Whose Streets: The History and Future of Labor Activism - 27:52
Whose Streets: The History and Future of Labor Activism
with
Sarah Jaffe, an independent journalist
covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and
pop culture. She is the co-host, with Michelle Chen, of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as an editorial board member at Dissent and a
columnist at New Labor Forum. Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt is her
first book. She was one of the first reporters to cover Occupy Wall Street
and the Fight for $15
and
Mark
Brenner, Director of Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that
has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in
the labor movement since 1979. Labor Notes also works with local unions and
community
groups to organize Troublemakers Schools, bringing labor
activists together for a day of workshops on grassroots unionism and
skills that officers and rank and filers need.
Sarah Jaffe covers the class war one battle at a time. She has
criss-
crossed the country, asking people what they were angry about, and
what they were doing to take power back. She penetrates the heart
of
these movements, explaining what has made ordinary Americans
become
activists. She attended a people's assembly in a church
gymnasium in
Ferguson, Missouri; walked a picket line at an Atlanta Burger King; rode a
bus from New York to Ohio with student organizers; and went door-to-door in
Queens days after Hurricane Sandy. From the successful fight for a 15
minimum wage in Seattle and New York to the halting of Shell's Arctic
drilling program, Americans are discovering the effectiveness of making
good, necessary trouble. Sarah Jaffe captures the essence of the class
struggle, tells the stories of the movers and shakers in labor and community
activities to empower the people towards building a just, egalitarian,
peaceful society.
Mark Brenner knows that we don’t need a crystal
ball to figure out
what a Trump presidency has in store for labor: national
“right-to-work” legislation, outsourcing and privatizing more public
services, large-scale deportations, a ban on prevailing-wage laws and this
is just the tip of the iceberg. But that’s precisely when Labor Notes kicks
into gear insisting, “after we mourn, we need to organize”. Mark will talk
about how under Trump, labor must abandon its insider approach and
concentrate on the power of the rank and file and where that’s happening.
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