Birth Strike – Author Talk with Jenny Brown and Crystal Grabowski – April 20 | New Labor Book Series #11

Join us for our next in the author talk series, a discussion with Jenny Brown—editor at Labor Notes and author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women’s Work—and Crystal Grabowski, a abortion care worker organizer from Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania UE Local 696—about reproductive justice in the worker power context. 

We’ll be talking about Jenny’s insights as a journalist and organizer at the intersection of women’s liberation and the labor movement. We’ll tie those insights into Crystal’s experience on UE Local 696’s first bargaining committee, which began unionizing in 2021 and has now successfully ratified their first contract. If you’re interested in better understanding how reproductive justice and worker power are inextricably linked, or have questions about what on the ground organizing in this context looks like, join us.

About Jenny Brown

Jenny Brown is a National Women’s Liberation organizer and editor of Labor Notes. She was a leader in the grassroots campaign to have morning-after pill contraception available over the counter in the U.S. and was a plaintiff in the winning lawsuit. In addition to Labor Notes, her work has appeared in Jacobin, Huffington Post, and Alternet, and she is coauthor of the Redstockings book Women’s Liberation and National Health Care: Confronting the Myth of America. She is the author of Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now.

Praise for Birth Strike

“An astute analysis of power relations not only in the sphere of reproduction but also in the worlds of work, immigration, and government policy as they bear on women’s ability to control their bodies. She illuminates the historical context of the writings of Marx and Malthus, the crusades of Comstock, and recurring elite pleas for women to supply more workers and soldiers. Brown lays bare why U.S. women who want to be mothers, and those who don’t, have it far worse here than in Europe. Then she tells us how to change that.”

—Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes

“Jenny Brown compellingly explains the low U.S. birth rate: those primarily responsible for the labor of bearing and raising children (women) are responding as one should to lousy working conditions—by going on strike! Brown’s bold and brilliant book ventures into terrain that left and feminist thinkers have avoided for far too long. A breathtakingly accessible analysis, supported by riveting and intimate testimonials, it’s also an inspiring call to action.”

—Liza Featherstone, The Nation