Book Review: The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s, by Goldfield, Michael

Abstract

the “white working class” and explains how the working class is simultaneously objectified, fetishized, and antagonized by right-wing actors. In the last essay, Donald Cohen’s analysis takes us through how stunningly bipartisan and successful the privatization of public resources and public workers has been. Like Lafer, he offers ideas for building issue-based agendas around a revitalization of the “public good,” aligning popular opinion with actual legislation. The collection of essays in Part III—Challenges and Coalition Opportunities focuses on three issues creating tension in the labor movement: the environment, immigration, and police brutality. Lara Skinner begins this section by recalling Mazzochi’s concept of “just transitions” of workers as a foundational concept when confronting the tensions between labor and environmentalists. Shannon Gleeson addresses the tension between labor and immigration by analyzing labor’s social media and public statements. She also provides concrete examples of alliances between central labor councils and interfaith presenting organized responses and alliances between Black Lives Matter and immigration organizations in response to Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and nativist dog-whistle politics. Finally, Cedric Johnson’s essay positions the carceral state and hyper-policing as a post war response to the positioning of the urban poor and surplus workers against the “middle-class.” Part IV—Labor Strategies and Responses explores strategies for building power in a nationalist climate. MaryBe McMillan begins by describing successful campaigns that expose the stark contradictions between privatization and the interests of the working people around attacks on public education. She emphasizes that internal education campaigns on cross-cultural solidarity (as a foundational tenet of the labor movement) should be revitalized, as should the revitalization of boycotts. Then, Jennifer Klein describes the unionization of the fastest growing occupation, and one that is dominated by women of color: home health workers who may organize with or without recognition. Kyla Walter’s piece on a successful campaign in Massachusetts to curtail the advancement of charter schools as a back door to the privatization of public schools again connects the contradictory agendas between the market and the public. Labor in the Time of Trump comes at a time when workers are faced with misinformation, racial division, skyrocketing unemployment, and economic inequality, but reminds us of the commonality of our strengths: cross-cultural solidarity, advocates of public good, and optimism of the will.