labor history

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  7/7/2023
  

  Child Labor Was Essential to Early Capitalism—Don't be Shocked it's Coming Back

  by Steve Fraser

  As employers seek new possibilities to exploit labor, state legislatures are going back to the future with rollbacks of child labor bans. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  7/10/2023
  

  Nelson Lichtenstein on a Half Century of Labor History

  The eminent labor historian discusses his political roots, the evolution of labor studies, and the state of movements for economic democracy. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  6/22/2023
  

  Will Solidarity Among Hollywood's Unions Make this Strike Different?

  by Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller

  A historic pattern of rivalry among Hollywood's big unions representing writers, actors and set workers has limited their ability to win against the industry. Support for striking writers suggests the big unions are getting on the same page. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  6/21/2023
  

  Michael Honey: Eig's MLK Bio Needed to Engage King's Belief in Labor Solidarity

  A historian and editor of MLK's speeches praises Jonathan Eig's new biography, but says that the importance King placed on labor solidarity as a foundation of social justice is a part of the story that needs to be understood today. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  6/14/2023
  

  Turning Universities Red

  by Steve Fraser

  American colleges were built to serve the children of elites and maintain the social order they dominated. Despite fears of liberal indoctrination on campus, growing labor movements including all workers are the only way that colleges will really make a more egalitarian society. 

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• SOURCE: Marketplace
  6/14/2023
  

  Blair L.M. Kelley Tells Black Working Class History Through Family

  When the historian set out to write the history of working-class African Americans, her own family's stories proved the best place to begin. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/13/2023
  

  New Book Says Cure for Girls in Crisis is Revolution

  Mattie Kahn's new popular history of girls' activism spans centuries and class and ethnic divides, showing the power of young women to change what they can't accept. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/30/2023
  

  WGA Strike Latest Example of Cultural Workers Joining Together as Entertainment Technology Changes

  by Vaughn Joy

  The development of television and online content have historically forced multiple Hollywood unions to join forces to secure a share of the returns of new techology or risk being frozen out entirely. 

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• SOURCE: Ohio Capital Journal
  5/31/2023
  

  Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike

  Ohio public sector unions say that a bill limiting faculty's power to strike is reminiscent of previous efforts to disempower public workers in the state, and are closing ranks around academic workers. 

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• 5/31/2023
  

  Ayn Rand's Defense of an Anti-Union Massacre

  by Greg Mitchell

  The screenwriter and novelist was inspired by the 1943 memoir of Republic Steel head Tom Girdler, in particular his refusal to apologize for collaborating with Chicago Police to crush a march of striking steelworkers and their families in 1937. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  5/25/2023
  

  "Salts" are Part of Labor's Fight to Organize. They were once Part of the Antiwar Movement

  by Derek Seidman

  Taking a job with the covert intention of organizing the workplace is a time-honored labor tactic that's back in the news. Some dedicated activists in the 1960s "salted" the U.S. military in the hopes of building an antiwar movement within the ranks. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/15/2023
  

  Hollywood Strikers Carry the Legacy of Ned Ludd

  by Gavin Mueller

  Our techo-utopian society holds the Luddites in low regard, but their actual history helps explain what's at stake in the screenwriters' strike and any labor conflict where new technology threatens workers' livelihoods. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
  5/19/2023
  

  The Writers' Strike Opens Old Wounds

  by Kate Fortmueller

  The plot of each sequel of negotiations between the producers and writers has followed a formula of compromise for mutual self-preservation. Technological advances have convinced studio heads that they no longer need the labor of writers enough to keep compromising. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/17/2023
  

  New Hampshire Honored its Native "Rebel Girl"—Until Locals Realized She was a Red

  Two weeks after the state installed a commemorative marker near Concord, New Hampshire, the state legislature removed the monument, with Republican members calling the honoring of the labor organizer "a slap in the face" because of her association with the Communist party. 

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• SOURCE: History Workshop
  5/11/2023
  

  Ayahs, Amahs and Empire: The History of Domestic Care Work under Colonialism

  by Julia Laite

  The history of domestic and child care work has become increasingly robust, but museums and public exhibitions have struggled to find ways to represent the work and experiences of women, many from south Asia, who traveled with white colonial families to perform this labor, putting marginalized people in charge of the empire's children. 

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• 5/7/2023
  

  Buried Footage Helped Chicago Police Get Away with Killing 10 Labor Activists in 1937

  by Greg Mitchell

  Paramount's newsreel division shot footage of the murderous attack on a steelworkers' march in 1937. They sided with the bosses by burying the footage. Even after Senator Robert LaFollette pushed for the film's release, cities banned it from the screen as Chicago prosecutors ruled the killings justifiable. A new documentary tells the story of the film. 

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• SOURCE: New Labor Forum
  4/28/2023
  

  Wins at Amazon and Starbucks Shouldn't Obscure the Hard Road Independent Unions Face

  by Erik Loomis

  The improvised and worker-led efforts to organize the new economy giants has led some commenters to proclaim the end of big labor. A labor historian says that workers still need the resources and support of legacy unions – if they commit to organizing new workplaces – to win against employers more determined than ever to bust unions. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/1/2023
  

  How Labor Won the Repeal of "Right to Work" in Michigan

  by Jennifer Standish

  Labor and its political allies must recognize the importance of state level legislation and coalition-building and resist the temptation to nationalize politics if they hope to repeat their success in Michigan and roll back the state-by-state advance of anti-labor legislation. 

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• SOURCE: Sojourners
  5/1/2023
  

  When a Leading Evangelist Held a Revival to Thwart Labor

  by Matt Bernico

  The events surrounding the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a Chicago general strike for the 8 hour day became violent, revealed tensions present in Christianity today: what happens when Christians side with the bosses? 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/18/2023
  

  Child Labor is Back; History Says Don't be Surprised

  by Beth English

  In an effort to attract investment from key industries, state governments in the south actively rescinded existing laws banning child labor, showing that there has been no straight line of progress on the issue.