Ruth Milkman teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center and at the Murphy Institute for Worker Education. She is the author of the forthcoming book On Gender, Labor, and Inequality.
A common view of the two major US labor federations of the 20th century is that the AFL was top-down while the CIO was bottom-up. In truth, the CIO’s success was owed to a potent mix of rank-and-file militancy and strategic leadership.
Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall, who died last Tuesday, was a pioneering figure of socialist feminism in the United States.
Its critics may disagree, but Occupy Wall Street’s legacy has been an enduring one.