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New Labor Forum Highlights: June 27th, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

With this newsletter, we offer commentary and labor news on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster musical, Hamilton. Haven’t seen it? Odds are most of you haven’t, but that won’t stop anyone from having an opinion of Miranda’s lyrical prowess and its ‘true’ political meaning. We’ll begin with a clip of Miranda performing Hamilton Mixtape at the White House back in 2009, when the show was still being written.

Donatella Galella and James McMaster both offer critiques that capture a central dilemma: while Hamilton exalts the working-class origins and anti-slavery sympathies of its central character, it also elides Hamilton’s anti-democratic views and Wall Street founding role and furthers the immigration myth of a lone hero overcoming all odds by his exceptionalism and hard work. It was recently announced that the cast of Hamilton will host a special show for the Clinton campaign, as part of a commitment to fighting Republican nominee Donald Trump. It’s ironic, since Trump could likely stand behind most of the political messages present in the musical. Since we thought it would be of particular interest to our subscribers, we’re also including an article from the New York Times by Michael Paulson about recent labor negotiations between the show’s producers and the cast over profit sharing.

Finally, we include a review by Sherry Linkon of two recent plays with working-class characters and conflict at their center: Lynn Nottage’s Sweat and Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew Both plays depict‘tenuousness of solidarity, the persistence of divisions around race and class, and the injuries of economic insecurity’, and serve as a reminder that workers and their experiences matter.

Contents:

  1. Video: Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam
  2. Racializing the American Revolution Review of the Broadway Musical Hamilton/ Donatella Galella
  3. Why Hamilton is Not the Revolution You Think it is/ James McMaster
  4. ‘Hamilton’ Producers and Actors Reach Deal on Sharing Profits/ Michael Paulson, NYT
  5. Review of 2 plays: Lynn Nottage’s Sweat and Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew/ Sherry Linkon

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik via flickr (CC-BY-NC-SA)

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New Labor Forum Highlights: June 13th, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

As of this writing, the the Presidential Primary season is in effect over; we know that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee and that she will face Donald Trump in the general. But the fascination with the Bernie Sanders campaign continues, as detailed by Bob Master, Political Director for Region 1 of the Communication Workers of America, writing about the lessons the labor movement can learn.

To discuss the future prospects of the movement inspired by the Sanders campaign, thousands of unionists and progressives will gather in Chicago this weekend at The People’s Summit. The Murphy Institute’s Sean Sweeney will be speaking on energy democracy and climate justice, and New Labor Forum’s Charles Lenchner will be moderating a panel on the future of democratic socialism.

Other progressives, most notably Senator Elizabeth Warren, are now attempting to make the case for Hillary Clinton to Sanders supporters. We include here such an argument by The Nation’s David Cole in defense of Clinton’s incrementalism.

Finally, Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times offers a detailed analysis of what Sanders hopes to achieve by staying in the race.

Contents:

  1. Bernie Sanders, Labor, Ideology and the Future of American Politics by Bob Master
  2. The People’s Summit by Charles Lenchner
  3. The Progressive Case for Hillary Clinton’s Incrementalism by David Cole
  4. Isn’t the Primary Over? Why Bernie Sanders Won’t Quit, by Nicholas Confessore

Photo by Gage Skidmore via flickr (CC-BY-SA)

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New Labor Forum Highlights: May 31st, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

In this week’s newsletter, we begin by taking a closer look at workers in the energy industries. New Labor Forum columnist Sean Sweeney examines the deep environmental rift in the U.S. labor movement, with the building trades promoting continued coal, oil, and gas extraction and transport workers, nurses, service employees, and a growing number of other unions pushing to end our dependence on fossil fuels. However, Sweeney points to signs that many members and leaders in the Trades appear uncomfortable playing the role of attack dog for fossil fuel interests. Although not imminent, a realignment for  “energy democracy” and environmental sustainability may be possible.

Environmental activists and labor leaders around the globe will be keeping a close eye on  Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) after its recent convention resulted in the introduction of the Leap Manifesto and its “ambitious vision for a nobody’s-backyard approach on pipelines.” We’ve gathered a few articles and perspectives for you to learn more about what’s brewing in Alberta, home to the Tar Sands and location of the NDP convention.

Contents:

  1. Contested Futures: Labor After Keystone XL by Sean Sweeney
  2. The Leap Manifesto 
  3. VIDEO: Avi Lewis talks about The Leap Manifesto
  4. The Leap Manifesto, and where the NDP will land by Jason Markusoff, (MacLean’s)

Photo by kris krüg via flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND)

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New Labor Forum Highlights: May 16th, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

The Annual Summer Inequality Jump Is Nigh

Can we blame summer for inequality? Not quite. But summer is when young people are particularly desperate for jobs, recent graduates are staring at their first student debt bills, and are signing market rate leases for the first time.

