Tag: labor
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Update: West Virginia Walkouts Beats Back Neoliberal Education Bill
A #55Strong Update on the Omnibus Bill Walkouts From a West Virginia Teacher By Michael Mochaidean On Monday, February 17th, Presidents of the three major education unions in West Virginia announced a statewide walkout by union members in opposition to the Senate’s Omnibus Education bill – SB451. As mentioned previously, SB451’s key sponsor, Patricia Rucker,…
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New Strike Launched as West Virginia Teachers Continue Struggle
Editorial note: This article was written by a rank-and file West Virginia teacher the week prior to teachers striking on February 19, 2019. The headline has been adjusted to reflect the current strike. By Michael Mochaidean One year ago, teachers and school service personnel in West Virginia rocked the nation with their historic nine-day statewide…
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From Union Renewal to a Self-Managed Society
Municipal trash workers protest in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the face of fiercely expanding inequality and anti-unionism in the US there is a great deal of discussion across the left of how to revitalize unions. While we see glimmers of hope in the recent strike wave of teachers and innovative forms of unionism such as with…
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Resist, Occupy, Produce: Cooperatives and Argentina’s Occupied Factory Movement
What can US revolutionaries learn from factory take-overs and worker cooperatives in Argentina? Two South African writers with Zabalaza (ZACF) look at the example of Argentina’s recuperated factory movement whereby workplaces facing closure during the economic crisis were seized and then operated as cooperatives. The authors looks at their relationship to social movements, their anti-capitalist…
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“Let’s Go For It”: Interview with a Striking AT&T Union Steward
This past month thousands of AT&T workers across the country have gone out on short, locally-organized Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strikes in protest of company intimidation during contract bargaining and other issues. Two separate contracts for the workers organized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) at AT&T expired on April 15 but negotiations continued…
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#REDforEd – Teacher Strikes Show Social Movements the Way Forward
By Michael Reagan There have been growing calls for electoral participation in the wake of the Trump presidential victory and the horrendous political and social climate that have come in its wake. Most of these voices encourage a social movement strategy called “inside/outside” organizing which argues that protest, mobilizations, and disruptions are good, but that…
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Outline of US Labor History with a Focus on the Role of the Left
This draft document attempts to present a brief decade by decade outline of labor and the labor movement in the US with an emphasis on the role and relation of the left. First published in 2009. By Adam Weaver Colonial Through Pre-Civil War Period Indentured servants, sailors and slaves organize minor labor protests and rebellions,…
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Strike To Win: How the West Virginia Teacher Strike Was Won
The following is a transcribed talk by a West Virginia teacher who was one of several speakers at the Red & Black Party sponsored by the Labor Sector of Black Rose/Rosa Negra and which was held on April 7th at the 2018 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago. Hi everyone, I’m Michael in Monongalia County, that’s…
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Red & Black Party at the 2018 Labor Notes Conference
Join us for the Red & Black Party at the 2018 Labor Notes Conference Featuring: Music and conversation, updates from worker organizers in the struggles at Burgerville in Portland (which may become the first recognized fast food union in the US), the West Virginia teachers strike, and Amazon warehouse workers from Poland and London. #PowerFromBelow…
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Unionism From Below: Interview with Burgerville Workers Union
Launching a historic three-day strike and boycott launch that began on February 1, workers across several Portland, OR Burgerville stores took the next steps in what is perhaps an unprecedented campaign for the current US labor movement. The strike was centered at the prominent Convention Center Burgerville store and spread to three additional locations, in…