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Jennifer Ladd and
Felice Yeskel met
in the fall of 1989 and within five minutes realized they
had grown up on different ends of the class spectrum, but
shared a passionate interest in class issues and economic
justice. Over the years they kept talking, while
Felice co-founded United for a Fair Economy with Chuck
Collins and
Jenny started a philanthropic and wealth counseling business.
In 1995 Jenny and Felice decided they wanted to broaden
the conversation about how class and money issues affect
people - personally, culturally, and institutionally. They
formed a cross-class dialogue group composed
of four people from upper-class backgrounds and four people
from poor or working-class backgrounds, all involved with
some form of social change work. The group met for six
hours every month for over six years. The work they did
was powerful and transformative for each participant.
In the fall of 2001 Felice and Jenny, with Jerry Koch-Gonzalez,
began offering workshops and cross-class dialogue groups
for other people in Western Massachusetts. The number and variety
of their workshops grew, and there were more requests
for organizational consultations and talks on class. Felice
and Jenny decided to form a non-profit organization in
order to more effectively raise consciousness about the
taboo topic of class, both locally and nationally. Our
board was
formed in May 2004, and Class Action incorporated in
July 2004.
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