A few weeks ago, I was a guest on a radio show hosted by Ed Martin on KDVS in Davis, California. The Egyptian revolt was in full swing. I said: I know there's a lot…
Radical Labor Education, Part 4: Renewal?
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 had the champions of capitalism crowing that history had ended, that there was no alternative to the "magic of the marketplace." Historical developments since then have given…
Radical Labor Education, Part 3: The Decline of…
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,…
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…
Radical Labor Education, Part I
We are on our way to Amherst, Massachusetts, where I will be teaching a two-week course in labor economics to labor union brothers and sisters. I have been a labor educator for thirty years. I…
Us Versus Them: Laboring in the Academic Factory
[Note: This was first published in Monthly Review in January 2000. It was based upon a talk I gave to teachers at Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York. Noted scholar of education, Henry Giroux,…
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…
The recent defeat of the Scott Walker recall in Wisconsin, an election in which Walker soundly defeated the same Democratic challenger who ran against him when he became governor in 2010, has generated much discussion.…
Hoffa and Trumka Babble While The House of…
The Obama administration and powerful Democrats have been so consistently supportive of the demands of business, especially in finance, that their most liberal adherents have expressed disillusion. For example, some of our top labor leaders,…
Radical Economics: A Clearer Look at Things, Part…
The State Today there are many social scientists who believe that capitalism is gradually transcending the government, meaning that governments can no longer regulate and control capital accumulation. This view is incorrect. Capitalist economies developed…
Radical Economics: A Clearer Look at Things, Part…
Why Is Neoclassical Economics So Pervasive? When capitalist economies were new, the writers who attempted the first analyses of these economies were, for the most part, driven by a desire to understand things. They did…