Ask And Listen

April 20, 2019 9:21 AM

“What set worker’s inquiry apart from these other empirical studies was the belief that the working class itself knew more about capitalist exploitation than anyone else. It is the “workers in town and country,” Marx thought, who “alone can describe with full knowledge the misfortunes from which they suffer.” The Worker’s Inquiry (Viewpoint) “No one wants to talk, but everyone’s got something to say. I can feel it, a shared heaviness sitting on all of us, invisibly filling the room like a gas leak. But no one really knows how to articulate it or what to do with it.“ Can The Working Class Speak? Maximilian Alvarez on what talking to other workers, and his own father, taught him - Working People episode with his father (Sequel) - “I always thought it was just going to be the younger people, but no, it’s a lot of people my age or older, and it’s sad. ” excerpts from Alvarez’s interviews with working people. The Working People Podcast
posted by The Whelk (1 comment total)

Here's where I'll put in a plug for standing on the picket line with Stop & Shop workers if there's a store in your state and if they're OK with it (they probably will be).

I work in tech, am an autist, and don't easily strike up conversations. So I don't often converse with people outside my bubble. Picket line duty being rather tedious, however, even I can find folks who want to chat.

In a few short hours, I've learned more about retail work and folks in my city who do that work than I have in nearly three years of living here.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 9:54 AM on April 20, 2019 [11 favorites]