How Federal Reserve policies, the recession they triggered, and broader political and economic changes weakened workers’ power and helped usher in an era of extreme inequality.
A string of primary victories by DSA-backed candidates and other progressives—from New York to Michigan to Florida—is giving the Democratic left new leverage while putting its ambitious economic agenda back at the center of the party’s debate.
Fast-food workers’ protests around the country point up the gap between image and reality. From Slate; hat-tip TM. The idea is that post WWII, unions themselves helped create the image of workers as (white) male breadwinners in manufacturing jobs; now unions trying to organize fast-food workers have to overcome that mythology. The 1982 ad confounds this somewhat. Plus, the low-wage workers organizing across the country are doing a pretty good job of it--I think the media coverage has been great. Our annual labor issue (still in production) has a cover story focusing on that organizing, by sociologist Nicole Aschoff.
Last but not least: Richard Wolff in The Guardian: Organized Labor's Decline in the U.S. is Well Known, but What Drove It? He touches on key themes we address in our upcoming labor issue, including an interview with Barry Bluestone on Detroit's bankruptcy, and an article by Nancy Folbre on the economics of worker co-ops.
