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The Auto Strike Upturns Politics

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Luke Savage on a historic labor battle.

Jeet Heer

October 1, 2023

Demonstrators during a United Auto Workers practice picket outside the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit, Mich., on August 23, 2023.(Photo: Jeff Kowalsky / Bloomberg)

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The Auto Strike Upturns Politics | Time of Monsters
byThe Nation Magazine

The United Auto Workers union has launched an innovative strike against all three major automakers, a major disruption that is upturning American politics, as both major parties are divided on it. 

On the Republican side, Donald Trump is disingenuously posing as a populist by going to the picket line. But rivals like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott show that the GOP commitment to union-bashing is still strong. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden has a strong record as a president supporting labor but he has been cautious about showing overt support. Only after much prodding did he decide to join picketers.

Luke Savage wrote about the strike for Jacobin magazine where he is a staff writer. We talk about the strike and the larger labor upsurge. 

Savage is the author of the forthcoming book Seeking Social Democracy. In the conversation, he references a Tim Scott video, which can be viewed here as well as a Politico article which can be read here.

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The United Auto Workers union has launched an innovative strike against all three major automakers, a major disruption that is upturning American politics, as both major parties are divided on it. 

On the Republican side, Donald Trump is disingenuously posing as a populist by going to the picket line. But rivals like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott show that the GOP commitment to union-bashing is still strong. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden has a strong record as a president supporting labor, but he has been cautious about showing overt support. Only after much prodding did he decide to join picketers.

Luke Savage wrote about the strike for Jacobin magazine, where he is a staff writer. We talk about the strike and the larger labor upsurge.

Savage is the author of the forthcoming book Seeking Social Democracy. In the conversation, he references a Tim Scott video that can be viewed here and a Politico article that can be read here.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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