Transcript Social Change and Social Class

Social Change and Social Class
I.
Warm-up discussion
A.
B.
What comes to mind when you hear the term
“labor union”?
Why?
Social Change and Social Class
Review - Power and Social Class
I.
Social Classes - Relational View
A.
B.
II.
Capitalist, middle, working class
Focus on Power and Interests
Different perspectives on class interests, power,
and social policies
A.
B.
C.
Conservative – harmony; balanced; minimal
government role
Liberal – fundamental harmony, business and the
wealthy tend to accumulate too much power; active
government role
Socialist – fundamental conflict; capitalist class is the
ruling class but workers have great potential power;
socialism [social democracy]
Key forms of working and middle class power –
parties and unions
I.
Political parties
A.
United States vs. parliamentary systems
1.
2.
B.
U.S. – 2 parties, both dominated by business /
capitalist class
Parliamentary systems – typically multi-party,
including labor or socialist parties
Dilemma of working-class party politics in the
United States
Key forms of working and middle class power –
parties and unions
II. Labor Unions in the United States
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Early history
National Labor Relations Act 1935
Decline of CIO, rise of AFL-CIO and postwar compact
End of postwar compact in the 1970s
Decline of labor unions
1.
2.
3.
F.
Attacked by business
Role of government
Self-imposed problems
Current attempts to revive
1.
Key role of organizing
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Victory at Arnot
(123)
Background – “Mother Jones”
Conditions in the mines in the 1890s
I.
II.
A.
B.
Were you aware of this?
Are there similar conditions anywhere now?
III. United Mine Workers organizing efforts
III. The strike at Arnot
Company tactics – evictions, ‘scabs,’ and
exploiting ethnic divisions
A.
1.
Later strikes – violence (472)
Miners’ responses
B.
1.
What do you think of their tactics?
IV. President Wilson
A.
V.
Importance of government role
Outcome
Cesar Chavez, The Organizer’s Tale (124)
[1966]
Background – Cesar Chavez
Organizing
I.
II.
A.
B.
And leadership development
Perspective of an organizer
III. The UFW – a critical view
IV. Migrant farm workers today
A.
FLOC – Farm Labor Organizing Committee
CONCLUSIONS:
Race/Ethnicity, Gender / Sexual Orientation,
Social Class
I. IDENTITY
A.
B.
II.
As source of individual grounding, enrichment,
community
As source of marginalization, anxiety
POWER
A.
B.
C.
Individual systems of inequality, exploitation
Reinforcing each other
Potential power to create or resist change
IV. SOCIAL CHANGE
A.
B.
C.
D.
Relates directly to systems of inequality
Can involve seeking greater equality
Egalitarian – typically address one system
Transformational – addresses all systems, and the larger
culture
Operates at different levels
E.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Individual
Small group
Institutional
Social
KEYS TO PARTICIPATING IN SOCIAL
CHANGE
I.
MOTIVATION
A.
B.
C.
II.
WHAT’S YOUR “SELF-INTEREST”
NARROW, SHORT-TERM
VALUES-BASED, LONG-TERM
CONNECT LEARNING, ACTION, AND
REFLECTION
III. ACT ON DIFFERENT LEVELS
IV. STAY INFORMED, STAY CONNECTED