Are you well into #hotlaborsummer and still looking for stories of solidarity to fill out your workers’ rights Bingo square? I’ve got plenty of books for the bargaining table below.
On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union by Daisy Pitkin
First up is a harrowing and deeply personal account of two women and their 5 year campaign to unionize industrial laundry workers in Arizona. This fight takes a tremendous toll on both their lives and their relationship to one another. Daisy Pitkin also offers a close, compelling look at the life cycle of moths and the women responsible for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Strike – the Uprising of 20,000. This is a great read for anyone wanting to understand both the larger labor history movement in the US and the down in the trenches work of organizing.
This Has Always Been a War: The Radicalization of a Working-Class Queer by Lori Fox
Next – a memoir in essays by a queer, non-binary working class writer about their experience struggling to survive and maintain their dignity under capitalism. Lori Fox provides a clear and incisive critique of the myriad ways low wage workers are exploited and how the conditions of their lives make it nearly impossible to rise out of poverty.
Factory Girls by Michelle Galen
If you loved Derry Girls and miss following the girls’ adventures, Michelle Galen’s novel may fill that hole in your heart. In this irreverent and darkly hilarious book, readers follow three girls in Northern Ireland working in a shirt factory during the Troubles. It’s an illuminating portrayal of the conditions and politics facing Irish women working in factories in the mid-90s. And it’s inspiring to see the plucky heroine, Maeve Murray, radicalized in response to unfair labor practices and violence in her community.
Please check out our Workers’ Rights Booklist for more suggestions and happy reading!
~Posted by Jennie D.
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