Talkin' Shop

My guest today is the legendary historian of labor and social movements, Jeremy Brecher. I wanted to speak with Jeremy because it feels clear that, after the election, we’ll need militant coalitional politics more than ever if we are to win a world beyond capitalism and its lurking sibling, fascism. Of course, coalitional politics are always a valuable strategy, but with Trump’s victory, working people must make a sober re-assessment of the circumstances and build the coalitions necessary to survive, defend, and win in the coming years. Jeremy Brecher’s lifelong commitment to the struggle for collective liberation equips him with critical strategic insight on the US and Global Left, in a moment where we seem to be both winning and losing all at once.  Brecher was born in 1938 and has been engaged in social movements and organizing for decades. He first became involved in the nuclear disarmament movement, and then in the civil rights, student, and anti-Vietnam war movements. He organized local support for the Freedom Riders, was a national council member of the Students for a Democratic Society, and has been arrested at the White House while protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline. Brecher’s first book, Strike!, remains a classic of movement politics and labor history. A fiftieth anniversary was released in 2020 with contributions from Sara Nelson, the President of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Kim Kelly, the esteemed labor journalist.  I was especially excited to discuss his organizing framework for the path forward, what he calls “non-party opposition.” Similar to ideas like “a movement of movements” and a “popular front,” we discussed how to build this non-party opposition in the absence of a broadly powerful Left party in the U.S., but with numerous social, labor, and political organizing outfits on the rise.  Furthermore, I wanted to discuss his new book, The Green New Deal From Below: How Ordinary People Are Building a Just and Climate Safe Economy, out now from University of Illinois Press. Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, writes, “Massive social transformation emerges through the ingenuity and vision of ordinary people. Jeremy Brecher captures the beginnings of a sea change within communities, unions, cities, and states that champion climate protection, justice, and job creation through their own Green New Deals. These highly readable, inspiring, and hopeful chapters trace how change truly happens--from the bottom up.”  I couldn’t agree more. In recent months, I’ve been volunteering with the Labor Network for Sustainability – a group that Brecher helped to found in 2009 – to catalog the various case studies in the book into an online database. This project has frankly buoyed me in the tough political times of the past few months, as the Democrats sought power via association with warmongers and billionaires, only to lose to the reactionary, dangerous populism of Trump. The local and state-wide victories offer a path forward for coalitional politics that will produce durable victories for workers under climate change and capitalism.  I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jeremy Brecher. Theme Music: In My Head by Pledge Drive To purchase Jeremy's new book: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088278 and to keep up with the Labor Network for Sustainability: https://www.labor4sustainability.org/strike/

Featuring: Brian Denning, co-chair Portland DSA, Teamster rank-and-file In the U.S. labor movement, three names tend to get thrown around as the vanguard of a new upsurge of militancy: the AFA's Sara Nelson, the UAW's Shawn Fain, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Sean O'Brien. These union presidents have leaned into a confrontational approach to class struggle, including innovative strike strategy, calls for a general strike, new organizing at strategic companies, and even an inspiring strike for Palestine. But lately, it has seemed like one of these union leaders is not like the others: Sean O'Brien. The IBT President has donated to anti-worker Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley and, perhaps most remarkably, will speak at the Republican National Convention next week. How should rank-and-file unionists and socialists understand and respond to O'Brien -- supposedly one of our own -- making nice with proto-fascists? To understand that, I wanted to talk with Brian Denning. Brian is the co-chair of the Portland (OR) DSA and a rank-and-file Teamster. He's a phenomenal political thinker who understands how and why to connect our struggles across sectors and borders. He and I had the chance to connect a few weeks ago, in late June. For more from Brian, checkout his terrific podcast, Sunder: https://open.spotify.com/show/76lvVE3hhWM9AQ6MfbjpTN I hope you enjoy our conversation. Intro Music: Pledge Drive

In the labor movement, and perhaps even more so outside of it, we talk a lot about contract negotiations and strikes. These two things make headlines, change lives, and define a lot of our experience in our unions. But that leaves a lot of acreage for your boss to control. What about the things that don’t violate your contract? What if a strike doesn’t have the support it needs to succeed? On today’s episode, I talk with Ashton Cummings, a graduate worker at Oregon State University. Ashton and her fellow organizers are making sure that the acreage between contracts and strikes is ruled by workers. She talks us through her ongoing campaign to win back control of wages and hours worked from her bosses. I think there’s a lot of nuggets of wisdom here that can help you organize effectively for day-in, day-out workplace democracy and control of your shop floor. 

Today I talk with Liam Maher. Liam is an organizer with TUGSA, the Temple University Graduate Student Workers Association. TUGSA recently went on strike for six weeks and won major victories for themselves, including nearly $5000 raises on average, increased dependent healthcare coverage, increased parental leave from five business days to 21 calendar days, and an improved grievance procedure. Their strike also set in motion an ongoing change in leadership process at Temple by providing a crystal clear critique of the administration’s commitment to privatizing Temple. This critique has helped lead to the resignation of privatized higher ed mascot and former university president Jason Wingard, and, on April 24th, a landslide vote of no confidence in the board chair and provost.  Liam is one of the founders of the so-hot-right-now instagram account TUGSA Strike Crush, dedicated to the idea that the revolution will be memed and full of light hearted romance. What started as a fun strike activity has grown and improved to become a key organizing tool and strategy at Temple. Our conversation hopefully demystifies strikes for folks who haven’t participated or organized one; offers an anti-capitalist and anti-racist critique of higher ed today; and will inspire your own organizing efforts, especially for folks who want to become more involved but don’t quite know where or how to start.

So you wanna organize your workplace, but don't quite know where to start and what to expect? Today's episode might be helpful. Today's show is a conversation with Andrea Tirrell, Nik Brocchini, and Eric Brown about their efforts to unionize graduate workers in the University of Maine System. All three are graduate workers at UMaine and key organizers of the recently public union drive at UMaine. We talk about early stage organizing conversations, partnering with the UAW, how state legislators can be leveraged in public sector unionization, and the positive impact they're already seeing on campus. I kept trying to trim this episode, but they were spittin' wisdom, so I just let the track run. I hope you enjoy. Please throw us a rating and tell your friends so we can continue to connect great organizers to one another. As always, you can get in touch at [email protected].

On April 6th, months of organizing draws to a close in Eugene, Oregon. The UOSW's card campaign will conclude -- and then the real work will begin. What do organizers have their sights on? What drew them to organize the first undergrad union at a public university in the U.S.? And what's it take to win a union at your university? Let's talk shop. You can get in touch with UOSW on Instagram: @UOstudentworkers As always, you can email me at [email protected]