The History and Possible Futures of an American Steel Town
McKeesport, Pennsylvania has been through two Great Depressions. Its recovery from the first holds lessons for today.
The Fight Against Chicago’s Largest Warehouse Isn’t Over
On Chicago's southwest side, activists say a massive new distribution center needs to benefit the community.
My Summer of Steel
Before my junior year of college, in 1972, I worked at the manufacturing plant where my father was a foreman. It was an education.
Worker-Owned Cooperatives and the Future of Rust Belt Labor
Amid declining union power and attacks on organized labor, some Rust Belt workers are turning to worker-owned cooperatives.
The Most Dangerous People in the Country
In 2018, a West Virginia teacher’s secret Facebook group sparked a "union renaissance” in the tradition of Mother Jones.
The Great Railroad Strike in Pittsburgh
Excerpted from "An Alternative History of Pittsburgh."
Midwestern
"I heard the dreams of a revisionist age, / the once upon a time / of a land strong in industry."
Labor Lessons from the Flint Sit-Down Strike
The strike, which helped guide the UAW to prominence in the twentieth century, provides a blueprint for better working conditions and a revival of the middle class.
Organizing Labor in a Pandemic
COVID-19 put a spotlight on worker vulnerability, but creates challenges for traditional in-person organizing tactics.
Ida Tarbell: Reporting the Oil Region
An excerpt from "Citizen Reporters."
When Socialists Swept Milwaukee
Democratic socialists attending the 2020 Democratic Convention won't be out of place in a city with a long history of socialist governance.
The Art of Labor
A tour of Milwaukee's conflicted Grohmann Museum. From "The Milwaukee Anthology."