⚡ Some More Labor History

In our last audio post, organizer Emma Kinema references some labor history as well as the film industry when discussing unions for tech workers. I’m super excited to share this interview with labor historian Joshua Freeman, who has a wealth of knowledge about the American labor movement over the last century or so. It’s a long, fun conversation, and I recommend listening to the full audio to hear everything.

One of the chunks that was personally most mindblowing to me: that Reagan’s political career (and everything that followed) started because he was literally a “paid actor” to make free-market anti-union speeches.

Joshua Freeman is a labor historian and formerly a professor of history at Queens College, CUNY, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of several books, most recently Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World.