First, I am posting a series of long quotes from Wolin that you can refer to in your answers. You do not need to use all of them, but in some of your answers where I ask you to include Wolin’s analysis, you should at a minimum make use of some of what is in these quotes.
Second, below you will find four questions that I would like you to answer as you final writing assignment. Each answer will be worth 15 points for a total of 60 points. Each answer should probably be two pages (double spaced, 12 point font, paragraphs). If you have more than two pages to write, please do so. If you refer or quote something, include the parenthetical citation with author and page. If you are using Wolin and McAlevey, you do not need to include a bibliography, the in text citation will be enough.
Include your name and the course on the first page, number the answers and please number your pages.
1. Discuss and describe the methods of organizing and of “sloughing off political passivity” (as Wolin writes) that McAlevey outlines in Chapters 5, 6. Using an example of one of the people whose story McAlevey tells, evaluate Wolin’s statement that creating a democracy requires “the democratization of the self.”
2. First, McAlevey recites many of the reasons why criticism of unions are incorrect. In terms of what Wolin defines as democracy (see quotes), how are unions democratic and what might that mean for the one place where our democratic rights are absent, the workplace? Second, evaluate how McAlevey establishes that unions have actually failed in their duty to be democratic organizations and what examples does she give us that show how unions can and have become more democratic?
3. McAlevey asserts that the work of shifting power in workplaces so that workers have greater respect, dignity and a share in the resources of a workplace builds democracy as a political project. In other words, democracy is a situation where power is not concentrated in the hands of one group of people. Using Wolin and McAlevey, what is the relationship of workplaces and political citizenship? Then either argue for or argue against the idea that citizenship and employment are mutually reinforcing in the political society that we have in the United States. I’m asking you to choose one position or the other and explain that position and its justification or argument.
4. Read the account of the LA teacher’s union and their campaign in 2014 (Chapter 6). First, how were the two key ingredients of union organizing, leader identification and structure tests, used by UTLA to organize for a new contract? Second, what were the teachers not fighting for and why were charter schools seen by UTLA as such a problem? Third, what have you learned about public schools, teachers and democracy from the story McAlevey recounts about the LA schools?
