The world is in a bleak state right now, and every day it feels a little more certain that the elite power brokers who control our society are not going to do anything to make things better. But giving up on the possibility of a better world and giving in to hopelessness and despair is not an option; if we’re going to get out of this mess, we have to fight.
In her new acclaimed book Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, journalist and organizer Kim Kelly writes about working people who faced similarly impossible odds throughout US history but refused to accept the status quo and fought to change their circumstances. From freed Black washerwomen in the Reconstruction-era South to Jewish immigrant garment workers in early 20th-century New York, to incarcerated workers, sex workers, and disabled workers fighting to have their rights and humanity recognized, Fight Like Hell reminds readers today that working people’s struggle for justice, equality, and dignity is just that—a struggle. In this special discussion, hosted by Red Emma’s, a worker cooperative bookstore, cafe, and community events space in Baltimore, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Kelly about writing the history of that struggle and about the people who are carrying that struggle forward today.
Kim Kelly is a freelance journalist and organizer based in Philadelphia. Her work on labor, class, politics, and culture has appeared in a wide range of outlets, including Teen Vogue, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Baffler, Esquire, and The Real News Network. She is the author of the acclaimed book Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor.
Pre-Production/Studio: Phil Glaser
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
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Love you guys so much, thanks for all that you do
"History is the story told by the victor". Howard Zinn did much to rectify the specious fallacy of the story we have been TOLD about America.. It sounds like this book will follow along those same pathways. I thank you sincerely. If We the People had been provided with the unvarnished truth rather than propaganda, we would be a completely different country today. That same self-serving propaganda machine is very much alive at this moment. Please be wary of it, all you youngsters.
This lady seems really self impressed and self satisfied. Sort of like a bizarro bill maher. Takes away from the message, dilutes it when she interjects herself in it so much.
4:43 Intro ends, discussion begins.
Brilliant discussion. Two more words: Labor erotica.
Let's make it happen folks. The power of stories and narrative is something we need to build back. We've been losing that fight for a century in a rigged media game. Time to get creative. This is the epitome of that.
oppression and slavery in the modern day working class or for the people that are uneducated and forced to work under the table that are controlled and manipulated being oppressed I myself work for a private LLC company working under the table because my boss did not want to put me on payroll evading taxes I worked for that company for twenty years and somehow I owed the company that did not seem right to me I was a hard-working laborer doing multiple job titles with very little compensation you guys are just now starting to see how the uneducated people have been dealing with this new form of slavery and oppression no matter the color of your skin they hate us all we are on clean dirty blood and they think that they are Supreme you think you've had it hard but there are people that had it harder and that have taken the abuse longer and it's not from lack of trying I myself was working 16 and 20 hour days very rarely ever had a day off and was also forced to work two months solid without days off after having covid-19 for a month making only $400 a week and never being paid consistent no matter what I was doing no matter how hard the job was or how impossible the time frame was to complete I was the the only employee the boss would never hire anyone else and put all the stress and strain on myself let's talk about these people the hidden workers that have killed theirselves for this country a lot of these people you see living on the street because they have been used up and thrown away like trash. just a list of my job titles: auto mechanic equipment mechanic landscaper home renovator framer drywaller plumber electrician Carpenter whole house designer painter boat repair mover cleaner lumberjack and always being pimped out to the boss's friends when they needed jobs done. And never getting paid for jobs the boss would pocket the money when it belongs to me
As a 73-year-old, beat-up, disgruntled and discouraged senior citizen, I must say that this presentation is a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine amidst a bleak landscape of my own seven decades of living in "America the Beautiful". My best wishes to all you right-thinking youngsters!
This is one more exciting example of how every-day Americans are asserting themselves – and the genuine truisms that they represent – against the plutocratic fallacy that America has become. There are 330 million citizens in the "United" States. But there are actually two distinct "Americas". There is the American Government in collusion with its corporate cronies using the military to further their own collective narrow interests. And then there is the rest of us. All 330 million of us. Genuine People's democracy has been made a mockery of by the monied few.The "Beautiful Idea" that America was at its founding has morphed in to a different beast altogether. America has become an exclusive cabal consisting largely of VERY RICH, VERY WHITE, MEN who are enthralled with a 2000-year-old book of "wisdom" written by Bronze Age goat herders!
You both are so incredible! Loved the book and it was such a breath of fresh air for an otherwise textbook type of knowledge, as you mention here. Max you're an inspiration with the RNN, and so happy you guys were able to give Chris Hedges a platform.
107 people die by GUNS each DAY…. Only WORLD WAR 2 saw more Deaths by GUNS
U.S. Deaths are approx. 40,000 by GUNS a Year.
More people died since 2000 than all the wars since 1898
The OSS psychological profile of Hitler described him thus:
"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."
Sound familiar?
NEW Amendments – 1.) The Senate and House will follow the Constitutions percentage of votes the winner of Bills presented and under no circumstance via filibuster or other means used to change the Constitutions measure of Voting protected by this Amendment. ..
Love the shirt
Well paid workers CREATE an economy. governments and corporations do NOT. That is the programming that must be overcome.