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 year, International Women’s Day (March 8) is being celebrated in the U.S. at a higher pitch than usual. The election of Donald Trump has led to an upsurge in organizing and activism. In the last few months, we’ve witnessed the massive Women’s Marches in cities all over the country and, indeed, the world; a February 16th Day Without Immigrants and a less successful call for another general strike on February 17th; and the current call for a global women’s strike on International Women’s Day.
This newsletter opens with an informative and lucid overview by Diane Elson of the current global state of gender inequality, as well as policy recommendations to remedy the crisis. Elison’s article is provided here as a coming attraction to the May 2017 issue of New Labor Forum. The issues she raises form part of the animating spirit of the call for a Women’s Strike on March 8., organized by a coalition of women working closely with the venerable Global Women’s Strike, an international organization that has existed since 1972. Here we also offer the link to the promotional video for the strike.
General strikes, or days of action that are meant to resemble a strike, are gaining in currency. An example of recent experimentation with a general strike was the February 16th ‘Day Without Immigrants’, described here by Dan DiMaggio and Sonia Singh in Labor Notes. NLF editorial board member Nelson Lichtenstein addresses the meaningful difference between ‘weekend protest’ vs. ‘weekday strike action’ and why it matters, in No More Saturday Marches, published this week in Jacobin. We also include Francine Prose’s essay in The Guardian, offering a full-throated argument for the general strike as a tactic. And we close with Alexandria Neason’s meditation in the Village Voice – Is America Ready for a General Strike?
Table of Contents
- Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute Unpaid Care Work: How to Close the Gender Gap by Diane Elson
- Women of America: we’re going on strike.
- Video: International Women’s Strike US – Promotional Video
- Tens of Thousands Strike on Day without Immigrants by Dan DiMaggio, Sonia Singh
- No More Saturday Marches by NLF editorial board member Nelson Lichtenstein
- Forget protest. Trump’s actions warrant a general national strike by Francine Prose
- Is America Ready for a General Strike? by Alexandria Neason
