LAWCHA: Labor and Working-Class History Association

Adolph Germer Is Not a Model for a Renewed Labor Movement | LAWCHA Last summer, Arizona State University professor Benjamin Y. Fong held up Adolph Germer as a model for today’s unions (“The Responsible Socialism of Adolph

Nicholas Becker explores the disputed role of Adolph Germer in the 1930s CIO in this latest post from LaborOnline.
lawcha.org/2026/02/28/a...

Nick Juravich interviewed former shipyard welder Jon Brandow about his new novel, Goliath at Sunset, on the most recent episode of the Labor Heritage Power Hour.
www.podbean.com/media/share/...

Hands Off St. John’s Faculty Unions Rally Held on Campus After Rev. Brian J. Shanley’s announcement to unrecognize the St. John’s University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), union members took it upon themselves to organi...

LAWCHA stands in solidarity with the St. John’s University chapter of the American Association of University Professors in the face President Rev. Brian J. Shanley's union busting efforts.

www.torchonline.com/news/2026/02...

Sugarcane workers working in a field of tangled sugarcane stalks. In green font, it says The Business of Racism In smaller black font it says Labor and Environment in Brazil's Racial Capitalism

And now we officially have a cover

dukeupress.edu/the-business...

How Brothel Workers in Nevada Just Made Labor History The courtesans at Sheri’s Ranch were staring down a horrifying new contract. So they did what workers everywhere do: They got organized.

When faced with a shockingly exploitative new employment contract that would’ve forced them to sign away their IP, their likeness rights, and their power of attorney, Jupiter Jetson and her coworkers at Sheri’s fought back—fast.

They organized a union in SIX DAYS. www.thenation.com/article/econ...

The New “Book Club” Scam Targeting Authors and How to Spot It A Public Service Post for Writers

Authors beware of the growing "Book Club" scam. Read more about it and how to detect it in the post below.

medium.com/@claude.whit...

‘Our blood, our sweat, our tears’: how textile artist Tabitha Arnold weaves the US labor movement The Tennessee socialist and labor organizer creates art that reflects and inspires organizers and workers

Great review of Tabitha Arnold's Gospel of the Working Class in The Guardian. You will be able to read Jessie Wilkerson's interview with Arnold in the September issue of @laborlawchajournal.bsky.social.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The Little Falls Textile Strike: New Scholarship Brings A New Book - New York Almanack The first non-fiction book providing a comprehensive recounting and analysis of the largely forgotten bu nationally important Little Falls Textile Strike.

Independent historian J.N. Cheney explores a long-neglected but important event in New York labor history, the Little Falls Textile Strike. Read a review of Cheney's important new book below.
www.newyorkalmanack.com/2026/01/litt...

If you see a book that we missed, please comment below or send us a direct message!

2025 Labor History Bibliography | LAWCHA Here’s my annual list of books published in labor history, this one for 2025. If you know of a book published last year that should have been included, I

Here’s Rosemary Feurer's @lawcha.bsky.social annual list of books published in labor history, this one for 2025.

Registration for Virtual Panel Socialism: Why Then? Why Now? Socialism: Why Then? Why Now? Could socialism be finding a renewed moment in the pressing political climate of the 2020s? In 2021, India Walton nearly became the first socialist mayor of a major city,...

REMINDER, this Weds at 7pm EST, LAWCHA's Presenting Labor and Working-Class History Committee will host a webinar discussion: 'Socialism? Why Then? Why Now?' w/ Jonel Edwards Mickles, Janine Giordano Drake, Erik McDuffie and Shelton Stromquist.

Register here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Five Things the New BLS Union Membership Statistics Don’t Tell You Union membership is slightly on the rise—but the hope for U.S. labor’s future is far brighter than the numbers alone suggest.

Lane Windham explains five things not revealed in the latest BLS numbers on union membership...
inthesetimes.com/article/unio...

Start! A Labor Drama | LAWCHA Teaching Labor’s Story is excited to add a labor drama to LAWCHA’s labor history sourcebook: START! A Play in Seven Scenes. Written and produced by two

Teaching Labor's Story - resources from @lawcha.bsky.social
"Written and produced by two garment worker-students at Brookwood Labor College in 1927, Start! tells the story of Sonia, a garment worker and ardent unionist, sent from New York to organize garment workers in New Jersey."

On Weds Feb 25 at 7pm EST, LAWCHA's Presenting Labor and Working-Class History Committee will host a webinar discussion: 'Socialism? Why Then? Why Now?' w/ Jonel Edwards Mickles, Janine Giordano Drake, Erik McDuffie and Shelton Stromquist.

Register here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

***Online Virtual Book Event***

Please join our spring Online IEHS Book Series at 3:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 4! Marla A. Ramirez and Reem Bailony will present their books. The event will be moderated by Mark Tseng-Putterman.

More info and register: iehs.org/event/online...

📢 Published today: Read the latest report from the UCLA Labor Center, KIWA, and AAPI Data, “Overworked & Under Pressure: A Study of Supermarket Workers in Los Angeles and Orange County Koreatowns”.

