We Make the Road by Walking: Immigrant Workers, the Workplace Project, and the Struggle for Social Change Symposium: Economic Justice in America's Citie: Visions and Revisions of a Movement

Authors

Jennifer Gordon, Fordham University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review

Volume

30

Publication Date

1995

Keywords

Immigrant worker, Long Island, underground economy, Workplace Project

Abstract

This Article addresses the problems faced by immigrant workers on Long Island. Part I briefly examines the transition on Long Island from an economy based on manufacturing to one based on services, as well as the growth of the underground economy. Part II addresses the failure of government agencies, legal services centers, and unions to confront the problems faced by immigrant workers in this period of economic transition. Part III presents the Workplace Project model as an alternative to those institutions. Part IV offers a critique of the Project, focusing on the conflict between providing individual legal representation and organizing a community of workers. Finally, Part V articulates a practice-based theory of social change which may provide workers with methods to transform their own lives.

Recommended Citation

Jennifer Gordon, We Make the Road by Walking: Immigrant Workers, the Workplace Project, and the Struggle for Social Change Symposium: Economic Justice in America's Citie: Visions and Revisions of a Movement, 30 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 407 (1995)
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/342