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Maynard Seider

Maynard Seider

About Maynard Seider

Mother Jones in Philadelphia – 1903 and 2016?

July 25, 2016 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

I first met Cheri Honkala a couple of years ago at a Philadelphia protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Not knowing what she looked like, I had locked arms with her and two or three others trying to block an entrance to the Federal building. We managed to keep the door closed despite the first […]

Filed Under: Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Dismantlng Classism, Electoral politics

Championing Postal Workers Is Good Class and Economic Sense

November 19, 2015 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

I watched the second Democratic debate hoping that Senator Bernie Sanders would clearly articulate an economic policy that would differentiate him from Hillary Clinton, that would advance the interests of American workers and that would easily resonate with the millions of debate viewers. Unfortunately he didn’t. Instead he continued to lash out at the one […]

Filed Under: Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Politics, Dismantlng Classism Tagged With: blaming the victim, boycott, low-wage jobs, middle class, middle-class jobs, public services, unions

Labor Day, American Values and the Status Quo

August 26, 2014 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

For the past two years I’ve traveled across the country to film festivals, labor events and public forums to show my documentary, “Farewell to Factory Towns?” With Labor Day on the horizon, I’d like to offer a few thoughts on the reactions of audiences to the film. While relatively diverse, the audiences generally support the […]

Filed Under: Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Politics, Labor movement Tagged With: budget cuts, environmentalists, green jobs, job loss, movement building

WANTED: Hospitals That Fully Serve Their Communities

April 8, 2014 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

What happens to a poor, working class rural community when its hospital closes  —  with three days notice?  That’s what residents of North Adams, Massachusetts and surrounding towns have been trying to figure out since the North Adams Regional Hospital closed its doors on March 28th.   While local and state politicians scurried to at least […]

Filed Under: Classism in Politics, Classism in social services Tagged With: budget cuts, classism, health care

Pension Cutbacks: The New Normal or Fightback?

December 23, 2013 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

We should be as wary now of the mainstream media as Marx was in 1871 when he wrote the following: “The daily press and the telegraph, which in a moment spreads its inventions over the whole earth, fabricate more myths in one day…than could have previously been produced in a century.” And so, for example, […]

Filed Under: Politics and Class, Workplace classism Tagged With: budget cuts, pensions, public services

Labor Day, 2013: Realities and Hopes

September 1, 2013 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

I like to listen to Bruce Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball” album from time to time, at moments when my spirits need lifting up.   In “Jack of All Trades,” the protagonist does outdoor work, carpentry, auto repair and farming (“I’ll harvest your crops”).  Given the recent one day strikes in some 60 cities by fast food workers,  […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classist Corporations, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: Bruce Springsteen, fast food jobs, low-wage jobs, strikes, working class, working poor

Philly School Crisis Meets Pushback

August 15, 2013 by Maynard Seider 1 Comment

While a group of determined teachers, parents and community activists rallied a small crowd in front of South Philadelphia High School on a rainy weekday, the powers-that-be in City Hall, Harrisburg and D.C. did nothing to avert an educational crisis that awaits 150,000 mostly poor and working-class students when school is due to open in […]

Filed Under: Classism in K-12 Education, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, education, protest, public school, public services, union-bashing

President Obama’s Middle Class: the Rhetoric and the Reality

February 18, 2013 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

It should come as no surprise that President Obama focused on the “middle class” in his State of the Union speech. He mentioned that term six times, even calling it “our generation’s task…to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.” What the president didn’t mention was the critical […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: deficit, low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, unions

Who represents the working class?

June 25, 2012 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

There was a time when if one asked, ‘Who represents the working class?’,  a reasonable answer would have been the Democratic Party.  But since Jimmy Carter that party has moved to the right, supports so-called Free Trade, champions legislation that fosters financial speculation, has forgotten the poor as a group worthy of aid,  and goes […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: immigrants, middle class, Occupy Movement, teachers unions, unions, working class

Wall Street occupation for the 99%

October 3, 2011 by Maynard Seider 1 Comment

The first thing I felt when I arrived at Liberty Park in New York City this past Saturday was the energy. It brought me back to the late ‘60s when I was a graduate student in Wisconsin. Now, in what might become the American Autumn, hundreds of men and women, mostly in their 20s and […]

Filed Under: #Occupy, Class in The News, Classism in the Economy Tagged With: corporate welfare, recession unemployment, social movements, tax the rich

A 4th of July Declaration of Dependence

July 11, 2011 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

It’s no small irony that on the 4th of July weekend our nation’s largest union surrendered a chunk of its independence. At their annual meeting in Chicago, the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly voted to support the use of student standardized test results in the evaluation of teachers. That vote alters the union’s previous opposition […]

Filed Under: Classism in K-12 Education, Classism in Politics Tagged With: kids, public school, selling out, standardized testing, teachers unions

Who represents the working class in Massachusetts?

April 29, 2011 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

The vote to take away public employee health care bargaining rights took place thirty minutes before midnight, on April 26th,  while most of the state slept, oblivious to the event.    The scene would have brought a big smile to the face of Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker.   But this wasn’t Madison.   This was Boston, and […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, health care cuts, union-bashing

The Politics of “Waiting for Superman”

November 10, 2010 by Maynard Seider 6 Comments

I fidgeted throughout the film Waiting for Superman, through the bells and whistles, the graphs, the close-ups of the five cute kids and their caring single moms, grandmas and parents, having read enough reviews, and having listened to enough critiques to know that I wasn’t going to like the film.  And I didn’t,  but what […]

Filed Under: Class in the Media, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: charter schools, kids, teachers unions

Beware of Cabinet Officers Bearing “Gifts”

September 15, 2010 by Maynard Seider 2 Comments

“We already have the privatization of the military…; we’ve seen the privatization of the prison system. Well, the next step is the privatization of public schools.” That prediction by Jonathan Kozol four years ago has come closer to reality with the enactment of President Obama’s Race to the Top educational goals. Besides continuing the previous […]

Filed Under: Classism in K-12 Education, Politics and Class Tagged With: charter schools, privatization, teachers unions

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