Full report: bit.ly/LCOWUP

Text flyer with single image. Text: Emil and Kathleen Sick Lecture. Red Harbor: Radical Workers and Community Struggle in the Pacific Northwest. March 3rd 3:30pm. Allen Auditorium. Allen Library North. Please join us for a talk by the historian Aaron Goings as he discusses his recently published book Red Harbor: Radical Workers and Community Struggle in the Pacific Northwest. In the book, Goings resurrects the forgotten history of lumber workers in Grays Harbor, a bastion of labor radicalism, examining the conflict as workers faced down an alliance of employers, police, and violent antiradicals, including the Ku Klux Klan. He goes beyond these clashes to illuminate the vital roles of families, immigrants, and working-class women in the labor movement, revealing how people fought not only for labor rights but also for the good of their communities. Aaron Goings is professor of history at South Puget Sound Community College

Emil and Kathleen Sick Lecture in Western History and Biography Book talk with Aaron Goings

March 3, 2026, 3:30 p.m.
Allen Auditorium
Allen Library North

University of Washington, Seattle
Free and open to the public

Warehousing Humans for Profit is Evil U.S.

Bob Bruno explores the past and present of immigrant detention in his latest substack:
bobbruno.substack.com/p/warehousin...

Maryland250 Labor History Project | LAWCHA The big questions for labor historians interested in public history are: what for? And who for? What for: to help build a real labor movement in the US.

Bill Barry highlights the role of the labor movement in the history of the state of Maryland through the MD250 Labor History Project. Learn more about it and find out how you might be able to contribute at LaborOnline:
lawcha.org/2026/02/16/m...

What Is the History of American Progress without a History of Its Workers? by Eileen Boris

Historical erasure at our National Parks: Eileen Boris comments on textile workers and Lowell National Historical Park.

harpp.substack.com/p/what-is-th...

The Origin of the Australian Working Class: Convicts and Free Workers Unite - New Politics Most of the convicts were transported for petty property crimes, but a significant minority of them were political dissidents and industrial activists.

Fascinating interview with Michael Quinlan on convict labor and resistance in 19th c. Australia.

newpol.org/the-origin-o...

Minnesota school districts, teachers union sue Trump administration over ICE activity near schools Fridley and Duluth public schools and Education Minnesota say responding to the surge of immigration enforcement has diverted time and money from student learning.

Once again, teachers and their unions are standing in the breach @aft.org @educationmn.bsky.social @democracyforward.org @aaup.org

Canada’s Early Industrial Films are Useful to Labor and Social Historians | LAWCHA The Moving Past, a website and project that features century-old archival films on a wide array of Canadian subjects, has a few new films that will be of

David Sobel describes Canada's early industrial films, potentially very useful classroom materials for labor and social historians. Newly digitized, these short films are available to view at The Moving Past.
lawcha.org/2026/01/31/c...

@lawcha.bsky.social and @laborlawchajournal.bsky.social will jointly award a $2,000 grant for research leading to an article to a contingent/adjunct faculty, community college faculty, or independent scholar engaged in work related to working people.
@contingent-mag.bsky.social
@historians.org

Sex and the Power of Publicity: OCAW in the 1970s | LAWCHA Sarah Milov's essay,“Damned Women: Fetal Protection as Employer Offensive at American Cyanamid,” in the  December 2025 issue of  Labor: Studies in Working

The good people of @lawcha.bsky.social asked me to write a little blog post about my recent article on the "occupational sterilizations" at Willow Island.
lawcha.org/2026/01/23/s...

Up first is the Arts & Media essay "The Cost of Compliance" by @rachaelvm454.bsky.social which analyzes Apple TV+’s Severance as a critique of how corporate culture strip workers of autonomy and identity while masking exploitation behind the language of purpose and growth. doi.org/10.1215/1547...

Take Back the Power | LAWCHA Take Back the Power: The Fall and Rise and Fall of NYC’s Transport Workers Union Local 100, 1975-2009 by Marc Kagan (Boston MA: Brill, 2025). Available

At LaborOnline, Alan Singer reviews Marc Kagan's new book, "Take Back the Power: The Fall and Rise and Fall of NYC’s Transport Workers Union Local 100, 1975-2009."
lawcha.org/2026/01/19/t...

Author Event: Rob Miller with Martha Bayne | City Lit Books This cozy bookstore features staff-curated selections, book clubs, and author events for all ages.

Join Bloodshot Records co-founder, @millerscave.bsky.social to celebrate his memoir, THE HOURS ARE LONG, BUT THE PAY IS LOW, @citylit_books on Thurs, Feb 5, 2026 at 6:30pm CST.

This *free* evening will include a convo w/ editor @marthabayne.bsky.social. RSVP below.
citylitbooks.com/events/43247...

Jeff Schuhrke on his new book, No Neutrals There | LAWCHA Jeff Schuhrke’s No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine (2025) deftly cuts through deceitful arguments in the context of the

In conversation with Alfie Hancox, @jeffschuhrke.bsky.social discusses his recent book 'No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine.'
lawcha.org/2026/01/10/j...

So happy to join this @lawcha.bsky.social and @shafrhistorians.bsky.social panel at #AHA2026; we barely got started!

Check out the excellent new/forthcoming books on labor and empire by @rbatzell.bsky.social @maryhicks.bsky.social @tejnagaraja.bsky.social and Nicole Burrowes!