Jobs with Justice

Book excerpt: The world today has no shortage of economic crises—or politicians and pundits who claim to have the vision that will get us out of the Great Recession. For 25 years, the labor-community coalition Jobs with Justice (JwJ) has endured the brutal vagaries of the global economy with a single alternative economic vision. By putting its ideas into practice, it has won powerful victories with working-class communities. Through a series of interviews and essays, this book allows the community, labor, immigrant, student, and faith activists that have built Jobs with Justice to show us why their economic vision matters. They tell us why the organization’s core principle—the power of solidarity between unions, community groups, and immigrant, student, and faith organizations—continues to drive its victories at the local, national, and international levels. They tell us how the belief in solidarity leads not only to short-term alliances, but also to transformed relationships and permanent coalitions. They tell us how it has led—and will lead—to concrete victories for social and economic justice. Though the book reflects on the last 25 years of the Jobs with Justice coalition, it’s very much directed at the next 25. It includes the perspectives of longtime national leaders like founder Larry Cohen, newcomers like Ai-Jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the locally-based, working-class men and women who have built JwJ from the ground up.