The Chicago Teachers’ Strike Ten Years On: Organizing for the Common Good, Then and Now
Ten years ago, Chicago educators lit the fuse of what eventually became a national teachers’ revolt. Faced with Democratic Mayor
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austerity
A Passion for Teaching and a Vision for Change
Editor’s Note: For this article, New Labor Forum’s “Working-Class Voices” columnist Kressent Pottenger interviewed Jia Lee, a special education teacher
Read MoreIreland’s Energy System: The Historical Case for Hope in Climate Action
For thirty years, governments have been promising climate action. They seem incapable of undertaking the necessary major shifts in their
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Backstage with a Makeup Artist
Editor’s Note: For this article, New Labor Forum’s “Working-Class Voices” columnist Kressent Pottenger interviewed Cynthia O’Rourke, a makeup artist and member
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More Austerity Coming? Lessons from New York’s 1970s Fiscal Crisis
Photo caption: Andrea Vásquez, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) first Vice President, before heading to the May 18, 2020, caravan calling
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Motherwork Is Work: A Welfare Warrior Speaks
I raised three sons as a single mom on welfare when they were very young, and then again when they
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Going on Offense During Challenging Times
How collective bargaining becomes a revolutionary act.
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Organizing in a Brave New World
Austerity, growing inequality, and the economic and political domination of billionaires, bankers, hedge funds, and giant corporations make the current moment ripe for birthing a movement that can radically transform the country and the world. This is a time of great peril, but also of extraordinary opportunity and—yes—reasons for hope. The last four decades have been characterized by unrelenting attacks on the working class, the weakening of unions and the financialization of capitalism.
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Debtors’ Island: How Puerto Rico Became a Hedge Fund Playground
You could call it a perfect storm: a fiscal crisis converging with a deep secular economic decline.1 Once touted as the showcase of U.S.- led economic development, debt-strapped Puerto Rico is currently embroiled in a struggle for survival. During the mid-twentieth century, Puerto Rico grew at a rapid pace, betting on cheap labor, privileged duty-free access to the U.S. market, and tax incentives for U.S. companies. By the 1970s, however, the formula had lost steam and …
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The Greek Inquisition: International Finance, Syriza, and the Greek Labor Movement
Why has the new Greek government failed to accomplish so much of what it had promised? And where does that leave the Greek labor movement? The government’s and the labor movement’s problems stem from the same fact, which has endured since the February 2012 signing of the second bailout agreement: Greece is no longer a sovereign nation state.
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