How Things Work

Articles

Not Just Unions; Strike-Ready Unions.

1 week ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

I wrote a piece for In These Times this week called “Unions Without Strikes,” which was prompted by something very big and very ominous that has been on my mind: the fact that there have been no strikes, or even real hints at strikes, in response to the most egregious government assaults on organized labor since WW2. Today, I want to briefly expand on a couple of points in that piece—one analytical, and one that I hope is of immediate practical use.
An International Minimum Wage

2 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

What’s the problem with “free trade?” After all, it is quite economically rational. A company moves a factory overseas and hires cheap labor for the same reason that a company does not build its factory on Fifth Avenue and hire NBA players to run the machines: because companies always seek the lowest labor costs for the same amount of work.
Leave the Military

2 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Do not join the United States military. Don’t join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marines, or National Guard. If you are in contact with young people who are considering joining the military, counsel them not to do it. If you are in a position to steer people away from military recruiters, do so. If you are in the military, get out of it as soon as possible. When your enlistment period is up, leave. If there is a safe and lawful way for you to leave early, do that.
Divergence From the Interests of Capital

3 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

One of the most interesting things about the current Trump administration is the fact that we have a Republican president who is boldly leading the nation down a path that is contrary to the standard interests of capital. I do not say this in a complimentary sense. This is interesting in the same way that the methods and predilections of a prolific serial killer are interesting.
They Are Going to Take Everything If We Don't Stop Them

3 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

The worst thing that the federal government has done to labor unions in my lifetime happened last night. Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that the government will no longer recognize and bargain with a huge portion of the unions that represent federal workers.
There's No Justice Without Power

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Nick Denton is the richest person I’ve ever known well. He founded Gawker Media, and, at least at one point, had a nine-figure net worth. and I worked with him there for eight years, including a bizarre year when he was my direct editor. I wasn’t friends with him socially, but I spent enough time with him and went to enough parties in his loft to come to a sort of understanding of him. The sort of understanding of him I had was: I did not understand him.
The Underlying Problem

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

There is a lot of chaos emanating from Washington. A decade of Donald Trump’s presence as a political figure has shattered the assumptions of many who thought that they understood how things worked in America.
Ride or Die, Cowboy

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

“Lippy broke down and cried a time or two, thinking of Gus. To him, the mysterious part was why Gus wanted to be taken to Texas. ‘All that way to Texas,’ Lippy kept saying. ‘He must have been drunk.’ …‘Why Texas beats me,’ Soupy said. ‘I always heard he was from Tennessee.’ ‘I wonder what he’d have to say about being dead,’ Needle said.
Seeing Things For What They Are

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Born into a chaotic world, all of us develop a frame of reference to make everything intelligible. Consciously or not, we all have a narrative about reality that we overlay on events, placing them into a context in our own minds, allowing us to understand why things happened and what is likely to happen next.
The More You Have, the Less You Fight

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

As our thrilling national descent into fascism proceeds day by day, along with it comes an increasingly frantic search for the answer to the question: “Who will save us?” The more ruthlessly the crank of oppression turns, the larger the pool of citizens becomes who begin casting their eyes to the horizon of American society in search of saviors.