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Common Sense for Hard Times The Power of the Powerless to Cope with Everyday life and Transform Society in The Nineteen Seventies Brecher, Jeremy; Costello, Tim Publisher:  Two Continents Publishing, New York, USA Year Published:  1976   Pages:  277pp   ISBN:  0-8467-0175-8 Library of Congress Number:  HD8072.B724   Dewey:  301.4442 Resource Type:  Book Presents a vision of society as it is and as it could be. Putting the problems of contemporary daily life in historical perspective, it reveals that they have their roots in the way our society is organized, and thereby enables us to re-examine our own situation and experience. Abstract:  The life of our society is based on the cooperative labor of the great majority who do the work; it is controlled by the small minority of owners, managers, businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats for whom they work. For most people, every aspect of daily life is shaped by the power of the dominant majority. What you experience at work, what you have available to meet your needs at home, the very environment in which you live -- all depends upon the chaotic interaction of the decisions made by the rich and powerful. When things go smoothly, when the ways to achieve a good life seem evident, most people see this control as something to accept, not something to challenge. But when, as now, people's needs go unmet, when the future looks bleak, when the power of that minority promises nothing but misery, insecurity and endless labor, then it is time to put an end to the system of minority control. The means to do so are at hand. Our society is created by what working people do in their daily life. Corporations would crumble, governments collapse and armies disintegrate if those who activity made them up simply refused to continue the behavior that maintains them. If the majority took control of their own activity, they would have the power to shape this activity as they choose, and thereby shape society. This reality gives ordinary people, who often appear so powerless, a great potential power. What is necessary to end minority rule is for the majority to use that power. Topics Action Activism/Radicalism Alienation Automotive Industry Boycotts Class Class Conflict/Class Struggle Class Consciousness Collective Bargaining Community Action Groups Contract Labour Co-operation Daily Life Direct Action Discrimination Discrimination in the Workplace Economic Depression Environmental Crisis Environmental Degradation Ethnic Groups Farmworkers Identity Politics Immigration Interest Groups Labour Issues Labour Movement Minorities Neighbourhoods Privatization Racism Radical Political Theory Radicalism Resistance Social Alternatives Socialism Steel Industry Strategies for Social Change Strikebreakers Strikes Textile Industry Unemployment Unions U.S. Politics Wage Labour White Collar Productivity Wildcat Strikes Women & Work Work Work Hours Work Issues Workers Workers' Rights Working Class Working Poor Workplace Change Workplace Issues Workplace & Labour Workplace Organizing Youth

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