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The Politics Of Three Case Studies Industrialization, Eve S. Weinbaum

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article analyzes the grassroots efforts of the working and unemployed poor of three Appalachian communities to improve their towns ' devastated economy in an era of rapid economic change and globalization. While all three were beset by plant closings, their forms of political mobilization, both before and after the shutdown, differed. Each group of workers mounted a communitywide campaign designed to convince the company to stay, to induce local government action, to receive pay and benefits due, and to influence state legislation and economic development policy. Mobilization in the wake of a plant closing is rather extraordinary, especially in …