Sanders or Warren? Populist-Progressivism or New Deal? Take Your Pick!
Political commentators regularly identify both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as populists. Labor historian Leon Fink dives into the debate over their roots.
posts categorized asLabor History
Dawson Barrett on His New Book, The Defiant
Joseph Walzer recently interviewed Dawson Barrett on his new book, The Defiant: Protest Movements in Post-Liberal America, a book that looks at the period from 1980 to the present through the lens of dissent—through the picket lines, protest marches, and sit-ins that are often overlooked.
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The Fight for Good Jobs and a Democratic Economy
Jonathan Kissam, historian and Communications Director for United Electrical Workers Union, digs into the past for some ideas for the future, in a post originally written for their website blog.
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Former LAWCHA President Nancy MacLean Testifies in Senate Hearing
I was invited by Senators Whitehouse and Stabenow and the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee to open a hearing entitled “After Janus v. AFSCME: Why Teachers and Workers are Fighting Back Against the Secret Money Campaign to Take Away Their Rights.”
Read more →New Teaching Labor’s Story Guide: Triumph of the Paraprofessionals, August 22, 1970
Nick Juravich’s new TLS guide is an op-ed written by civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin on the signing of the first union contract for paraprofessional educators (classroom and school support staff) in New York City. It was published in the New York Amsterdam News, the city’s largest black-owned newspaper.
Read more →Margo Price, “Pay Gap”: Labor Song of the Month
While Margo Price’s concerns are political through and through, she isn’t hosting any pity parties. Many of her songs rock, countering the sobering lyrics.
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Stamford Workers Show How to Transform Our Unions and Rebuild the Labor Movement
Chad Pearson: Andrew Tillett-Saks has given LAWCHA permission to re-publish this inspiring essay from Truthout. It is an excellent reminder of the long history of managerial bullying and the ways expressions of solidarity from below can successfully challenge these thugs.
Read more →Labor History Today: Week of February 4, 2018
Union City’s Chris Garlock hosts, with Joe McCartin, Lane Windham and Julie Greene.
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Rethinking the American Labor Movement with Liz Faue
Liz Faue’s new book, Rethinking the American Labor Movement, is our field’s newest attempt to reinterpret U.S. Labor History. I asked her a to tell us a little bit more about the arc of her interpretation.
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Worker Portraits: Contradictions and Contingency
Paintings and sculptures often represent those with power, not the working class. Yet, a current exhibit at Washington, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery, “The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying America’s Workers,” not only highlights workers, it also invites us to consider the contradictions of work and how it has changed.
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