This Moment: Labor Day
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
16 min read
The article specifically mentions UE as an exemplary rank-and-file union model. Learning about this union's unique democratic structure, its history of being expelled from the CIO during McCarthyism for alleged communist ties, and its survival as an independent union provides valuable context for alternative labor organizing models.
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Neoliberalism
22 min read
The article references 'the neoliberal project' and 'the new neoliberal project' as forces reshaping education into markets with families as customers. Understanding neoliberalism's economic philosophy, its historical development from the 1970s onward, and its impact on public institutions helps readers grasp the ideological framework the authors are critiquing.
Our collective is taking this moment to reflect as individuals on how we see the struggle against Trump's massive assault unfolding. Like most of our readers, four collective members are working, and the start of the school year diminishes their time for reading, writing, and thinking about education beyond their jobs.
At the same time, as a group we are considering options to expand our "greenhouse," creating different spaces for conversation, and inviting others to join us in our project. Proposals we are considering include Zoom discussions as well as having guest authors. On the table as well is considering how to revise The Future of Our Schools to take into account what has occurred since the first edition: Trump1 and Trump2, and resistance that emerged to it; changes to education under COVID; alteration of teaching with unregulated technology; the new neoliberal project; and what's occurring with both political parties.
This Labor Day let's remind ourselves and others that our work in education counts. Teaching has a higher density of union membership than any other occupation. We work in communities that have elected school boards, arguably the last and strongest bastion of democracy. We have ideas about what our students should learn and how. We are responsible for educating the next generation, which makes us dangerous to tyrants and the powerful elites that aim to control the society. In a nutshell, we have enormous, mostly unrealized power. At the same time, as a group, we are disbursed geographically; diverse in our political beliefs and social class origins. Our work is under attack like never before, on multiple fronts.
While no one can predict the future, I think we are in for worse, and yet what we've witnessed and done can also make us wiser and stronger than we've been to this point. Fighting is a necessary but insufficient condition to win this battle: We have to fight smart, learning as we organize, applying and sharing our knowledge. I hope the ideas I've proposed in our substack thus far have helped readers face this moment, feel less fearful, more centered, more clearheaded.
Here's to a Labor Day that recalls struggles we've lost, honors what we and the generations that preceded us accomplished, and encourages us to create the world working people deserve.
Solidarity!
Lois Weiner
Chloe: A Reminder
On Thursday, August 28, I marched with members of my teacher union, ...
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