northern leg of the existing Keystone pipeline bringing Alberta tar sands oil to refineries … Continue reading

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Nick Coles, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A Tale of Two Cities and Two Activists

Climate change and increasing class inequities are two of the most pressing issues of our time.  How are policies and activism addressing these problems? Two young women working for progressive change in two mid-sized cities offer inspiring models, one from … Continue reading

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Climate Change and Income Inequality

People committed to struggles for peace and justice always have our work cut out for us.  The forces arrayed against us are powerful and determined, and the range of issues and crises demanding action is daunting.  Given our limited time … Continue reading

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Learning about Labor in London

I have been living in London for a month, as part of my university’s study abroad program.  (It’s a tough assignment, but somebody had to do it.)  As it happens, I am a Brit and lived here decades ago between … Continue reading

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Nick Coles | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment