Cory Doctorow’s For the Win is a young adult novel that explores unions, economics and gaming through a very accessible, engaging and exciting story of gold farmers becoming unionized. Cory’s writing always carries tremendous energy, even when he is addressing big ideas —such as the value of unions, how economic activities work or the importance of civil liberties— and this novel strikes a perfect balance between a sweeping story and informative, socially valuable insight.
For the Win, like all of Cory’s books, is available as a free download, in print and in audiobook formats. Due to the Creative Commons license used for the book, it is available to be remixed and re-released for free by others, and the entire book has been podcast by Colbyjack.net at For The Win by Cory Doctorow.
Unions are often undervalued, though they are directly responsible for such important things as weekends, workplace safety laws, and living wage laws.There are many other positive influences unions have and Cory has created a strong introduction to the value of unions. Hopefully his work can help readers learn about unions’ positive aspects as a counter to cultural momentum that minimizes the good of unions or is actively antagonistic toward them.
