Winter 2010 Contents
From the Editorial Team
Under the Radar
By Ben Becker
Unreported and under-reported news and views that matter.
On the Contrary
Taking Over the Enterprise: A New Strategy for Labor and the Left
By Rick Wolff
Scanning the Globe: Politics in Europe, Latin America, and Asia
Empire’s Senescence: U.S. Policy in Latin America
By Greg Grandin
Why the Obama administration can’t break free from the old way of doing things.
Is Social Democracy Dead?: The Crisis of Capitalism in Europe
By Norman Birnbaum
What’s left of the European Left?
Vietnam at the Crossroads: Market Socialism and the Vietnamese Labor Movement
By Gregory Mantsios
As the Vietnamese government embraces capitalism, what will its labor movement do?
Looking Backward: International Labor’s Forgotten Plan to Fight the Great Depression
By Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, and Brendan Smith
Should a program of internationally-funded public works be part of labor’s agenda today?
The (Mis)Measure of Prosperity: Morning in America and the Decline of the Social Wage
By Shawn Fremstad and Heather Boushey
Analyzing the false prosperity of the last quarter century.
Economic Prospects
By Robert Pollin
If We Can Change the White House, We Can Change the Hog House
By Gene Bruskin
Does the victory over Smithfield signal the beginning of the end for anti-union Dixie?
Beating the System Is the System: A Survey of Workplace Violations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City
By The Workplace Violations Survey Project
Breaking labor laws is the new norm for American businesses.
The Odd Couple: Wall Street, Union Benefit Funds, and the Looting of the American Worker
By John Adler and Jay Youngdahl
Labor’s benefit fund strategy is bankrupt.
In the Rearview Mirror
By Steve Fraser and Joshua B. Freeman
Revisiting the past to illuminate the present.
Working-Class Voices of Contemporary America
Following a Father's Footfalls: Love and Estrangement in the Alleghenies
By Margaret Costello
Caught in the Web
By Kim Phillips-Fein
Labor news, views, and resources online.
Books and the Arts
And Their Children after Them: Deindustrialization Lit
American Rust
By Philipp Meyer
Reviewed by Sherry Lee Linkon
Because They Can: Employers and the Payday Heist
Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—and What We Can Do About It
By Kim Bobo
Reviewed by Bethany Moreton
Caution: Writers at Work
Working: An Anthology of Writing and Photography
Edited by Greg Hart, Mary Ellen Mangino, Zoeanne Murphy, and Ann Marie Taliercio
The Way We Work: Contemporary Writings from the American Workplace
Edited by Peter Scheckner and M. C. Boyes
Reviewed by Katherine Sciacchitano
Of Medals and Myths
Milk
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Reviewed by Patrick McCreery
Out of the Mainstream: Books and Films You May Have Missed
By Matt Witt
Poetry
Letters to the Editors
About Our Contributors