What Are Company Towns?

[@tomhall7633]

Well Tracie, Suggested reading. "Labor's Untold Story", Richard O. Boyer & Herbert M. Morais, Published by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union In the post Taft/Hartley red scare in the year of my birth 195-- something. John Steinbeck's, "In Dubious Battle", (a shorter read than "The Grapes of Wrath" focusing more on working peoples struggle to organize during the Great Depression). Of course Steinbeck's works are fiction, but both of these works were close at hand during my organizing days under the dark Reagan years in the 1980's. Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" (1999). None of these books can be found on the recommended reading list of Texas public schools, which is high praise indeed! And once again I am always impressed in how you stitch it all together.

[@athomeinmyhead]

Wow. Thank you so much for those offerings. I am always torn between support for things like Unions, and the idea that classism needs to die as the larger issue. I guess as long as there is classism, we need unions. But ultimately I would like to see unions become unnecessary with the death of classism.

[@tomhall7633]

@@athomeinmyhead I can certainly endorse that. Organizing labor is just a means to re-balance the power between labor and capital. And Unions, like all human institutions are subject to corruption and hopefully renewal as well. The ends are a more just and pluralistic society which honestly confronts our past and holds dear our obligations to future generations.

[@Russian_malchik]

I’m glad I found your channel. Had some nostalgic moments rewatching some old ACA episodes. Only that time I was a newly deconverted atheist and didn’t know that the hardest part of being an atheist wasn’t leaving old beliefs behind, but staying in touch with the community while living in a very conservative and toxic society. And so I wanna thank you and other former hosts for giving me that feeling of not being alone while I was making my first steps in the new skin.

[@athomeinmyhead]

Thank you for letting me know. I hope you're doing well.

[@keithwilkerson7519]

It is amazing how often we accept the way things are instead of looking at ways to improve. Also how resistant Americans are to ideas that work quite well in other countries.

[@athomeinmyhead]

Kind of a sidebar, but your comment reminded me of another conversation I had with a friend just yesterday. They said that moving abroad really impacted their worldview (they went to school in the US). And /that/ reminded me of how much I love James Baldwin and his insights on US racism. A big part of his perspective came out of living in Europe for years. I am not a fan of debate formats, but his debate with William F. Buckley is incredible in that Buckley uses a lot of US assumptions about race and racism that Baldwin identifies and challenges expertly due to his experiences abroad. In the past I pushed back pretty hard on the idea that the US indoctrinated citizens, including using schools. But today I can no longer deny that we really are an extremely insulated nation. I think this is why it's so easy for people to argue with us about internal social issues, and we don't really push back that much--because we aren't actually informed about other options.

[@keithwilkerson7519]

@athomeinmyhead I binge watched every James Baldwin's video. I have never heard anyone talk about racism like he did.

[@VeronicaPrior]

Austin still wants to build affordable housing especially for teachers. I think it's a bad idea, leading to sort of "teacher ghettos."

[@athomeinmyhead]

Yep. And it's the same issue. We have vacant homes in Austin--we have /foreclosures/. It would be a lot more cost efficient if we just paid their rents.

[@zq_77]

Hi Tracie. Searching your name on KZbin does not appear to mention this channel in the results. I'm sure a lot of your TAE fans like myself would like to hear your voice and opinions. It was not straight forward finding this channel. Please considering adding your name to the description of the channel. Please keep posting more content. All the best.

[@athomeinmyhead]

Thank you for your kind comments. I purposely don't attach myself to this channel because I'm specifically uninterested in creating a bridge to my past work with ACA. If folks find the channel, that's fine. I don't have a problem with someone interested in this content being here if they knew my prior work. But I don't think anyone should necessarily be here because it's my channel. The content will either resonate or it won't. I think most folks who were fans of AxP won't actually be interested in this content--which is not to say /none/ would be. Just that most of the ones I engaged while at ACA wouldn't actually be people I see as finding this interesting. And many I would prefer forget about me entirely. I think it's more likely folks who listened to GB 2.0 would be more into it, if anyone at all from those days.