Scan barcode
A review by aerlenbach
A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis
5.0
This book serves as a history of class warfare.
The state has always served at the behest of capital over the interests of the working class. Every inch of dignity won over the decades, centuries has been won with worker blood and sweat. Capitalists leverage the state’s monopoly on violence as a literal bludgeon against workers fighting for a better life.
The greatest economic boom in this country coincided with the only 30 year period in US history where rising wages trended alongside productivity (1948-1979). What went wrong? The Red Scares nuked the real organizers and those still in charge became fat & happy without focusing on what their jobs actually were: To make sure workers have a seat at the table in deciding how the work gets done.
Then what happened? Ronald Reagan, NAFTA, outsourcing, deindustrialization, and the hollowing out of the working class. Now we have a larger wealth gap than before the Great Depression.
The most powerful tool the working class has to make change is revoking their labor. Those who seek to sabotage such efforts are not allies of the working class.
“Intersectionality without class consciousness is just Identity politics. Class consciousness without intersectionality is class reductionism. We need both. We have the same enemy.”
This isn’t a review, this is a rant. Anyway, great book! Highly recommended.
The state has always served at the behest of capital over the interests of the working class. Every inch of dignity won over the decades, centuries has been won with worker blood and sweat. Capitalists leverage the state’s monopoly on violence as a literal bludgeon against workers fighting for a better life.
The greatest economic boom in this country coincided with the only 30 year period in US history where rising wages trended alongside productivity (1948-1979). What went wrong? The Red Scares nuked the real organizers and those still in charge became fat & happy without focusing on what their jobs actually were: To make sure workers have a seat at the table in deciding how the work gets done.
Then what happened? Ronald Reagan, NAFTA, outsourcing, deindustrialization, and the hollowing out of the working class. Now we have a larger wealth gap than before the Great Depression.
The most powerful tool the working class has to make change is revoking their labor. Those who seek to sabotage such efforts are not allies of the working class.
“Intersectionality without class consciousness is just Identity politics. Class consciousness without intersectionality is class reductionism. We need both. We have the same enemy.”
This isn’t a review, this is a rant. Anyway, great book! Highly recommended.