An interview with David E Gilbert, anarchist political ecologist and author of “Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography”
organizing
The union movement is suffering from a conundrum. While the U.S public overwhelmingly supports unions, labor lacks the capacity to help workers organize and unionize. Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that there is a new and promising way of organizing from the bottom up, which emerged during Trump’s first term and flourished through … Continued
Jane McAlevey was an exceptional organizer and thinker, and her death on July 7th leaves a gaping hole for the left. She dedicated her life to building working class power, in the trenches of the environmental and labor movements and as a radical scholar. McAlevey believed that the left and labor movement abandoned deep organizing … Continued
Shut ‘Em Down 2024 + Monsour Owolabi
Courtney from IWOC and Roc (a communication bridge for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak) talk about the 2024 Shut ‘Em Down prison strikes and outside demonstrations called for by JLS this December and the JLS transitional housing project. Then, Monsour Owolabi talks about solitary confinement as counterinsurgency and the need for Movement transitional housing.
Fund Drive Special – Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present
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We speak with author Kali Akuno about his latest book, Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present.
Work changed dramatically during the Covid pandemic. Enormous numbers of people lost their jobs, while others were able to work remotely. And then there were so-called essential workers, whose in-person jobs put them at the highest risk. In response, many of them organized, often informally. Sociologist Jamie McCallum argues that the struggles of essential workers … Continued
Since well before Covid, U.S. media has been in dire straits. Hedge funds demanding sky-high profits have gobbled up established newspapers, while local reporting has disappeared. Media conglomerates have laid off journalists in record numbers, gutting coverage of the misdeeds of the powerful. And yet over the last five years, as Jon Schleuss of the … Continued
Cultural and media workers have a disproportionate impact on how other workers see themselves and the world they live in, whether it’s by selling them something or presenting them with dissenting views. As historian Shannan Clark argues, there was a time when a great many cultural workers saw consumption itself as a political act. Such … Continued
The Gig Economy, Covid-19 and Resistance
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The coronavirus pandemic has put gig workers in the forefront of the conversation centered around worker’s rights. Considered essential workers, many of who are struggling with whether to stay on the road (and risk the physical health) or stay home and face economic uncertainty due to the lack of employment protections. (We also cover the … Continued
US Companies Exploit Workers
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We speak with organizers Carlos Gabriel and Rachel Jackson about Tesla violation of the county’s shelter-in-place order that forced the electric car maker to cease vehicle production at its factories in California and ongoing attempts to sabotage employee efforts to form a union. We also discuss the upcoming general worker strike 2.0 scheduled for June … Continued