We Need a 21st-Century Works Progress Administration
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration was a key New Deal agency that put millions of unemployed workers back to work on public infrastructure projects. We need a new WPA for the 21 century.
Two people working on a sewing project as part of the Works Progress Administration. (Library of Congress)
How can we help the unemployed get good-paying work, advance toward a green world, and get more workers into unions? And at the same time rebuild what has been shattered by two generations of neoliberal attacks — a belief that government’s role is to build a more just society?
A 21st century WPA.
In the Great Depression of the 1930s the Works Progress Administration was one of the main New Deal agencies that put millions of unemployed back to work on public infrastructure projects. The WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) together employed over ten million total over the course of their existence.
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