Labor Muscles versus Gerontocratic Politics: Who Will Bring Democracy to the US?
Wednesday, January 31, 2024 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm CET/GMT+1Lecture Hall, Platanenstr. 98A, 13156 Berlin
The United States is facing a fateful election and it looks very much like the same two old men, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, will compete again. According to recent studies, the overall public mood in the US is bad. Young Americans, in particular, are frustrated about the lack of reforms and how power is generally organized in the country. While trust in the political system is in ever graver decline, we have seen a revival of the labor movement in the last few years. Grassroots unions are taking on companies like Starbucks and Amazon; established unions like the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers won significant gains in recent strikes. Journalist Lukas Hermsmeier discusses both developments, growing political apathy and union revitalization, and explains what political actors, the Democratic Party in particular, could learn from the labor world.
Register for the lecture and Q&A with Lukas Hermsmeier with this Google Form. A reception will follow the event.
Lukas Hermsmeier is an independent journalist from Berlin based in New York. He writes for publications such as Zeit Online, Die Wochenzeitung, and The New York Times about politics and culture. His first book Uprising – America's New Left (Klett-Cotta, 2022) is about the resurgence of the US left since Occupy Wall Street.
Email: [email protected]