Gabriel Winant
@gabrielwinant.bsky.social
Historian, opinions my own. Hand upon the dollar, eye upon the scale. He/him.
Today, @gabrielwinant.bsky.social explains why a clear picture of how age mediates class would reveal not gerontocracy, but capitalism and the fractionated class system it produces.
Cradle to the Grave
As Sam Moyn has recently argued, "class reductionism" fails to explain differentiation along the generational gradient — a pattern clearly visible in economics, politics, and ideology.
lpeproject.org
More info here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Durban, January 1973 — Public Briefing
Durban, January 1973 — Public Briefing The world you are standing in Durban is South Africa’s industrial port — textile mills, factories, docks — and its African workers’ wages have been eaten aliv...
docs.google.com
It's intended as a classroom simulation, but the virtual test run with volunteers will be 8/28-8/30. Sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Help me test a labor history simulation: Durban, South Africa, 1973. Test-run: Aug 28-Aug 30
Please answer the questionnaire if you're game to try this out. We'll do the whole thing virtually using Discord, Zoom, and Google Forms. It's meant to be fairly absorbing, so I put it on a weekend, 8...
docs.google.com
Once again beating the drum for recruits to test out (virtually) my ultra-elaborate simulation, Durban mass strikes of 1973. Just worked out the rules by which the Zulu chief figure can bring scabs on the train from the homeland, and the strikers can meet them with bread or fists
NEW: A 28-year-old man died Tuesday morning following an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents in St. Augustine, marking the third death involving ICE in a week.
Man dies during immigration encounter in Florida, the third ICE-involved death in a week
Third ICE-involved death in a week confirmed after fatal St. Augustine crash during joint agency operation. National outrage grows over enforcement and deaths
miamiherald.com
Once again beating the drum for recruits to test out (virtually) my ultra-elaborate simulation, Durban mass strikes of 1973. Just worked out the rules by which the Zulu chief figure can bring scabs on the train from the homeland, and the strikers can meet them with bread or fists
Let me say also, once I have it tested running smoothly, I will give it to you if you want it for your own class, or other sicko reasons
Gabriel Winant@gabrielwinant.bsky.social · 3w agoOK I decided to test-run this ultra-elaborate labor history simulation if I can recruit enough people. It's for sickos. 8/28-30, all virtual (some synchronous). Based on Durban mass strike of 1973, demanding of time within that window. Below are intro doc and intake questionnaire if you want to join
OK I decided to test-run this ultra-elaborate labor history simulation if I can recruit enough people. It's for sickos. 8/28-30, all virtual (some synchronous). Based on Durban mass strike of 1973, demanding of time within that window. Below are intro doc and intake questionnaire if you want to join
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
workers_of_the_world_public_briefing
Durban, January 1973—Public Briefing The world you are standing in Durban is South Africa's industrial port—textile mills, factories, docks—and its African workers' wages have been eaten alive by in...
docs.google.com
Gabriel Winant@gabrielwinant.bsky.social · last mo.Ok I have made this very elaborate strike and workers’ movement simulation, close to complete: Durban mass strikes of 1973–>COSATU founding in 1985. But I can’t actually run it until April. Does anyone want to try it first? I think you need a minimum 40 participants
Ok I have made this very elaborate strike and workers’ movement simulation, close to complete: Durban mass strikes of 1973–>COSATU founding in 1985. But I can’t actually run it until April. Does anyone want to try it first? I think you need a minimum 40 participants
I was surprised to see fiddleheads at the market this late so I bought them. But I can’t really get them cleaner than this and haven’t cooked them in over a decade so can’t judge if this is normal gunk or unacceptable gunk
Oh no, what horrible news. Bea was an absolute lifelong fighter for a better world, a link to several previous eras of organizing going back to the Great Depression, a constant presence that felt infinite. Her loss is monumental.
Indivisible Chicago-South Side@indivchisouth.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe fierce, energetic Bea Lumpkin on her way from the South Side to the No Kings march last October! Bea Lumpkin (1918-2026) was a towering figure: labor organizer, educator, political activist, community leader, inspiration. If we feel tired, we'll remember Bea Lumpkin, active until age 107. ♥️RIP✊
People who might not be down with the ultimate end goal of policing knowledge (Wilentz, Appiah) have nevertheless signed on to the effort because they have particular axes to grind within their disciplines against intellectual work they personally don’t like.
The Vanderbilt report and Trump’s attack on the NIH and NSF are part of the same right-wing effort to attack the authority of all peer-reviewed knowledge so that they can police what researchers write, say, publish, and think to ensure it complies with corporate-friendly aims.
To the extent that people are angry (as they very much should be!) about the horrific war on science, they also need to get angry about this outrageous war on the humanities. Both attack peer reviewed research that doesn’t happen to fit with a center-right worldview.
Excellent op-ed from our own Mark Levin on UChicago's deal with Anthropic:
We were asked this year to believe this, that the imposition of curricular and expressive controls over teaching at Lab had no bearing on academic freedom on central campus:
Now we find out that the vice provost whose job is the interpretation/enforcement of the Kalven Report (the principles ostensibly being implemented at Lab), has all the while been writing a document on how universities need to assert more central control over academic departments
This is *exactly* what our chapter warned about in our open letter on the Lab School Standards:
Yet our vice provost in charge of these issues has *just said* that some fields in fact should be stripped of their academic autonomy
This year, UChicago launched a crackdown on teaching at a sub-unit where there is no faculty governance, the Lab School, asserting its prerogative to regulate expression of teachers, justified by the Kalven Report. At every step it has insisted this is only germane to Lab.
Here’s some of the art that UChicago deems too controversial to display at the Lab School
Thank you to all who came out yesterday to our two(!) demonstrations in defense of freedom to teach and learn
Dreams do come true. I reviewed Annie McClanahan's Beneath the Wage in Spectre. My thanks to editors @grundrza.bsky.social and Camila Valle.
Service with a Scowl – Spectre Journal
Sarah Brouillette reviews Annie McClanahan's Beneath the Wage.
spectrejournal.com
“Protest is part of the effort to strengthen shared governance on this campus & to build more of a culture of participation in governance of the University, which we view as having fallen too far under the influence of wealthy donors & political pressure from wealth.” — Gabe Winant, UChicago AAUP
Unions Protest Lab School Viewpoint Neutrality Standards, Low Wages on May Day
Six unions took to the quad today to promote union strength and protest various University actions.
chicagomaroon.com
Multiple women serving sentences for nonviolent crimes at the minimum security prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is now serving time were punished for speaking to reporters about the special treatment Maxwell receives. At least two women were transferred to higher security facilities as punishment.
Exclusive: Inmates describe being punished for speaking out about Ghislaine Maxwell | CNN
Ghislaine Maxwell’s fellow inmates speak to CNN about Maxwell’s special treatment in prison and how they were punished for criticizing Maxwell. MJ Lee reports on OutFront.
cnn.com
