In These Times: In and Out of the Working Class

[marmar]

In and Out of the Working Class
Radical economist and labor educator Michael Yates moves beyond the classroom to examine—with striking honesty—his own life.

By Seth Sandronsky


For decades, Michael Yates has been challenging and critiquing capitalism in books, articles and classrooms. But Yates—radical political economist, associate editor of The Monthly Review and author of Why Unions Matter and Naming the System: Inequality and Work in the Global Economy, among other books—has never delved into the politics of his own past.

Until, that is, Yates wrote In and Out of the Working Class (Arbeiter Ring Publishing), published earlier this year. In this new book, Yates, 63, writes in the tradition of Douglas Dowd, a radical political economist whose Blues for America: a Critique, a Lament, and Some Memories, spans most of the 20th century. Yates’ arc is the post-W.W.II era: his youth, adolescence and adulthood.

In fiction, non-fiction and “creative non-fiction,” Yates writes of laboring people such as himself immersed in everyday life, in households, schools and workplaces. Two pieces of fiction book-end the volume: A male youth wrestles with the siren call of gambling in the opening “The Year of the Strike,” while “A Lucky Man” closes the collection with a portrayal of an adult blue-collar worker seeking his fortune at the race track.

Together, the two stories poignantly illustrate the risk-taking character of working-class life, where the wagering of resources offers a measure of relief. But it is always back to work, in all its cold realities. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4858/in_and_out_of_the_working_class