Literature meets activism: Barbara Ehrenriech

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A car wash employee speaks with a labor representative/translator on his left; author Barbara Ehrenreich (in green) listens from the sidelines.

Barbara Ehrenriech was full of conversation at Skylight Books Thursday night. She read a few satiric passages from her new book ‘The Land is Their Land’ but mostly talked liberal politics to a receptive audience. Heads nodded at what she called ‘the growing division in our society between the extremely rich and everybody else.’ There were several spontaneous bursts of applause.

It started to feel a little like an affluent dinner party of ‘The Nation’ subscribers, everyone in quite comfortable circumstances agreeing on our leftist politics. But Ehrenriech, who worked low-wage jobs to research her 2001 book ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ did more than just preach to the converted. To read exactly what she said, see below ...

Before her question-and-answer session, Ehrenreich opened the mic to labor organizers who work with car wash employees. As the L.A. Times reported in March, car washes are rife with problems -- unhealthy work environments, wages below minimum, long hours without breaks and immigration violations. Labor unions are now working with carwash employees to improve conditions. The audience shifted restlessly as a young labor organizer explained efforts to boycott some of the offending operators, including Vermont Carwash, just down the street from the bookstore.

By the time one of the workers from the Vermont Avenue facility stepped up to explain his circumstances -- in Spanish, with translation -- the crowd had warmed to the idea of genuine activism. Everyone signed up for a circulating e-mail list. People also jotted down an event in support of the carwash campaign this afternoon with Ehrenreich at Mama’s Hot Tamales (they serve awfully good tamales) next to MacArthur Park. Did this discussion of economic inequality actually prompt people to try to help the working poor? I, for one, vowed not to return to Vermont Carwash again.

And then Ehrenreich returned to Skylight’s center stage to answer questions, reminding the audience what we’d come for: her book.

Carolyn Kellogg