We Need Class Politics to End Our Second Gilded Age
We talk with historian Matt Karp about how ending our great age of inequality will take a renewed working-class politics.
65 Articles by: Paul Prescod
Paul Prescod is a Jacobin contributing editor.
80 Years Ago Today, Disney Animation Workers Went on Strike
The Disney cartoonists and animators’ strike that began at a California studio on May 29, 1941, forever changed the labor standards of an industry — and inspired cultural workers to take greater ownership over their labor.
The Social Justice Unionism of Wendell Young III
The Philadelphia union leader Wendell Young III straddled the worlds of the labor movement born out of the New Deal and the social movements of the New Left. He believed that uniting these two worlds in struggle could transform the United States.
How Montana Unions Defeated a Right-to-Work Bill
Labor has suffered defeat after defeat in recent years, especially when it comes to the steady expansion of state-level right-to-work bills. But earlier this month, the state of Montana bucked that trend — by defeating right-to-work.
No One Should Be Able to Steal or Erode Workers’ Pensions
Workers’ pensions have been under attack for decades in the United States, so the passage of pension relief for over a million workers as part of the latest COVID-19 relief bill is a welcome development. Now we need to fight to defend and expand pensions for all workers.
New York’s Building Trades Unions Are Showing the Way Forward on Green Jobs
We can’t win and carry out a Green New Deal without winning building trades workers and unions to an environmentalist agenda that also benefits them. New York’s recently announced massive investment in offshore wind, high-speed rail, and more, backed by both labor and environmental groups, shows how it can be done.
Donald Trump Lied About Passing Pro-Worker Industrial Policy
In his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to bring back manufacturing jobs with good pay. Those promises were empty. But Democrats haven’t been much better on industrial policy recent decades. Socialists need to fight for a real industrial policy.
Trump Claims He’s Pro-Worker. But His Labor Board Is Trying to Destroy Worker Organizing.
Donald Trump tries to portray himself as pro-worker. Nowhere is this absurdity better exposed than in the decisions of his National Labor Relations Board, which have over and over again favored bosses rather than workers.
Save the USPS, Defend Democracy
The USPS is under assault at the very moment we need a functioning postal service to hold a free and fair election. We can defend electoral democracy by defending the post office.
Racism Isn’t an Unchangeable Fixture of American Life. We Can Dismantle It.
Thinking about racism as some kind of existential “original sin” that will always be with us no matter what we do, no matter what efforts we undertake to fight it, is a political dead end. Through organizing, we have struck blows against racism in the past — we can do so again today.
The Fight for Racial Justice Must Include Defending Public-Sector Jobs
As the financial crisis worsens, public-sector employment is coming under heavy fire — for black people in particular. Fighting budget cuts and layoffs in public-sector jobs like the post office and public transit must be an essential piece of the fight for black lives.
“You’ll Have Many Teachers Refuse to Go In”
With the push to reopen public schools amid a still-raging pandemic, many teachers are sounding the alarm. We spoke with one Philadelphia high school teacher who has been organizing his coworkers — and the end result may be a massive strike.
We Need a Jobs Guarantee Now More Than Ever
Unemployment in the US is skyrocketing, with the Federal Reserve predicting a long-term unemployment rate of 10 percent. Creating quality jobs for all who want it should be the chief concern of the federal government, not the bogeyman of inflation.
You Should Know More About A. Philip Randolph, One of America’s Greatest Socialists
As the Left attempts to chart a new course in the wake of the Bernie Sanders campaign, there’s no better time to learn from America’s most underrated socialist, labor leader, and civil rights legend, A. Philip Randolph.
“Black Capitalism” From Richard Nixon to Joe Biden
Joe Biden has been touting black capitalism as part of the path to racial equality. The strategy remains as futile today as when Richard Nixon pushed it fifty years ago.
Coronavirus Shows Us Why Occupational Health and Safety Is Life or Death for Workers
The power of organized labor won the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 49 years ago today. That victory has saved thousands of lives in workplaces across the country — but we need to think even bigger than regulatory reforms now.
When the Black Political Class Betrayed Black Workers
Martin Luther King Jr died supporting striking black sanitation workers in the South. Less than a decade later, a black Atlanta mayor and King’s own father were attacking that same group of workers and breaking their strike. Black urban governance is meaningless without a commitment to strengthening the public sector and rejecting the logic of austerity.
We Can’t Abandon the Building Trades Unions to the Right
Both Richard Nixon and Donald Trump have made cynical but shrewdly strategic appeals to building trades unions and their members. The Left needs a plan to win those workers back.
Black Voters Know Better Than the Pundits
The Root’s laughable rankings of the Democratic candidates on their approach to black issues — assembled by an anonymous panel of experts — show just how out of touch many pundits are with the actually existing black electorate.
The Emancipatory Past and Future of Black Politics
Our conceptions of black politics today are often monolithic and juxtaposed as separate from or even against democratic-socialist politics. But 75 years ago, black leaders and activists shared a broad consensus around the importance of the labor movement and multiracial class organizing for black liberation.