Making Childcare Work for Both Mothers and Our Climate
As if caring in times of economic crisis weren’t enough, mothers must now consider the climate crisis too as they care for their families and communities.
Austerity, growing inequality, and the economic and political domination of billionaires, bankers, hedge funds, and giant corporations make the current moment ripe for birthing a movement that can radically transform the country and the world. This is a time of great peril, but also of extraordinary opportunity and—yes—reasons for hope.
The last four decades have been characterized by unrelenting attacks on the working class, the weakening of unions and the financialization of capitalism. The fiscal crisis of 2007-2008, the burgeoning wealth gap, and the flood of money from corporations and the rich drowning our democracy have exposed the nation’s political, moral, and economic decay, creating conditions that beg for an alternative to a system that increasingly only works for the super-rich.
In this environment, anything that unions can do alone, with dwindling power, will be insufficient. The challenge for labor, at a moment of historic weakness, is to figure out how unions can support and be involved in movements and campaigns that expand, rather than narrow, the scope and scale of what we are organizing and bargaining for. It may seem counterintuitive, but it is thinking bigger and broadening our vision, goals, and demands—even at a moment of weakness—that offers a path to resurgent unions and a more equal and just country and world.
Continue reading in New Labor Forum.
by Lisa Dodson
As if caring in times of economic crisis weren’t enough, mothers must now consider the climate crisis too as they care for their families and communities.
by Robin Alexander
A veteran labor activist reflects on her decades of experience building mutual respect and support across borders.
by Ennedith Lopez
The workers who put food on our tables face poverty, deportation, and extreme heat. These are policy choices—and they can be changed.