n Chapter 9, especially, Zweig stresses the importance of independent organization for working class people – separate from bosses, managers, supervisors or outside “consultants.” Why?

In Chapter 9, especially, Zweig stresses the importance of independent organization for working class people – separate from bosses, managers,

supervisors or outside “consultants.” Why?
1. Working class people often do not see themselves as a group with common needs, interests and concerns. So, workers need to explore their

situation, talk about their shared issues and find their voice– separate from the interests, power and influence of the powerful & wealthy. They

need their own forum, their own organization – labor unions, and labor political parties.
2. When working class people unite with the wealthy and with their employers, the power differences too often determine the results. The extra

resources, money, and sense of entitlement on the part of employers, managers, owners, and their lobbyists and lawyers shape the outcome. Working

class people often fall silent, feel unsure of themselves, become passive, let “the experts” make decisions – in short, give up their power to the

representatives of the more dominant sectors of society. (Those people seem to talk with confidence, they seem to “know it all”… and they can be

very dismissive and impatient with working class people who try to articulate a different position.
3. Zweig argues that there are fundamental differences between the interests of working people and the interests of company owners, banks,

corporations and the wealthy:
A. Working people want steady jobs, under safe working conditions, earning good incomes that will allow them to support themselves and their

families.
B. The wealthy [the finance sector (bankers, investors and financial managers) and the owners of business] want to increase profits – by paying

lower wages, cutting health care and other benefits, ignoring Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA) guidelines if they cost money to implement, AND

*always* having the right to shut down their business in the U.S. and move to another state or another country where wages and environmental

protections are cheaper.
Over the last few years, you have heard a lot about the 99% and the top 1% as a result of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This movement was

protesting the immense difference in wealth between the top 1% of the population and the bottom 99% of the population. In New York City, tens of

thousands of people participated in Occupy Wall Street. The encampment at Zucotti Park lasted for months. It was mainly young people, and mostly

white people, but also older people – especially workers, trade unionists, African Americans and Latinos. These community allies – especially the

labor unions who mobilized 20,000 strong – stopped police misconduct against the Occupiers on several occasions.
“Occupy Wall Street” became a nationwide movement in 2011 – far beyond the reaches of New York City. The movement set up encampments of tents and

rallies and “happenings” in cities all across the country; five different Occupy encampments were set up in the state of Indiana. These lasted

various time periods, ranging from a few weeks to several months – in cities like Bloomington, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, and Indianapolis

– together with large rallies in Gary. In my home city, South Bend, the Occupy Movement held onto their tent encampment for three and half months!
The Occupy Movement made the issue of profound income inequality a national concern. Social inequality became a front-page issue, from September

2011, through the Presidential Elections of November, 2012. The trend of increased income inequality in the United States began more than 30 years

ago in 1980; every year since then, the wealthiest sectors of our society have increased their income and wealthy, while the purchasing power,

salaries, and wealth of the middle class, working class and poor have diminished. (You read about this in the documents by Martin Wolfson, the

economist from Notre Dame.)
Income inequality has been accomplished through various means, including regular tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Zweig reviews this process

in detail in Chapter 9.
While the rise in income inequality has been a well-documented trend over the past 30 years, it was silenced or ignored until very recently. In the

fall of 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement brought the issue to the Front Page of every newspaper, to the center of attention. It became a major

issue in the presidential campaign of 2012. And this concern resonates with the issues Zweig raises in Chapters 8 & 9 – see for example Pg. 177 and

the references provide by Zweig for this chapter.