books

Tough Guys

Kenyon Gradert Dissent Magazine
The author enlivens a type of working-class society where capitalism compensates poor men with the role of tough guy, all in the writer's effort to "bring the left to life."The End of Eddy does so in a style both plainspoken and visceral, using Louis's own childhood trials--like his protagonist much abused as a gay kid in a dead-end factory town --as a window onto the pathologies of a cloistered working-class existence.

What Killed the Democratic Party?

William Greider The Nation
A new report offers a bracing autopsy of the 2016 election—and lays out a plan for revitalization.

Karl Marx Makes a Comeback

Kathy M. Newman Working-Class Perspectives
Suddenly, Marx is cool again, mainly because he was, and remains today, one of capitalism’s most astute critics. Happy Birthday Karl, and thanks.

labor

Women Hold the Keys to New Working-Class Prosperity

Lane Windham Working-Class Perspectives
A newly-mobilized working class could reshape the nation’s economic and political landscape. Women are the core of today's working-class, and that’s why women’s leadership – – especially among women of color — will be critical for that new working-class movement tp take shape.

How Can Democrats Win - Who is the Base; Problem of Working Class White Voters; Building a Winning Coalition; Learning Lesson from Ossoff Defeat

William E. Spriggs The American Prospect
Why the white worker theme is harmful. It’s a mistake to racialize an economy that harms the entire working class. What has happened to more whites now is that the market has moved past them as well. It took almost 40 years to get to this point, in the near term no recipe of policy fixes will sufficiently remedy the effects. Democrats need to focus on reversing those long-term trends, but also must have something to offer workers now.

Trumpism: It’s Coming From the Suburbs

Jesse A. Myerson The Nation
Racism, fascism, and working-class Americans. If you’re looking for Trump’s implacable support, Texas trailer parks and Kentucky cabins are the wrong places to find it. Fascism develops over hands of poker in furnished basements, over the grill by the backyard pool, over beers on the commuter-rail ride back from the ball game—and in police stations and squad cars.

Socialists and Immigration

Duane Campbell Antiracismdsa
In spite of the economic boon for the wealthy, working people in the U.S. have yet to receive a significant improvement in their standard of living for over 30 years. At the same time, democratic forces are once again confronted with anti-immigrant campaigns. As socialists, we stand with and among the U.S. working class in opposition to the rule of the transnational corporations and their exploitation of the economy and despoliation of our lives, society and environment

The Working Class at the Oscars

By Jack Metzgar Working-Class Perspectives
Fences was not alone among Oscar nominees this year in representing working-class life in uncharacteristically sympathetic and insightful ways. Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, and even Hell or High Water all have extraordinary moments of insightful observation like this. Though each falls under more common rubrics, each is alive to the complexities and bravery of living life within insuperable limits.
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