Daniel J. Clark is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public Humanities at Oakland University. This interview is based on his new book, Listening to Workers: Oral Histories of Metro Detroit Autoworkers in the 1950s (University of […]
unions
The Author’s Corner with Andrew E. Busch
Andrew E. Busch is Associate Director of the Institute of American Civics at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee. This interview is based on his new book, Ronald Reagan and the Firing […]
The GOP invited the head of the Teamsters to speak. The GOP is opposed to organized labor.
Yes, Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Yes, Republicans still hate labor. Timothy Noah explains at The New Republic: Let’s be clear. The Republican Party despises labor unions. Until recently it made little effort to hide […]
Sean O’Brien’s “return to Gompers”
As we have noted here, Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, spoke Monday night at the TNC (Trump National Convention) in Milwaukee. We covered that speech here and here. Over at Jacobin, Dustin Guastella, the director […]
Jonah Goldberg: “I wish the Teamsters president would call for Tesla to be unionized, just to see what happens.”
Commentator Jonah Goldberg had the line of the night: Here is some context. Donald Trump gave the keynote address on night one of the GOP convention to Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters. O’Brien was not there to endorse […]
The Author’s Corner with Jesse Chanin
Jesse Chanin is a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Coalition for Compassionate Schools. This interview is based on her new book, Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008 (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). JF: What […]
What happened to United Steelworkers Hall Local 1190?
Over at Compact, Alex Hogan, a speechwriter for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, remembers a Steubenville, Ohio union hall. A taste: Today, it stands—like many former businesses, homes, and churches in Steubenville—empty. The union hall is a victim of […]
The United Auto Workers now have deals with all three automakers
This is a significant victory for the working class and unions. Here is Alex N. Press at Jacobin: Forty-four days after occupying the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, in 1936, during the first sit-down strike, the United Auto Workers […]
Donald Trump goes to Michigan and speaks at a non-union factory
Donald Trump skipped Wednesday night’s GOP debate. Instead he went to Clinton Township, Michigan and spoke at a non-union auto parts factory. The day before Trump’s visit to Michigan, sitting president Joe Biden joined United Autoworkers leader Shawn Fain at […]
75% of Americans side with the United Auto Workers. Why aren’t more Americans in the streets as a show of support?
When the George Floyd was killed, Americans took the streets in protest. When Donald Trump was elected president, the #MeToo movement took the streets in protest. Why don’t we see similar uprisings in support of working class Americans fighting for […]
The Author’s Corner with William Riddell
William Riddell is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. This interview is based on his new book, On the Waves of Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Merchant Sailors, 1872-1924 (University of Illinois Press, 2023). JF: What led […]
For some at a 1933 civil rights conference, fighting racial oppression meant fighting class oppression
Over at Jacobin, historian Eben Miller tells the story of the 1933 Amenia conference. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted the event in Amenia, New York. W.E.B. Du Bois was co-organizer. Some of the country’s […]
The Author’s Corner with Mark Erlich
Mark Erlich is the Wertheim Fellow at The Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School and the retired Executive Secretary Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. This interview is based on his new […]
What would early 20th century Tampa cigar workers think about Ron DeSantis’s “working class roots”?
As Shawn Gude writes at Jacobin: “May Day is not a holiday for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, much as he might pose as a working-class champion. For a more robust vision of freedom, we can look to the Florida Socialists […]