- 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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Tag Archives: labor movement
Water from a Rock: Joe Biden and Working-Class Catholicism
Much hangs in the balance in these difficult days. The survival of our fragile, still relatively young multiracial democracy is menaced by a tsunami of disinformation and increasingly aggressive white supremacists who are abetted by allies in media and politics. … Continue reading
Bargaining for the Common Good Comes of Age
The week-long strike by the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) in January 2019 marked the most significant struggle yet in a movement by teachers and other public-sector workers called Bargaining for the Common Good. By striking over a long … Continue reading
Class and the Dignity of Work
In the week before Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown announced his “Dignity of Work” tour, with events in New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, and his home state, Ohio. The tour placed the working class at … Continue reading
The Global Working Class Fights Back
2018 has seen many working-class people around the world standing up for their rights and pushing back against injustice and inequality. Some of these fights have made the mainstream news in western countries, but many have not. As we reflect … Continue reading
Labor’s Day, More or Less?
With this post, Working-Class Perspectives celebrates its 10th anniversary. Since 2008, we have published 447 commentaries, and we’ve had more than 950,000 page views from readers around the world. Our pieces have been reposted on dozens of other sites, from … Continue reading
Posted in Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Wade Rathke
Tagged Labor Day, labor movement, living wage, Unions, working-class activism
2 Comments
This is Your Daughter’s Labor Movement
If there is going to be a revival of the U.S. labor movement, it’s likely that women are going to lead it. Women activists, especially young women of color, are doing much more than resuscitating traditional unions; they’re pushing boundaries … Continue reading
Women Hold the Keys to New Working-Class Prosperity
America rediscovered its working class during the 2016 election, and many Democrats and progressives now call for fresh policies to address the nation’s crisis of bad jobs and stagnant wages. Twenty-first century working-class prosperity, however, must involve a reinvigorated labor … Continue reading
Why Evangelicals Matter to the Labor Movement
Conventional wisdom tells us that all evangelicals must be anti-union because they are theologically and politically conservative. Therefore, you might assume, labor has nothing to gain from the sixty two million adult adherents of evangelicalism in the U.S. Yet evangelicals … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Labor and Community Activism
Tagged Class and Religion, Evangelicals, labor movement
3 Comments
The Future of Labor Unions and Community Coalitions
Over the last 30 years, the American labor movement has periodically gone through wrenching discussions of its failures to organize new workers and grow its membership. See, for example, “The Changing Situation of Workers and Their Unions” (February, 1985), “New … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, John Russo, Labor and Community Activism
Tagged activism, coalition building, community organizing, labor movement, labor unions, SEIU, Trumka
4 Comments