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Person

Karen Nussbaum

Karen Nussbaum portrait (link)
Nationality:

American
Occupation:

Labor Activism

Executive Director, Working America

Former Director, United State’s Women’s Bureau
Born:

1950

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Karen Nussbaum is a career left-of-center organizer and feminist activist who has spent more than 50 years working to increase the political and societal influence of labor unions. She has held leadership positions with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO, two of the most powerful labor unions in the United States. She also ran the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton.

Throughout her career as an activist, Nussbaum has collaborated with several prominent left-leaning celebrities, including singer Dolly Parton, comedian Lily Tomlin, and actress Jane Fonda, who became notorious for her visit to communist-ruled North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. 1 Nussbaum herself took several trips to communist-ruled Cuba with a left-wing youth group. 2

Nussbaum’s first major left-of-center activism venture in the 1970s was 9to5, also known as the National Association of Working Women. In 2003, she founded Working America, a labor organization which functions as a voter mobilization operation, receiving significant funding from the AFL-CIO to target non-union members and motivate them to vote for union-friendly Democratic Party politicians. In addition to her activism, Nussbaum continues to write and give interviews to various left-wing publications, including the self-described socialist magazine Jacobin and the American Prospect, which was co-founded by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, another Clinton White House alumnus. 1 3

Nussbaum opposed Republican presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, deploying Working America during both the 2004 and 2016 elections to campaign against them. 4 5

Early Activism

As a teenager, Karen Nussbaum traveled to Cuba at least twice as part of the Venceremos (“We Shall Overcome”) Brigade, a radical left-wing movement which organized missions to the communist-controlled country aimed at rallying its supporters and assisting Cuba’s state-run sugar industry. Venceremos primarily recruited from the influential college campus-based socialist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). 2 6

While the Venceremos Brigades involvement did not appear to have helped the Cuban economy (the 1970 sugar harvest ended up being the least profitable in the country’s history up to that time) Venceremos succeeded in producing hundreds of revolutionary socialist activists in America. Nussbaum described her travels with the brigade as a “fantastic experience” which taught her “what it meant to be a radical” and was integral to her “process of becoming a full-time activist.” 2 6

Protest Years

During the wave of left-wing social unrest which peaked in the 1970s, Karen Nussbaum launched the National Association of Working Women, or 9to5, with the backing of the SEIU. The organization gained publicity and traction thanks to support from Nussbaum’s associates in the anti-Vietnam War movement, most notably from actress Jane Fonda, who also went on to collaborate with her on the Working America project. Nussbaum went on to work for the SEIU directly, spending two decades with the union, becoming the president of the district chapter which had provided initial support for 9to5 and later joining the executive board of the national union. 1

Clinton Administration

In the mid-1990s, Karen Nussbaum left the SEIU and joined the AFL-CIO. Here, she continued to promote a feminist agenda, successfully pushing the union to create a women’s department. She eventually became the assistant to the AFL-CIO president and remained in the position until 2018. The union’s president at that time was Richard Trumka. 1

Nussbaum also worked in the Clinton administration, overseeing the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor. Together with Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Nussbaum was responsible for providing more than a dozen policy recommendations regarding women in the workforce to President Clinton. One of the most controversial proposals would have required federal contractors to report wage information in addition to race and gender data to regulators, which some critics claimed would increase the government’s affirmative action pressure on businesses. 7

Working America

In 2003, Karen Nussbaum founded the labor activist group Working America and its nonprofit affiliate, the Working America Education Fund, which work together to fund and develop initiatives that mobilize voters who are not themselves members of labor unions to support pro-union causes and politicians. Nussbaum launched Working America with the backing of the AFL-CIO, just as she had received support from the SEIU in the 1970s to create the National Association of Working Women. Working America claims to have more than 3.5 million members and touts its success at enlisting support for liberal labor movement causes from voters who are otherwise not affiliated with the political left. 1

Bush Presidency

Nussbaum, Working America, and the AFL-CIO collaborated to oppose the re-election of President George W. Bush. In March 2004, the two unions launched a campaign across key swing states. This “Show Us the Jobs” tour aimed to demonstrate Bush’s perceived failure to combat unemployment and create economic conditions for higher wages. At the time, Nussbaum claimed that the campaign was not about politics, but the Chicago Tribune reported that many labor experts viewed the tour as a sign that the AFL-CIO had made defeating Bush a top political priority. 4

Obama Presidency

Nussbaum was a vocal supporter of Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama. When Obama was re-elected in 2012, she released a statement calling his victory a win for working families and praising other Democrats who had run alongside him, including progressive left-wing Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Nussbaum also touted her organization’s contribution to Obama’s re-election, claiming that Working America had reached three million undecided and unlikely voters. 8

Trump Presidency

Nussbaum deployed Working America to oppose the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. The organization described its strategy as an appeal to what it called “searchers” who allegedly leaned towards supporting Trump because they were “bereft of hope.” According to Working America political director Matt Morrison, the organization primarily aimed to shift voters from being pro-Trump to undecided, acknowledging that the perceived establishment ties of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton made it difficult to secure voters’ explicit support for her. 5

Writing

Throughout her career, Karen Nussbaum has published and contributed to several books which promote organized labor activism in the workplace, including ones aimed specifically at women. She has also written extensively for various left-wing publications since at least the early 2010s, most notably for the American Prospect. 1

In 2018, she argued that the perceived enthusiasm for President Donald Trump among working-class white Americans was an opportunity for liberal activists to “seize” this momentum and channel it towards advancing their preferred labor initiatives. 9 The following year, she also claimed that liberals could be successful in convincing white working-class voters to support major environmentalist causes and economic redistribution initiatives such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. 10

References

  1. Karen Nussbaum. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://www.karennussbaum.com/
  2. Marianela D’Aprile. “9to5 Brought Women Into Labor and Working-Class Women Into the Women’s Movement.” Jacobin. February 1, 2021. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://jacobin.com/2021/02/9to5-labor-working-class-womens-movement-karen-nussbaum
  3. “Karen Nussbaum.” Working America. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://www.workingamerica.org/staff/karen-nussbaum
  4. T. Shawn Taylor. “Labor to assail Bush’s record on jobs.” Chicago Tribune. March 23, 2004. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0403230130mar23-story.html
  5. Marianne Levine. “How labor groups are fighting Trump.” Politico. October 28, 2016. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-labor-groups-230426
  6. Robert Stilson. “The Venceremos Brigade: Fifty Years of Cuban Solidarity.” Capital Research Center. July 18, 2019. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-venceremos-brigade-fifty-years-of-cuban-solidarity/
  7. Pat Swift. “Clinton’s Steps Toward Progress Steady But Slow.” The Buffalo News. April 15, 1995. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://buffalonews.com/news/clintons-steps-toward-progress-steady-but-slow/article_52998121-2108-5bee-93dd-6a104eb68d9e.html
  8. [1]“Statement by Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum on Re-election of President Barack Obama.” Working America. November 14, 2012. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://www.workingamerica.org/news/post/statement-working-america-executive-director-karen-nussbaum-re-election-president-barack
  9. Karen Nussbaum. “Class Consciousness Comes to America.” The American Prospect. October 29, 2018. Accessed January 1, 2023.

    https://prospect.org/economy/class-consciousness-comes-america/

  10. Karen Nussbaum. “The Climate Crisis and the White Working Class.” December 12, 2019. Accessed January 1, 2023. https://prospect.org/environment/the-climate-crisis-and-the-white-working-class/
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