SOCI 036C. Sociology of U.S. Labor Movement

Over decades millions of workers struggled together, often at great risk and against great odds and repression, to build the U.S. labor movement. In the process they carved out a place of dignity, prosperity, and political voice for workers at the bottom of the economic ladder. They created a path of economic mobility for minorities, women and immigrants. They provided a counterweight for the average citizen against the increasingly concentrated power and influence of modern capitalism’s most fortunate. Because the labor movement empowers the weak it has always been embattled and for decades now it has been in decline. While it contributed some to its own demise, capitalists have systematically attacked the labor movement with a carefully planned and well-funded hegemonic project that has directly challenged it, delegitimized it and legally hamstrung it. The consequences for workers and our society have been terrible. The labor movement is no longer a hedge against economic inequality and over the last several decades an ever-increasing share of the benefits of economic growth go to the top 1% of Americans while wages stagnate or decline for most Americans. Without labor our political discourse is bereft of any meaningful discussion of alternative to the corporate-sponsored neo-liberal ideology of free-markets and deregulation. The traditional avenues of a strong labor movement-the less-educated, immigrants, women, Latinos, and African-Americans-are closing. Soon, if things don’t change, there will be no labor movement to speak of. No other institution in U.S. history has been able to do what the labor movement has done for the average person. What could revitalize it? What, if anything, could replace it? This course will use theories of politics, economics, class and social movements to understand the rise and decline of the labor movement and why it was so critical in determining economic inequality.
Spring 2015. Viscelli.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
Sociology and Anthropology

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SOCI 036C.&nbsp;Sociology of U.S. Labor Movement

SOCI 036C. Sociology of U.S. Labor Movement