In Defense of the US Working Class

By: Mary-Alice Waters

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Synopsis: "Without understanding the devastation of the lives of working-class families in regions like West Virginia, and the vast increase in class inequality since the 2008 crisis, you can't understand what's happening in the United States." So explains Mary-Alice Waters in this transcript of a speech given at a conference in Havana, Cuba, in April 2018. A giant has begun to stir. Hillary Clinton calls them "deplorables" who inhabit "backward" regions between New York and San Francisco. But tens of thousands of teachers and school employees from West Virginia, Oklahoma, and beyond set an example in 2018 with their victorious strikes. Working people across Florida mobilized and won restoration of voting rights to more than one million former prisoners. Drawing on the best fighting traditions of the oppressed and exploited producers of all skin colors and national origins in the US, they fought for dignity and respect for themselves, their families, and for all working people.