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During earlier economic crises, American labor has risen up to fight for reform. Where is organized labor now? Have American workers surrendered their expectations in order to compete within the world market? As American workers come to resemble their counterparts in countries that have become the site of so many offshored jobs, can they ever re-unite, or are they doomed to compete in a downward spiral of diminishing rights, including the right to organize themselves? Bookforum, in conjunction with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, will host a discussion at The New School about how the American workforce has changed, how work can be fairly rewarded in a post-industrial economy, and what rights workers still have. Panelists include Kim Bobo, director of Interfaith Worker Justice, long-time advocate for workers’ rights, and author of Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—And What We Can Do About It; Thomas Frank, noted essayist, founder and editor of The Baffler, regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America;Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer based in Chicago, where he recently ran for the 5th District congressional seat, and author of Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be For Labor When It’s Flat On Its Back; and Andrew Ross, chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU and author of Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times. Moderated by Bookforum editor Chris Lehmann.
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