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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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Category Archives: Labor and Community Activism
Working Ourselves to Death: Why Increasing the Retirement Age is Bad
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
Labor Spring 2023: Making Campuses Platforms for Labor Renewal
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
Why Veterans in Labor Should Not Be Ignored
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 labor activism, Unions, Veterans in labor
1 Comment
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
Accompanying Staughton
Since his death last month, Staughton Lynd has been lionized in the national media as an icon of radicalism. Labor historians, leftist scholars, and long-time comrades have recalled his anti-war efforts, his writing about worker activism and radical history, and … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, John Russo, Labor and Community Activism
Tagged labor activism, Staughton Lynd, worker justice
1 Comment
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
Waving the Red Away: Working-Class Mobilization
By all historical measures, a week after the 2022 midterms, Republicans should have been partying on superyachts their own tide had lifted. But the big story is the failure of the red tidal wave to wash out the Democratic party. … 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
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