Tag: labor organizing
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Santa Cruz Grad Students Prepare to Launch Full Strike Next Week
Following up on our previous coverage of the wildcat strike and work stoppage launched by UC Santa Cruz grad student workers, participant Cameron A. writes on the workers next move: launching a full strike this coming Monday, February 10. See below for how you can follow and support. By Cameron A. Graduate Student workers at…
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Wildcat Strike Launched by UC Santa Cruz Grad Student Workers
Could the #Red4Ed strike wave spill over to higher education and graduate student organizing? Participant Cameron .A. writes on the announced strike hours after the vote was taken. By Cameron A. Graduate student workers at the Santa Cruz campus of the leviathan University of California have voted to launch a wildcat grading strike in the…
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Colombia: All Out for the National Social Strike on November 21
Social movements in Colombia are filling the streets today, November 21, for a ‘paro nacional’ in protest of neoliberal attacks on education and pensions. Political tension has increased with calls for the resignation of right-wing president Iván Duque, while the State has enacted new repressive measures and former president Álvaro Uribe is implicating provocateurs and…
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Social Movements Gave Rise to the “Teachers’ Revolt,” Not Bernie
With the 2020 election already on the horizon we republish this commentary responding to the deeply flawed narrative that Bernie Sanders’ campaign played a key role in the teacher strike wave rather than social movement organizing with much deeper roots. The authors are a West Virginia teacher active in the 2018 strike and an education…
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“This is Overdue”: Interview with a Striking GM Worker
As General Motors reaped $8.1 billion in profit and paid its CEO $22 million, nearly 50,000 GM workers have been on strike since Monday. While workers gave major concessions during the previous recession the company is digging in it’s heels over wages and has even cut off healthcare plans for workers. Marianne Garneau of Organizing…
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Emancipation of the Working Class: The Legacy of the IWW
Founded over 110 years ago on June 27, 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, created an iconic legacy and rich history of militant unionism in the U.S. The union was founded by radical unionists and currents within the labor movement with the purpose of building an alternative to the conservative trade unionism…
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When and Why Did Unions Start Signing Contracts?
This piece from the Organizing Work blog explores an important but often little discussed question of the historical origins of labor contracts in the U.S. The current dominant model of formal collective bargaining agreements which include provisions against striking and job actions, also known as “workplace contractualism,” has not always been the dominant model. The…
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Red State Revolt: An Essential But Flawed Story of the Teacher Rebellion
Review of Red State Revolt, The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics by Eric Blanc on Verso Books, 2019. By Michael Mochaidean Last year’s wave of public teacher strikes and walkouts was the highest number of workers walking off the job in three decades. Whether it will be the start of a larger trend across…
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Albert Parsons: Anarchist and Labor Martyr in His Own Words
Introduction by José Antonio Gutiérrez Dantón As a tribute to one of the most remarkable agitators in labor history, we publish on May Day the autobiography of Albert Parsons. He was one of the five Chicago Anarchists who were tried in 1886-1887 and executed in November 1887 for their role as 8-hour working-day agitators and…
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The State of Labor: Beyond Unions, But Not Without Them
As working class and left movements the world over celebrate May 1st, International Workers Day, we offer our reflection on the current state of the U.S. labor movement – both our optimism around recent strikes and stressing the need to transform the labor movement towards its revolutionary potential. This document was produced by the Labor…