Last month, my good friend Anna Kurhajec wrote an excellent piece for Labor Notes entitled “Building a Solidarity Union.” In the article, Kurhajec addressed the work of the Solidarity Committee – a subcommittee within the Graduate Employees Organization Local 6300 at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The Solidarity Committee’s work broadens conventional understandings of labor organizing by … Continue reading »
Tomorrow I will be flying out to New Orleans for the 2013 meeting of the American Historical Association. Expect blog posts on panels, keynotes, and general conference activities. If there is a particular panel or talk that you would like me to cover, please feel free to post requests. The conference brochure is available here. … Continue reading »
The dawn of 2013 marks four full years since the devastating effects of the Great Recession began. Recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals the impact of the Great Recession on workers and, in turn, the changing nature of organized labor’s response to the politics of austerity. The Death of the Strike The … Continue reading »
Note: I wrote this piece for a speech and a local publication in February 2010 in an effort to organize students and workers behind the May 1st National Day of Action in Defense of Higher Education. It remains pertinent. Over the past year it has become almost impossible to ignore the movement growing on college … Continue reading »
In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential campaign, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney attributed his defeat to President Barack Obama’s extension of “gifts” to African American, Latino, and college-age voters. Speaking with his donors, Romney lamented that the Democrats had taken a page out of the “old playbook” by offering specific social programs to secure … Continue reading »
This week commemorates the third anniversary of the 2009 Graduate Employees’ Organization (Local 6300, AFT/IFT, AFL-CIO) strike at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. Months of failed negotiations with University administrators culminated in a two-day work action that witnessed more than a thousand people walking picket lines in support of a vision of higher … Continue reading »
One of the most interesting findings about our electorate this election cycle is the growing number of people identifying as religiously unaffiliated or “Nones”. In October, the Pew Research Center identified that “Nones” were on the rise with one-in-five adults polled indicating that they had no religious affiliation. The trend toward religious disaffiliation was particularly pronounced … Continue reading »
