On March 11 Theda Skocpol and Lainey Newman of Harvard University spoke at Watershed Books on their book Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party. The book began as a senior thesis project for Lainey Newman under her advisor, Theda Skocpol. Thirty minutes of the talk can be seen above.
We took over 90 minutes of the talk at Watershed Books but was only able to post 30 minutes of the talk and discussion. The day before they gave a talk at the Battle of Homestead Foundation. Pauline Greenlick filmed it in its entirety. The talk is presented above.
Firstly, Newman did her research as a senior thesis that her advisor thought should be made into a book. During the pandemic she did interviews of current and former union members in the area on their status. Her research was melded with Dr. Skocpol’s research in the area on right wing movements like the tea party. This led to the creation of the book Rust Belt Union Blues.
The authors said that Clinton betraying the unions by supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA and the World Trade Organization was a factor in the working classes being disillusioned with the Democrats. Also, the closing of the steel mills and coal mines destroyed unions in the 80s. Consequently, there was no model to replace the roles that unions provided in the community.
Accordingly, right wing demagogues like Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Donald Trump were able to exploit this disillusionment with protectionist arguments and scapegoating immigrants. Currently, the challenge remains for Democrats and labor unions to regain the upper hand with the working class.