Intersectional Class Struggle: To Walk & Chew Gum At The Same Time / Michael Beyea Reagan

Michael Beyea Reagan, historian and activist, joins me to discuss his book Intersectional Class Struggle: Theory and Practice, an "innovative study [that] explores the relevance of class as a theoretical category in our world today, arguing that leading traditions of class analysis have missed major elements of what class is and how it operates."

In our time of increasing wealth disparity and widespread socioeconomic precarity for the working class (dubbed the "Second Gilded Age"), how can intersectionality, as a theoretical framework and practice, help us more deeply understand and appreciate the liberatory struggles of racial, economic, and feminist movements? Reagan, through his excellent historical documentation in Intersectional Class Struggle, has provided a more nuanced, and richer, view of class consciousness that does not fit into crude boxes. 

Using a historical lens, it studies the experiences of working class peoples, from migrant farm workers in California’s central valley, to the “factory girls” of New England, and black workers in the South to explore the variety of working-class experiences. It investigates how the concepts of racial capitalism and black feminist thought, when applied to class studies and popular movements, allow us to walk and chew gum at the same time—to recognize that our movements can be diverse and particularistic as well as have elements of the universal experience shared by all workers. Ultimately, it argues that class is made up of all of us, it is of ourselves, in all our contradiction and complexity.

Video Segment:

Bio:

Michael B. Reagan is a historian and lecturer at the University of Washington’s Robinson Center for Young Scholars and adjunct faculty at Seattle College. His writing has appeared in Spectre, Truthout, Counterpunch, Perspectives, Found SF, and the South Seattle Emerald.

Episode Notes:

Learn more about Michael’s work at his website

Purchase a copy of Intersectional Class Struggle from AK Press or Bookshop 

Read Intersectional class struggle: from shared oppression to unified resistance at ROAR Magazine

Song featured is “thedge.” by Knxwledge from the album VGM.13