It might not be fair to blame the warmest and most vacation-laden of the seasons for inequality, yet it’s a good lens for understanding some of the systemic factors at work. It matters that we draw attention to them, as a way of pushing back against schemes that only treat the symptoms, instead of root causes.

While increasing numbers of college students will be graduating with jobs this summer, it is also true that more of them will be facing a triple trap. The cities with the most opportunities, like New York and San Francisco, are also home to growing numbers of young people trapped in the gig economy, made up of freelancers with few rights and low pay. Meanwhile, this generation has ever larger student debt bills, and even faster increasing rents. Welcome to Millennial hell: low pay, unstable employment, debt you can’t pay, and impossible rent.

And while it may be true that most young people get by, somehow, it’s also the case that those who graduated into a recession will be feeling the ill effects for years to come. Recent graduates in the gig economy will be meeting quite a few from the classes of 2009, 2010, 2011 and so on, whose career prospects took a hit then.

As bad as this is on average, we need to remember that the average masks even greater inequalities. African Americans, including college graduates, continue to be unemployed at twice the rate of their white peers. And women on average still earn less than men – a problem that gets worse as the years go by.

Summertime, but these economic realities mean few of us will rise up singing, instead many will enter the ranks of the precariat, with diminished opportunities and that next step in a gray zone of uncertainty. This issue of Highlights is dedicated to our long, hot, precarious summer, and those who still need support to get by.

View on site

Contents:

  1. Indentured Studenthood: The Higher Education Act and the Burden of Student Debt by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
  2. To Be Young and Unemployed by David S. Pedulla
  3. The On-Demand Economy Is Transforming Summer Jobs by Alina Dizik, WSJ

Photo by Yasmeen via flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND)

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New Labor Forum Highlights: May 2nd, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

The May 2016 issue of New Labor Forum is hot off the press and shipping now!  It includes articles you won’t want to miss: Feeling the Bern: An Analysis of the Sanders Phenomenon by Tom Gallagher; The Black-Labor-Left Alliance in the Neoliberal Age, by Adolph Reed; Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of the Chilean Labor Movement, by René Rojas; The Marikana Massacre: Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in South Africa, by Rajendra Chetty; Class Struggle in Robot Utopia, by Peter Frase; and much more, including a fascinating book review in which Rachel Sherman takes us behind the scenes with the one percent, examining two pop culture books: Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir by Wednesday Martin, and The Nanny Chronicles of Hollywood by Julie Swales and Stella Reid.

Contents:

  1. Feeling the Bern: An Analysis of the Sanders Phenomenon, by Tom Gallagher
  2. The Black-Labor-Left Alliance in the Neoliberal Age, by Adolph Reed
  3. Behind the Scenes with the One Percent, Reviewed by Rachel Sherman
  4. There Is No Such Thing as the Moment of Death, by Marilyn Krysl
  5. Subscribe to the New Labor Forum Journal
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New Labor Forum Highlights: April 18th, 2016

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

This week’s Highlights focuses on the Fight for $15. We begin with New Labor Forum consulting editor, Stephanie Luce, who places the wage gains in context of the larger, global fight to stop the erosion of worker power and answers critics who claim that the United States cannot afford a $15 minimum wage. We also encapsulate information we think everyone should want to know about the differences between the recent New York and California wage increases,  and the positions of each of the five 2016 Presidential candidates on #FightforFifteen. Next, we have a video clip from a panel at the Murphy Institute where Fight for $15 Organizing Director Kendall Fells describes how thousands of workers least expected to rise up are doing so to demand what no one thought possible: $15 an hour for fast-food workers. We conclude with two pieces about the massive day of action, April 14, 2016, for the Fight for $15. The first is a video from Fight for $15 that shows the scope of involvement around the globe. And we close with an article about Jeffrey Pendleton, to whom the day of action was dedicated.

Contents:

  1. And a Union: Minimum-Wage Victories and The Fight for Worker Power by Stephanie Luce
  2. Comparing New York and California’s Wage Increases
  3. The Presidential Candidates on #FightforFifteen
  4. VIDEO: Kendall Fells on the Fight for $15
  5. VIDEO: Fight for $15 April 14, 2016
  6. When Wages Lead to Jail and Death

Photo by Mark Dixon via flickr (CC-BY)