This Economist blogger see signs of significant organisation among the unemployed in America. Unlike previous downturns, this time there is low cost networking available to help those without work develop a cohesive political response to their situation.
What’s happening now with the increase in duration of unemployment, is that you’re starting to get large numbers of people with good organisational skills and lots and lots of time on their hands. And they’re spending enough time without jobs that they are beginning to self-identify as unemployed, and to form bonds with others in the same situation. This is a phenomenon that I don’t think has been seen in America since Martin Luther King’s marches against poverty in the 1960s, if not since the Depression, and it will be interesting to see what comes of it.
