Tag Archives: American-politics

Community picket lines and social movement unionism on the U.S. docks, 2014–2021: Organizing lessons from the Block the Boat campaign for Palestine

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Fox-Hodess, K., & Ziadah, R. (2025). Community picket lines and social movement unionism on the U.S. docks, 2014–2021: Organizing lessons from the Block the Boat campaign for Palestine. Critical Sociology, 0(0).

This paper examines community-initiated picket lines in solidarity with Palestine at the ports of Oakland, Long Beach, Seattle, and Port Elizabeth in 2014 and 2021 which sought to enable dockworkers to participate in effective de facto work stoppages for political ends despite a restrictive legal context. Using a comparative case study approach, the analysis highlights key contextual factors – including urban proximity, terminal accessibility, and union political history – that shaped the ability of campaigners to block vessels from the Zim shipping line. The research also identifies crucial organizing variables, including the capacity of community groups to mobilize large picket lines, the role of “bridge-builders” linking unions and community actors, and sustained research, education and outreach efforts. Findings provide critical insights into identifying promising targets for action and instituting effective organizing practices for labor and community activists seeking to jointly advance social justice goals at the workplace within a legally constrained environment.

The Political Disconnect: Working-Class And Low-Income People On What Politics Means To Them And How They Might Be Mobilized

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Daniel Laurison, Kelly Diaz, Monica Guzman, Zachary Kreines, Kaj Tug Lee, Lydia Orr, and Sahiba Tandon. (2026). The Political Disconnect: Working-Class And Low-Income People On What Politics Means To Them And How They Might Be Mobilized. HEARD Initiative, Swarthmore College. 10.24968/2476-2458.soan.215.

A functioning democratic society must involve all kinds of people in deciding who will hold the power to enact laws and allocate tax dollars. However, working-class and low-income people vote at significantly lower rates than the more privileged in the US, and their participation has been declining in recent elections. In order to understand why those with fewer resources are less likely to vote and how this might change, a diverse group of researchers interviewed 232 low-income and working-class people (in every major racial group) from across Pennsylvania – 144 of whom either did not vote, or voted only occasionally. Our researchers spoke with each interviewee about their lives and communities, the issues they cared about, and their views on politics and voting. This report describes some of the key results of those interviews, and makes recommendations for increasing political participation among low-income and working-class people in the U.S. Almost every nonvoter or irregular voter we spoke with told us that politics seems disconnected from their lives in at least one of two ways. First, many feel like politics are by, for, and about people unlike themselves, people who are wealthier or more educated. Second, many see politics as corrupt and unable to create meaningful change, and believe that politicians are not interested in helping them or their communities. We make three recommendations based both on our interviews and on a broader body of research. 1) People want to believe that politics can meaningfully improve their lives – so they need to see clear connections between the real problems they face and potential and actual solutions in politics and policy. 2) People want to see themselves reflected in politics – so they need more people from low-income and working-class backgrounds working in every aspect of politics and government, at every level. 3) People want to feel genuinely listened to by those who have, or seek, political power – so they need politicians and other political groups to spend more time in low-income and working-class communities.

Test, Measure, Punish: How the Threat of Closure Harms Students, Destroys Teachers, and Fails Schools

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Michaels, Erin. 2025. Test, Measure, Punish: How the Threat of Closure Harms Students, Destroys Teachers, and Fails Schools: NYU Press.

In the last two decades, education officials have closed a rising number of public schools nationwide related to low performance. These schools are mainly located in neglected neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty. Despite this credible threat of closure, relatively few individual schools threatened with closure for low performance in the United States are actually shut down. Yet, as Erin Michaels argues, the looming threat is ever present. Test, Measure, Punish critically shifts the focus from school shutdowns to the more typical situation within these strained public schools: operating under persistent risk of closure.

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Kansas Court of Industrial Relations: Interwar America’s Dangerous Experiment in Social Control

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Merriman, Ben. 2025. Kansas Court of Industrial Relations: Interwar America’s Dangerous Experiment in Social Control: Cambridge University Press.

The Kansas Court of Industrial Relations, founded in 1920, was the lone US trial of a labor court – a policy design used almost everywhere else in the industrialized world during the interwar period. What led Kansas to establish the KCIR when no other state did? And what were the consequences of its existence for the development of economic policy in the rest of the country? Ben Merriman explores how the KCIR’s bans on strikes and lockouts, heavy criminal sanctions, and unilateral control over the material terms of economic life, resulted in America’s closest practical encounter with fascism. Battered by the Supreme Court in 1923, the KCIR’s failure destroyed American interest in labor courts. But the legal battles and policy divisions about the KCIR, which enjoyed powerful supporters, were an early sign of the new political and intellectual alignments that led to America’s unique New Deal labor policy.

The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants under Increasing Autocracy

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Kucinskas, Jaime Lee. 2025. The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants under Increasing Autocracy: Columbia University Press.

Donald J. Trump took office threatening to run roughshod over democratic institutions, railing against the federal bureaucracy, and calling for dismantling the administrative state. How do civil servants respond to a presidential turn toward authoritarianism? In what ways—if any—can they restrain or counter leaders who defy the norms of liberal democratic governance?

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