[What follows is an essay written in response to Michael D. Yates’ call for essays on work. — Ed.] I have a number of jobs. I homeschool a special needs child, I work part-time in a cat shelter, and I work part-time in our family business, a solo CPA practice. My husband works about […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
New Orleans:
The world watched as people of New Orleans were herded into the Superdome, only to find themselves in a wretched and unsanitary place with no food, water, or proper medical care. Those in areas of high flooding fled to their rooftops, begging rescue helicopters to airlift them to safety. Many died trapped in their […]
Keep the “Labor” in Labor Day: Remembering the Lowell Mill Girls
“In vain do I try to soar in fancy and imagination above the dull reality around me but beyond the roof of the factory I cannot rise.” — anonymous Lowell Mill worker, 1826 Lowell, Massachusetts was named after the wealthy Lowell family. They owned numerous textile mills, which attracted the unmarried daughters of New England […]
Labor Day Poses Hard Questions
It’s impossible to celebrate Labor Day 2005 without asking some hard questions: How organized is “organized” labor? How much of a movement is the labor “movement”? The last six weeks have torn away whatever shreds of clothing the emperor might have been wearing. We can deny the crisis no longer. In late July at the […]
Toward an Organized Left in the Labor Movement
The cold split that just occurred in the AFL-CIO has opened up a new page for US labor. As Bill Fletcher has observed in several excellent articles on the issue, the “debate” leading up to the split took place far over the heads of the members of the unions who pay the salaries of the […]
Let’s Put the Nature of Work on Labor’s Agenda: Part Four
[Author’s note: Let me repeat my invitation at the end of Part Three of this series. Readers are invited to submit short essays, about 1,000 words, about their work. What do you do? In what ways is your work satisfying? In what ways is it not? How could it be made better? Send your […]
The Sandinista Revolution and the “Fifth Freedom”
This month will mark the 25th Anniversary of the overwhelmingly successful Literacy Crusade spurred by the Sandinista Revolution. This article examines the various programs implemented during the revolution, the US reaction to the revolution, and Nicaragua’s present situation. Revolution On July 19, 1979 a broad-based popular revolution, inspired by the legacy of Augusto Cesar Sandino […]
Superman and a New Progressive Strategy!
When I was a child, I used to watch cartoons at home after school (I understand there is a debate about the wisdom of letting children watch TV. However, I am doing fine today). My favorite cartoon was Superman. Let me clarify. It was a little confusing watching Superman growing up in Puerto Rico. Although […]
Heading North, Looking South: Reflections on a Year in Venezuela
I can’t help but reflect on what I am leaving behind as I walk down the ramp onto the airplane that will carry me back to the US after nearly a year living in Venezuela. There exists the tendency — perhaps, common among people like me, raised and educated in the best private schools […]
Let’s Put the Nature of Work on Labor’s Agenda: Part Three
In Part Two, we examined the rapidly changing nature of post-secondary teaching, one of the two reasonably skilled jobs among the top ten jobs estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to show the highest job growth between 2002 and 2012. The other job is nursing. Job experts claim that there is a […]
A “Labor Intensive” Strategy for Building Workers’ Power
At noon on a beautiful June day in suburban Minneapolis, eighty-five women and men streamed out of the U.S. West corporate “campus” building, each one carrying a pink, lime green, or lemon yellow square. Each square bore a single letter in black paint. Laughing, they lined up in a particular order, spelling out “D-O-W-N-S-I-Z-I-N-G A-T […]
The Labor Movement: It’s More than We Bargain for
The battle over labor’s future is heading toward a showdown at the AFL-CIO Convention, beginning Monday July 25th in Chicago. But the confrontation pitting a team of insurgent unions led by the Service Employees International Union against the AFL-CIO establishment is shaping up to be organizationally bloody, but spiritually bloodless. We’re fighting for the heart […]
Ring-Tone Revolution in the Philippines
“Hello, Garci. . . . Will I win by one million votes?” is ringing on cellphones throughout the Philippines. It is the taped voice of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo talking with commissioner of elections Virgilio Garcillano, nicknamed “Garci” in May 2004 before the election results were announced. Arroyo did, in fact, win by a million […]
Let’s Put the Nature of Work on Labor’s Agenda: Part Two
In Part One, I argued that capitalism produces very few jobs that utilize fully our human capacities to conceptualize and perform work. Instead, most jobs are degraded and demand little of us. I noted that of the ten jobs projected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to show the greatest job growth between […]
U.S. Labor in Crisis: The Current Internal Debate and the Role of Democracy in Its Revitalization
[The following is a speech delivered by Jerry Tucker on March 12, 2005 at the conference on “Work and Social Movements in the United States” at University of Paris – Sorbonne (March 10-12, 2005). Tucker will report daily on the AFL-CIO 2005 convention in Chicago on July 25-28. — Ed.] There is today a rare […]
