Remembering Irving Howe  

Sudden deaths of friends still leading vital lives are always shocking. I suspect we were especially shocked by Irving’s death because we assumed, despite his deteriorating physical health, that he would somehow live forever. Irving was such a towering figure …



Notes from Underground  

Ever since Marx’s musings about the lumpenproletariat, the “underclass” has unnerved the left. Members of an underclass rarely behave in a manner leftists consider politically appropriate to their condition, let alone a manner that invites sympathy from a broader public. …









Unions, Economic Power, and the State  

Labor unions, most progressives believe, are essential institutions of a democratic industrial society. Particularly in the social democratic model that emerged after World War II unions played a crucial, dual role. First, of course, unions served as direct instruments of …



A Troubled Union and Its New Leader  

This is the story of a gifted and effective trade unionist who finds himself president of America’s most battered major industrial union. The story raises the perennial question of how much difference one leader can make when historical forces are …



Jobs  

This article is one in a group of six that will appear in a volume entitled Alternatives: Proposals From the Democratic Left, edited by Irving Howe, © 1984 by the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc., and …