In his new book, Beyond Outrage, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich opens with a dedication to the Occupy Wall Street movement. He writes: “To the Occupiers, and all others committed to taking back our economy and our democracy.” We speak to Reich about the success of Occupy in reshaping the national dialogue on the economy and why strong grassroots movements are needed to push elected leaders in Washington to enact a progressive agenda. Reich also discusses why austerity is not the answer to the economic crisis at home, or in Europe.
Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, explains that while growing up, he was exposed to a “myth of work” that involved spending one’s entire career in a single industry and working 9am to 5pm in office parks or factories. But in recent decades, he says, the idea of standard employment has “come apart at the seams,” and now as much of a third of the labor force in developed countries—including the United States—consists of precarious workers such as freelancers, independent contractors, seasonal part-time workers and interns.
A real movement is not limited to a small party. A real movement touches everyone. In Wisconsin, a real movement did just that. In this video, John Nichols explains how the state came together—from the young to the old, from the private sector to the public—in a show of diversity that formed the basis for a broader struggle.
Obamacare is under threat by the Supreme Court and conservatives in Congress. If the law were struck down or repealed, it would have dire consequences for the millions of women who benefit from it. Jessica Arons, Director of the Center for American Progress’s Women’s Health and Rights Program explains.
The short-term work of strikes and sensational displays of worker power will not be enough to dislodge capitalism’s grip on our lives, says Professor Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University. These short-term tactics must be paired with the longer-term efforts of education and organization. This educational work, Spivak insists in this video, is “not really the pedagogy of the oppressed, it is indeed the pedagogy of the liberated, because if you do not have training in the practice of freedom, when you win… it will not last.”
On Tuesday, May 1st, known as May Day or International Workers Day, Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to mobilize tens of thousands of people across the country under the slogan, “General Strike. No Work. No Shopping. Occupy Everywhere.” Events are planned in 125 cities. We speak with leading social theorist David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, about how Occupy Wall Street compares to other large-scale grassroots movements throughout modern history. His most recent book is “Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.”
When May 1 rolls around, the proposed general strike will probably not strictly resemble famed general strikes of history. But the tactic is no less significant now than it used to be. In fact, a lot rides on this upcoming May Day. This video, featuring archival footage and the words of Marina Sitrin, Francis Fox Piven and John Nichols, explains why the general strike matters so much, not just for Occupy and labor but for the legitimacy of democracy itself.
The idea of the general strike is not reformist simply because it demands changes to laws and working conditions. Rather, as Professor Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University argues in this video, the general strike is one vital tool in the array of tactics that must be used to fundamentally alter the relations between the classes. What’s more, revolution will not come about through a “catastrophic change” as was once imagined, and that concept should be given a decent burial.
Schools have morphed from extensions of a community into centers that more closely resemble factories and prisons, says David Stovall, associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. What will it take to confront this reality, instead of distancing ourselves from it, as we are now?
