NLF Highlights for February
From the forthcoming winter 2021 issue of New Labor Forum, an article by Andrew Ross, included here, argues that any effort to create a more just and sustainable future must elevate essential care work. Revealed during the pandemic to undergird the entire economy, this work largely remains mostly the obligation of women and people of color. To shine a light on the undercompensated real value of essential work, Ross compares it to the sort of highly paid work that offers little benefit to the broader society, and is performed largely by white workers. This better compensated work has also, to far greater extent, withstood the worst perils of the pandemic. Expanding the notion of care work and acknowledging its value, Ross suggests, should be the organizing principle for a new political economy.This reasoning is affirmed by movement leaders Dorian Warren and Judith Browne Dianis in the latest episode of Reinventing Solidarity. Their intriguing conversation with Deepak Bhargava focuses on progressive priorities for the first 100 days of the Biden administration, and takes place on the day after the inauguration. They discuss top legislative priorities and movement organizing strategies necessary to strengthen our democracy and make good on demands for racial and economic justice.
Table of Contents
- Is Care Work Already the Future? / Andrew Ross, New Labor Forum
- Reinventing Solidarity Ep. 9 – The First 100 Days: Policy Priorities for Labor & Social Justice Movements
- BLACK-LED ANTIRACIST UNIONISM: The Legacy of Ben Fletcher & I.W.W. / CUNY SLU Virtual Event, February 4th 12 -1 pm (ET)
It Care Work Already the Future?
by Andrew Ross, New Labor Forum
“PROTESTORS ARE ESSENTIAL WORKERS.” Among the multitude of makeshift signs I saw on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) marches of 2020, this one stuck in my mind. It was hastily scrawled on a scrap of cardboard and held aloft by a middle-aged Black woman, in a nurse’s uniform, who looked as if she was on her work break. Needless to say, she got a rousing cheer as we passed by. With this sign, she turned what was typically a one-way flow of appreciation for frontline workers as “heroes” into an alliance. By early June, when I saw her, it had become clear how and why Black lives mattered in workplaces like hers that were obliged to stay open during the pandemic lockdown.
Read the full article here
Reinventing Solidarity – Episode 9
The First 100 Days: Policy Priorities for Labor & Social Justice Movements
In this latest episode,
Professor Deepak Bhargava speaks to
Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of the Advancement Project, and
Dorian Warren, President of Community Change, about progressive priorities for the first 100 days of the Biden administration. They discuss top legislative priorities and movement organizing strategies necessary to strengthen our democracy and make good on demands for racial and economic justice.
Listen to the podcast
here
Thursday, February 4, 2021
12pm-2pm (E.T.) * via Zoom
Join us to discuss the important history of the brilliant Black labor leader, Ben Fletcher, who revolutionized anti-racist unionizing in the early 20th century. Peter Cole is joined by Kafui Attoh of CUNY SLU to discuss the legacy of Fletcher and his union, the I.W.W. #BlackHistoryMonth #BLM.
Featuring:
Professor – Western Illinois University
