Category: Class (Page 6 of 24)

MTG and MLD

March 9, 2023 / baseblogger

The Atlantic recently wrote a profile of Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG). At the beginning, it offered a brief bio.

MTG’s father grew up in a working-class family, born to a factory worker. He got into home construction first as a worker and contractor, and then as the owner of a small construction company. MTG grew up in a more rural part of a red state in an area with a deep history of racism. That history left the area with almost no black population. Her parents raised her Catholic, but she later left the church.

MTG attended the major public university in her state and became the first college graduate in her family. And as she got older, she saw something deeply wrong with the world.

Severance and White-Collar Organizing

March 6, 2023 / baseblogger

The new TV show Severance drew lots of attention as it finished up its first season. Some of it even from a leftist perspective! Or at least a near left perspective. Even more interestingly, those who view Severance through a leftist lens see it as a show about worker solidarity and workplace organizing.

Can Severance teach us something about workplace organizing? I think it can! In fact, I think it highlights a major gap in the U.S. union movement. A gap that leftists could – and should – fill.

Let’s talk about all this.

Should Socialism Be a Youth Movement?

February 27, 2023 / baseblogger

Recently, a debate opened up between two DSA caucuses – Socialist Majority and Bread & Roses – over a few strategic questions. Among other things, it shows an emerging split within the national org’s majority coalition. I don’t want to review the entire debate, especially since I’ve looked at parts of it in other posts. Rather, I want to look at a new part of the debate: the issue of who the DSA should target in its recruiting efforts. Should the DSA try to be a youth movement?

As a start, I’ll note that in some ways, the DSA is already a youth movement. It grew from 2015 to 2020, often rapidly. And it did so in large part on the strength of new members under the age of 30. Nearly everyone who joined was under the age of 40. But is all this the goal of a good recruiting effort? Should DSA keep focusing its efforts on finding new members among young people?

I think the answer is more complicated than the simple “yes” given by the Bread & Roses faction.

Dealignment and Posting Alone

February 20, 2023 / baseblogger

From the sectarian left to mainstream socialists, many U.S. leftists put forward dealignment to explain politics today. Jacobin recently dropped an issue on the topic. As long time readers surely know, I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the mag. Its founder has done some good work. As has the mag itself. But the mag has its faults, which I’ve also discussed in a few posts.

But I’m not here just to talk about a magazine. I’m here to talk about dealignment, especially as it concerns class. And especially a recent article on it – ‘From Bowling Alone to Posting Alone,’ by Anton Jäger.

Revisiting the Broke White Person

February 2, 2023 / baseblogger

Nearly a decade ago, the article ‘Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person’ appeared on Huffington Post. It dropped to much acclaim, especially among people dissatisfied by the classic Peggy McIntosh article ‘White Privilege and Male Privilege’.

The basic thought is simple enough: McIntosh comes up with lots of great examples of white privilege. But many of her examples speak more to class than race. Especially given her status as a professional at an elite private university (Wellesley) and the kinds of people she interacts with at that institution.

To the broke white person, such an article amounts to a farce. Who cares about finding a publisher (literally one of McIntosh’s examples) when you can’t even pay rent?

But let’s take a closer look.

Category: Class (Page 6 of 24)

MTG and MLD

Severance and White-Collar Organizing

Should Socialism Be a Youth Movement?

Dealignment and Posting Alone

Revisiting the Broke White Person

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