It's only in the context of uniting people around this immediate crisis that the vast majority

we're facing, which is the struggle to survive.

It's only in the context of that type of fight that you can actually win large numbers of people

to a vision of solidarity instead of scapegoating.

When you talk to people's material needs, it allows you to reach so far beyond your

echo chamber that there's just no other form of politics that can have that level of power.

I'm Katie Gaddy Tossan, and welcome back to The Money with Katie Show. Now, before you listen to

this conversation, I wanted to tell you a little bit about why it felt like it was such a big

aha moment for me. Now, a conversation that I have heard and participated in a lot this year is

the idea of feeling helpless in the face of our economic and or political climate.

You probably heard me gesture at a sense of hopelessness in our most recent Rich Girl Roundup.

And then after we recorded that, I had this conversation with Eric Blanc,

professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and author of the book,

We Are the Union, how worker-to-worker organizing is revitalizing labor and winning big?

And I also listened to Ezra Klein interview Taunahassee Coates on his show.

And I have to tell you I feel better.

Now, worker-to-worker organizing certainly is not perfect, and I don't want to suggest that it is.

But it is one of the most practical and direct ways to both form real oppositional power structures and maybe more surprisingly actually actually feel a sense of durable control and hope.

The fact that organizing for better working conditions can have a broad sweep of positive

consequences is why it felt like this discussion in particular was a good fit for our show, especially

right now, because it's about using the economic system rather than being used by it to take

back power in the face of feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. So, enjoy.

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