How do sex, race, and class shape what counts as “work” and as “life”? Why do these conversations neglect a life for women outside productive or reproductive labor? Is it time for labor to demand the right to free time? The nineteenth episode of Belabored takes on these questions plus the latest developments in labor news.
The International Olympic Committee is mired in a political morass, thanks to the regressive anti-gay legislation signed into law this summer by Russian President Vladimir Putin that outlaws “propaganda of non-traditional relationships to minors.” Violators of the law are subject …
Fifty years after the March on Washington, we confront a system that idealizes diversity even as it continues to produce injustice in the aggregate. To rescue the dream, we need a politics that combines race and class, just as reality does.
Things are tough for American workers. Wage growth has flatlined. Unemployment and underemployment remain stubbornly high. Job growth is skewing towards low-wage, no-benefit services. And economic mobility—across generations, or as a reward for educational attainment—has slowed dramatically. There is a …
In the Summer 2013 issue of Dissent, Max Holleran described the role of world-famous architects in Spain’s housing bubble. These “starchitects”—among them Santiago Calatrava, Herzog & de Meuron, and Frank Gehry—were not deterred by the failure of the Spanish real …
Political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain died on August 11. Elshtain was the author of many books and articles, including several contributions to Dissent. In 2005, Dissent editorial board member Alan Johnson interviewed Elshtain for the first issue of his journal …
Last December, at the prayer vigil in Newtown, Connecticut, Barack Obama delivered one of the best speeches of his presidency. He grieved and consoled, speaking both as a father and as the head of state. Then, pivoting to the need …
This week on Belabored, an interview with historian William Jones about the forgotten history of civil rights and the relation between racial and economic justice. Plus the latest on prevailing wage law in New York, living wage law in DC, domestic workers’ rights, and labor issues at the ACLU.
This week on Belabored: a closer look at the historic fast food strikes in seven cities and an exploration of the relationship between funding sources and internal democracy in alt-labor. Plus college athletes, graduate student employees, and sobering survey data.
My local bookstore, like bookstores across the country, now has plenty of copies of J. K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling, the mystery novel previously attributed to a new author, Robert Galbraith. Rowling’s publisher, Little Brown, has rushed an estimated 300,000 …
The verdict in the Trayvon Martin case brought with it another volley of criticism of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the right’s now not-so-secret legislative workshop. Coming on the heels of the Supreme Court’s rebuke of the Voting Rights …
This week on Belabored: Detroit blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Plus fast food strikes, immigration reform, port truck drivers, and layoffs at Chicago public schools.
Monday’s New York Times has a fascinating map that shows how social mobility varies across the United States. Many things can be learned from this map—one of them is about last year’s election. The first thing that strikes your eye …
This week in Belabored: Special guest Lee Fang shares his insights into the resurgent right wing. Plus Chicago school closings, NLRB appointments, and strikes by low wage workers.
If the recession were a bout of the flu, we would be at about that point where the fever has broken—but we still feel like throwing up most of the time. The “recovery,” now in its fifth year, has yet …
