Archive: Working-Class Perspectives
-
WCP: Everybody Knows About Alabama
The 1963 KKK bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham resulting in the death of four adolescent girls inspired Nina Simone to write protest songs. Decades later, Doug Jones made the successful prosecution of two of the bombers part of his Alabama U.S. Senate campaign against Roy Moore. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Sherry Linkon and John Russo discuss how history, politics, and culture are woven together in Christina Ham’s play with music, Nina Simone: Four Women.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Making America White Again: Trump’s Pardon of Joe Arpaio
The aggressive tactics that Joe Arpaio used against immigrant workers as Maricopa County Sheriff were not only racist, they also reflect class bias. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Mary Romero explains how Trump’s pardon of Arpaio normalizes xenophobia in law enforcement and leaves undocumented workers vulnerable to abuse.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: #SaveTPS: A Working-Class Struggle
Congress must act by the end of this week to save DACA, but they also face a deadline on another program that has helped immigrants from countries struggling with war, disasters, and environmental emergencies – Temporary Protected Status (TPS). In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, KI’s Jessica F. Chilin-Hernández explains why TPS matters for workers and for her own family.
Categories: Our Staff, Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Working-Class Women Unionists on the Front Lines
Working-class women are becoming the face of the labor movement in Australia and inspiring unions to fight for feminist issues. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Sarah Attfield profiles three women unionists at the helm of the worker struggle in Australia.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Social Class and Trump Voters
More than a year after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, journalists are still making sense of the role of social class in the outcome. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Jack Metzgar focuses on a recent Politico article that made waves to show how reporters often misdefine “the white working class,” leading many progressives to learn the wrong lessons from Trump’s election.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: The Precariat: Why a Basic Income is Vital
As work becomes increasingly unstable and insecure, economic inequality balloons. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Guy Standing makes the case for a universal basic income with supplements for disadvantaged groups as the only sustainable solution.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Economic Nationalism and the Half-Life of Deindustrialization
Four decades ago a major mill in Youngstown shut its doors, setting of a massive process of deindustrialization in the Rust Belt that still stings working people. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Sherry Linkon and John Russo trace today’s politics of resentment to the economic changes that disrupted places like Youngstown 40 years ago.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Calling Luther to a Labor Ethic
On the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, we contemplate the relevance of religious history on today’s working-class issues. Ken Estey explores the link between Luther’s claim for the spiritual equality of all people and the so-called Protestant work ethic, arguing for a new ethic to address labor the exploitation of labor in the spirit of Luther’s calls for reform.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Equal Opportunity Is Not Enough
There has been no shortage of explanations and proposed solutions to America’s growing class divide. A recent effort by Richard Reeves’ Dream Horders expands blame from the top 1% to the top 20% of incomes for manipulating the system to benefit their children. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Jack Metzgar critiques Reeves’ solutions for reflecting classist attitudes and neglecting transformational policies to generate shared prosperity.
Category: Visiting Scholars
-
WCP: Race AND Class, Then and Now
The events that took place in Charlottesville and the President’s refusal to denounce white supremacists has led many to interpret current political tensions as rooted in racism, particularly among the white working class. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, KI affiliate faculty member Sherry Linkon discusses how the film Detroit, portraying the 1967 uprising in Motor City, and the white supremacist march in Charlottesville both reflect the intersection of race and class. Prof. Linkon insists that to make lasting social change, we must advance both economic justice and racial justice.
Category: Visiting Scholars