I began teaching, at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, in 1969. I was twenty-three years old. Like all new employees, I had to fill out employment forms. One of them concerned my pension. I had to mark my expected retirement date. Everyone then considered sixty-five to be the normal retirement age, so I added… | more |
Radical Labor Education, Part 3: The Decline of the Left
In the United States, radical labor education had great vitality from the heyday of the Socialist Party and the IWW before the First World War until the end of the Second World War. In fact, much of the impetus for labor education came from the left, and a good deal of what was taught had… | more |
Radical Labor Education, Part 2
While unions are indispensable organizations of the working class, they are not likely to lead a radical social transformation. They face inherent constraints. First, unions may replicate already existing divisions within the working class. Many occupations are segregated by gender. Nearly all coal miners are men. A union of coal miners is unlikely, therefore, to… | more |