Nonprofit Workers Need Unions, Too
As socialists look out at the horizon of the struggle for a radically reformed society, we should try, like good Marxists, to anticipate where and with whom conflicts are likely to arise and how we are going to deal with those challenges. The local nature of coming fights and the arenas in which we operate may be setting the stage for increasing conflict with the “nonprofit industrial complex,” which present unique and dangerous challenges and for which we need to prepare to contend with not only outright class enemies but also our erstwhile allies. We cannot contend with the nonprofit world in the same ways as capital; they enjoy legitimacy and prestige not only among progressives but among many radicals as well, and often that esteem is well deserved and rooted deeply in marginalized communities. But conflict will come, and in that conflict, a radical labor approach will be a critical tool.