Our awareness of death, of our finite existence as mortal beings, significantly shapes our social organization and how we ensure the (re)production of life itself. … More Freedom, fatal convictions, and the face mask.
BY JAMES TYNER On May 12, 2020, during a Senate Health Committee hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and efforts to ‘reopen’ the U.S. economy. Paul’s frontal attack on Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was part of a concerted effort among … More False profits and finding meaning in life.
BY MARC DOUSSARD Risky work and low pay shouldn’t co-exist. Economics textbooks and the public policies they support treat high pay—whether it’s an hourly wage, a stock option, or a lofty salary—as necessary compensation for the risks that befall people on the job. Without raising hourly pay well into the double digits, unpleasant or physically … More Covid-19 and the struggle at the bottom of the labor market
BY JAMES TYNER As the coronavirus identified as Covid-19 began its steady, inexorable sweep across the globe—and, in the process, infecting not only people but the global economy—leaders in the United States sat by idly. Scientific experts, long chastised by President Trump and his followers as members of the ‘Deep State’, were silenced and subdued. … More As the novel coronavirus rages in the US, it reveals a systemic rot and the privilege of profits over premature death.
Harris Fine Block, Broome and Orchard Streets, New York (1898 and 1901). Hornberger & Straub, architects. These facades are typical of many immigrant-built tenements of this period. Recently rehabilitated, they command high rents in an increasingly desirable neighborhood. Photograph by Sean Litchfield. BY ZACHARY J. VIOLETTELecturer, Parsons/The New School of Design As I was finishing the … More American xenophobia and the roots of the housing crisis
Local 879, seen in this solidarity march in St. Paul, was a national leaderduring the 1980s and 1990s in promoting workers’ rights and fair trade.Image from the author’s collection. BY BRIAN McMAHON Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, vowed on many occasions that he would never allow a labor union. When workers at a … More The UAW Local 879, 75 years ago: Ford, FDR, and the hard-fought battles behind the launch of this legendary labor leader.
BY CURTIS MAREZProfessor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego Even before Donald Trump promised to build one, U.S. popular culture was preoccupied with walls—most famously the Wall in Game of Thrones that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildlings. Contemporary depictions of zombies are set amid fences and fortifications that recall … More Of walls and robots: The future of immigration
Fast-food workers, university workers, students, janitors, retail workers, and airportworkers rally on April 15, 2015, near the University of Minnesota to demand a $15/hourminimum wage.Image via Wikimedia Commons. BY MARC DOUSSARDRecipient of the 2015 Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning for his book Degraded Work The list of cities and state … More Fight for 15 shines spotlight on harsh daily realities for low-wage workers
In Breaks in the Chain, Paul Apostolidis investigates the personal life stories of a group of Mexican immigrant meatpackers who are at once typical and extraordinary. After crossing the border clandestinely and navigating the treacherous world of the undocumented, they waged a campaign to democratize their union and their workplace in the most hazardous industry … More Working conditions, the battle at Tyson, and the Wisconsin moment
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez is assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University. She is author of Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World. ——- Despite an unprecedented global economic crisis, Filipinos are leaving the Philippines in the thousands for employment in hundreds of countries overseas. It seems rather paradoxical; how is … More How the Philippine government propagates a model of "labor brokerage," even in a time of global economic crisis.
