In this sixteenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest is Michael Dawson. Michael is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he has written extensively about the intertwined nature of Black politics and Left politics. Currently, he co-leads the Race and Capitalism Project that seeks to understand how the racial and capitalist systems of domination interact.

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In this fifteenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest is Lauren Jacobs. Lauren is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Working Families – a national network of regional power-building organizations. Lauren and I have been friends for over 15 years…I remember when she was a union organizer in Boston. I have always loved the way Lauren combines things: race and class…theory and practice.

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In this fourteenth episode of Black Work Talk, today’s Sheri Davis. Sheri is the Associate Director of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University and the Senior Program Director – WILL Empower at CIWO. The purpose of WILL Empower is to develop the next generation of women in the labor movement – unions and worker centers. Sheri fuses her desire to promote deep…

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In this thirteenth episode of Black Work Talk, Today’s guest is Maurice Mitchell. Maurice is the National Director of the Working Families Party. Since its inception, the Working Families Party has done a good job of navigating the complicated waters of combining Left political perspectives with building bases among working class people and maintaining effectiveness in the electoral arena.

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In this twelfth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Barbara Ransby, professor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Barbara has written extensively on the Black Freedom Movement on topics ranging from Ella Baker and Eslanda Robeson to the current Black Lives Matter movement. Our conversation took place soon after the release of the videos of the Chicago police’s…

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This eleventh episode of Black Work Talk was a joint effort with Dissent Magazine’s podcast, Belabored. Belabored’s co-hosts, Michelle Chen and Sarah Jaffe, and Black Work Talk’s host, Steven Pitts were joined by historian Robin D.G. Kelley. Robin’s book, Hammer and Hoe, details the organizing work in the Birmingham metropolitan area during the 1930s where key Black workers were Communist and…

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In this tenth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Maurice BP-Weeks, co-founder of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE). ACRE sits at the nexus of the struggles for racial and economic justice. As such, they provide campaign assistance to local organizations and engage in national campaigns against corporate elites. Equally important, ACRE shapes the national…

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In this ninth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Jesse Hagopian, an Ethnic Studies teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. The public schools in the United States have been near Ground Zero during this confluence of COVID, the recession, and the fight for racial justice and because of this, education has become a flashpoint for political struggle.

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In this eighth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Michelle Crentsil, political director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). The members of NYSNA have been through hell this past year dealing with the extreme conditions caused by COVID and federal government ineptitude. We talked about these struggles and the reality that the pandemic has forged greater solidarity…

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In this seventh episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Erica Smiley, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice. Smiley has been with Jobs with Justice for over 15 years. Prior to joining the organization, she worked at a number of unions and community-based organizations. During the episode, we spoke about a variety of topics including the need to go beyond the red state/

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