February 20, 2024
It involves a lot of math. And people are averse to math. And it involves thinking about something that’s unpleasant— getting old. So people are kind of in denial. They just sort of let it ride. Let it go. Let it go….
February 20, 2024
The widespread shortfall in retirement income is the result of a bipartisan effort going back decades to move our savings away from traditional pensions to accounts like 401(k)s that enrich the financial services industry at our expense.
February 20, 2024
The ongoing debate about reviving the U.S. labor movement tries to grapple with the devastating decline in the union membership rate from one-third of the workforce in the 1950s to less than 11% today. In this discussion, occasionally a book comes along that is a great combination of labor history, thoughtful analysis of union organizing, and suggestions for ways forward. Shaun Richman’s “Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century” is such a book.
February 20, 2024
Yates takes a decidedly unorthodox approach. He spends a fair amount of time explaining the importance of reclaiming common spaces and “commoning” practices….
February 20, 2024
“It’s the best program we have probably adopted in this country, certainly beloved by many people. But I wanted to say this to our audience, that — much of our audience is younger than I am — this is going to sound, on its face, boring, but this is one of the most important shows that we’ve done for you.”
February 20, 2024
‘Radical Seattle’ identifies the IWW as a catalyst for the germination of a class consciousness that encouraged individual laborers to recognize a kinship in their struggle and respond collectively.
February 20, 2024
It is a promising thing when a book titled Can the Working Class Change the World? feels current amid national and global upheaval, despite having been published two years ago….
February 20, 2024
“….Don’t read ‘Tell the Bosses We’re Coming’ expecting to find a “how to” list of the steps you must take to build power in your union or you’re likely to be disappointed. Instead, read it to be challenged to explore the ways your union, your Central Labor Council, your state federation, and the whole labor movement is narrowing the avenues for worker power in the United States. And then start working to broaden them.”
February 20, 2024
Throughout ‘Can the Working Class Change the World? ‘Yates demonstrates that “Capitalism is a system of stark individualism.” Only radical thinking and acting, he argues, “have any chance of staving off accelerating levels of barbarism.” Therefore, in the last part of the book, Yates offers suggestions about what organisations can do in the class struggle, pointing out that “the ‘I’ must be suppressed and the ‘We’ must come to the fore”…
February 20, 2024
….not concerned to diagnose the cause of workers’ problems, Richman’s analysis implicitly centers work law as the principal culprit responsible for the labour movement’s predicament. He makes a strong case that labour law, rather than balancing the power disparities between employees and employers and protecting worker rights, has instead become a ‘trap’ favoring bosses and impeding worker organization. He deftly analyzes the teeth in the trap…
