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Working-Class Voices: First Person Accounts of Life and Work

A Passion for Teaching and a Vision for Change

July 2021 Kressent Pottenger austerity, education, equality, Labor, neoliberalism, women workers

Editor’s Note: For this article, New Labor Forum’s “Working-Class Voices” columnist Kressent Pottenger interviewed Jia Lee, a special education teacher

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Ireland’s Energy System: The Historical Case for Hope in Climate Action

May 2021August 2021 Sinéad Mercier austerity, climate change, environmental movement, green economy, neoliberalism, politics, privatization

For thirty years, governments have been promising climate action. They seem incapable of undertaking the necessary major shifts in their

Working-Class Voices: First Person Accounts of Life and Work

Backstage with a Makeup Artist

January 2021January 2021 Kressent Pottenger austerity, Labor, racism, social welfare, trade unions, unemployment, union democracy, women workers, working class

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

Featured Organized Labor & Worker Organizing U.S. Politics & Society

More Austerity Coming? Lessons from New York’s 1970s Fiscal Crisis

October 2020October 2020 Marc Kagan austerity, collective bargaining, COVID, economic crisis, Labor, neoliberalism, new york city, trade unions, working class

Photo caption: Andrea Vásquez, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) first Vice President, before heading to the May 18, 2020, caravan calling

Gender & Sexual Identity Working-Class Voices: First Person Accounts of Life and Work

Motherwork Is Work: A Welfare Warrior Speaks

September 2018February 2019 Pat Gowens and Kressent Pottenger austerity, poverty, social welfare, unemployment, women workers, working class

I raised three sons as a single mom on welfare when they were very young, and then again when they

Reverend N. José “Pepe” Wilkinson and other members of the Invest in San Diego Families Coalition at People’s Budget press conference in January 2017, calling on county supervisors to dramatically increase funding for services.

Featured Organized Labor & Worker Organizing

Going on Offense During Challenging Times

January 2018May 2018 Marilyn Sneiderman and Secky Fascione austerity, collective bargaining, community organizations, corporations, debt, education, finance, Labor, racism, trade unions, Winter 2018

How collective bargaining becomes a revolutionary act.

Featured Organized Labor & Worker Organizing

Organizing in a Brave New World

June 2016June 2018 Saqib Bhatti and Stephen Lerner austerity, capitalism, collective bargaining, community organizations, corporations, Fall 2016, neoliberalism, trade unions, working class

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

March 2016June 2018 Jennifer Wolff austerity, debt, labor unions, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico crisis, Puerto Rico debt, Puerto Rico debt crisis, Puerto Rico labor unions, Spring 2016

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 …

The Greek Inquisition: International Finance, Syriza, and the Greek Labor Movement

October 2015December 2015 Nick Toloudis austerity, debt, democracy, elections, Fall 2015, Greece, Syriza, trade unions

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.

White and African American males hold signs that read: "The Dress Shipping Clerks' Won't Cross the Picket Line. We Stand United with the Dressmakers Union!" 1958.

Featured On the Contrary The Environment

Green Capitalism Won’t Work

June 2015June 2019 Sean Sweeney austerity, capitalism, climate change, democracy, environmental, Spring 2015

For the last 20 years, unions in the U.S. and internationally have generally accepted the dominant discourse on climate policy, one that is grounded in assumptions that private markets will lead the “green transition,” reduce emissions, and stabilize the climate over the longer term. Indeed, unions began attending the climate negotiations convened by the UN in the early 1990s, a time when the “triumph of the market” went unchallenged and the climate debate was awash with neoliberal ideas. Unions therefore focused on articulating the need for “Just Transition” policies.

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