Jacobin Radio: The Cause of Labor w/ Barry Eidlin & Eric Blanc

There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged about the world today, but the labor movement is giving us real cause for hope. Across industries and regions, workers are organizing on a scale we haven’t seen in decades — and they’re winning. What sets this new wave of labor activism apart from the usual staff-driven campaigns is that workers themselves are leading the way. Important challenges remain. Organizing is up, but nowhere near the scale needed to reverse labor’s trajectory. And with the Trump–Musk attack on workers’ rights and MAGA’s onslaught on democracy writ large, labor organizing is more important than ever.

Eric Blanc, labor activist and teacher, joins Barry Eidlin to discuss his new book, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Based on in-depth research and his own on-the-ground organizing experience, Blanc lays out what is driving the organizing upsurge, and how it provides a model for reversing labor’s fortunes. Blanc sets out a vision of worker-to-worker organizing, explaining how it works and why it is labor’s best and only hope for the future.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.