Labor Reading Group to Read "Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class & How to Win Them Back"

Voting has closed and the next selection the Labor Reading Group will dive into is Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back by Joan C. Williams

Williams is concerned with the effects of income inequality on American politics. She starts from the simple premise that culture and cultural values reflect life circumstances. She starts her analysis at the "diploma divide," to show that the liberal values of well-educated elites reflect their privileged position. By the same token, the immiseration of the working poor and hollowing out of the middle class mean on-going anxieties for many in the blue-collar middle class.

Williams shows how politicians on the right exploit and manipulate those anxieties to persuade some working people to support policies that will further erode economic security. Kirkus Reviews said of Williams, "She accuses the left of harboring a class blindness that denigrates conservative beliefs and treats conservatives as either duped or deplorable. Yet, conservative values are embedded in the same factors that contribute to the inequality and racism that the left condemns. Here lies common ground for solidarity in the face of corporate and financial greed."

The Labor Reading Group meets for discussions on the 4th Thursday of most months. You can find out more at https://maineaflcio.org/labor-reading-group and if you’d like to get notices about readings, discussions, and events, email cynthia@maineaflcio.org and put the words Reading Group in the subject line.