Intersectional Organization: 2006 Immigrant Rights Protests in MSAs and Changes in Identity Politics in Labor Movements

• In Event: 4322 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Political Mobilization and Action

Abstract

This paper investigates whether intersectional organization helps labor movements to achieve their goal. By intersectional organization, I refer to the organizing of protests that embodies intersectional identities – that is fusing of identities. The organization of the 2006 protests are intersectional not only because it contains a number of social and economic identities such as worker, Hispanic, and immigrant identities but also because unions participated in the organization of a labor movement that was largely concerned with Hispanic and immigrant workers’ rights. Using Bada et al.’s dataset, the IWFR website, and the 2005 IPUMS Current Population Survey (IPUMS-CPS), I find that protest volume and size were greatest in cities with substantial organizational and human resources and high union density. This can be perceived as intersectional organization because unions moved away from focusing solely on worker identities and they addressed Hispanic and immigrant workers’ rights and their identities. This paper argues that labor movements can greatly benefit from intersectional organization in an era of the service economy characterized by high levels of employment, immigration, and income-inequality.

Author

• Dasom Lee, Vanderbilt University