Maine AFL-CIO Labor Reading Group Selects “Square Up” to Read From March-June

The Maine AFL-CIO Reading Group’s next selection is Square Up: Building Labor’s Power in theSecond Gilded Age. This just-published anthology offers not only a broad assessment of the challenges and opportunities facing the US labor movement today, but one with a distinctively. One of the editors and several of the contributors are Mainers, including veteran labor organizer Peter Kellman and Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney.

For decades, the US labor movement has been losing ground while corporate fat cats have grown wealthier by shuttering factories and offshoring jobs, driving down wages and stripping productive businesses of assets to fatten their bottom lines.

Meanwhile, anti-worker politicians have passed policies that transfer wealth from the working class to the big-donor class as it guts agencies responsible for enforcing labor laws, workplace safety and environmental protections. The result is that too many working people pay the price with shorter lives due to industrial accidents and the stress of overwork, and lack of economic opportunities.

How does the labor movement respond? As the old song reminds us, “In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded god.” How do we exercise that power? The authors of the essays in Square Up have a few ideas. We invite you to join us as we meet (by Zoom) to discuss our way through the book on the 4th Thursdays in March-June. You can find more details on the Maine Labor Reading Group website.

All current or prospective Maine Labor Readers are eligible for a 40% discount off the list price ($19.99) when ordering directly from the publisher and using the coupon code: Solidarity. The discount will apply to your whole order from International, so check out their full list of titles.