It's incredibly late, but I don't see a Class and Labor diary, so I figured I would put up an open thread.
I'll be dropping in and out because I am, fittingly enough, staying up late trying to fill orders that have been placed through my internet business. My printer broke down yesterday, which has created something of a crisis in my household. I use it a lot, and for the two most vital things in my life: my internet business (so that I don't have to write out about 100 addresses a week by hand - more like 200 this week!) and to print schoolwork. Luckily, we can probably afford to go out and buy another cheap printer that will hopefully last for another three grueling years of almost daily use.
But I'm grateful that I'm not living 150 years ago, when being a woman working from home generally meant 16 hour days in such delightful occupations as hand-sewing. (At least I have machines to do some of the work, even if they do break down at really inconvenient times.) I recently read an autobiographical account by Adelheid Popp about her need to take in work as a child in order to help support her family; she sewed buttons onto cardboard and other incredibly menial tasks that we have long since mechanized ...and sent to the Chinese to do.
Issues of class and labor seem to pop up quite a bit on Daily Kos as sidebars or as impacting other topics in important ways, but they don't get their own diaries as often as they perhaps should. Yet work and class have enormous relevance in American life. Almost all of us must work for a living. Most of us who work owe a great debt to organized labor - even if we are not ourselves members of unions, we benefit from the advances unions have made over the years, in safety conditions, limited hours and overtime pay, benefits, child labor laws. And while a shrinking percentage of American workers are represented by unions, not only do union members earn more than their nonunion counterparts, but nonunion workers in highly unionized industries and areas benefit from employer competition for workers, leading to better pay and conditions. Class issues, too, apart from the question of organized labor, are central in many of the political struggles of the day. From bankruptcy legislation to the minimum wage to student loans, legislation affects people differently based on how much they make, what kind of access to power and support they have.
With this series we aim to develop an ongoing discussion around class and labor issues. Such ongoing discussions have emerged in the Feminisms and Kossacks Under 35 series, and, given the frequent requests for more (and more commented-in) diaries on these issues, we hope this series will accomplish the same. Entries will be posted every Tuesday night between 8 and 9pm eastern. If you are interested in a writing a diary for this series, please email Elise or MissLaura and we will arrange for you to be put on the schedule.
What are you thinking about tonight?