Delete Your Account Podcast

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Donald Borenstein, a writer, journalist, and filmmaker who's been covering the Stop & Shop supermarket strike for the worker-owned streaming platform Means TV. Donald, who made the 500 mile journey across New England in order to document the 11-day strike, describes what lead approximately 31,000 workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers, to picket Stop & Shop locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Donald explains the tactics workers utilized to pressure management into conceding and to prevent anyone from crossing picket lines.

Donald goes on to describes the impact of appearances by Democratic presidential candidates at picket lines—including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren—who spoke in support of striking workers. We try to separate the tepid lip service from some candidates from what might be better faith outreach of others. The crew also examines what the success of the Stop & Shop strike means for private sector unions, specifically in the grocery sector.

You can follow Donald on Twitter @Boringstein, and keep up with their Stop & Shop strike coverage on Means TV.

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This week Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Joshua Badge, writer and lecturer in philosophy at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. Joshua joins us for an in-depth discussion of the philosophy and practices of animal rights and veganism.

Joshua explains the sociological framework of what we consume and the significance of food on our communities and our identities. Joshua leans into his philosophy background and explains the metaphysical traditions that are often overlooked when discussing animal rights—from the way in which we empathize with animals to the often highly charged language that vegans employ to characterize the abuses that animals face. We discuss how poverty impacts our relationship with food and Joshua, who is an avid cook, underlines the importance of increasing the affordability and accessibility of vegan food by pushing for broad systemic changes to our food supply.

Joshua also gives readers the background on recent publicity for the animal rights movement in Australia, and how tactics that are often employed in an attempt to undermine the meat industry can backfire in certain contexts, inflaming race and class tensions.

Follow Joshua on Twitter @JoshuaBadge.

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This week Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Olivia Katbi Smith and Sahar Muranovic, two former staffers at the Portland-based nonprofit Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), where management has decided against neutrality in a fierce unionization battle. Olivia is also the co-chair of the Portland, Oregon chapter of the DSA, and in her previous appearance on the show talked about the state of Israel-Palestine discourse and personal smears she’s faced being a vocal Arab woman in the public eye. Sahar begins by sharing her own background as an Iranian immigrant and her firsthand experience of the Trump administration’s repression when her sister Sara Yarjani, a graduate student in California, was briefly deported to Austria after the Muslim ban went into effect in January 2017. Olivia and Sahar both elaborate on what brought them to IRCO, explaining the nonprofit’s day to day function of helping refugees and other immigrants in the Portland area get navigate social services and, increasingly, legal challenges.

The gang situates IRCO’s issues within the broader nonprofit problem experienced by cities like Portland where social services have been outsourced from the public sector to private nonprofits where workers don’t have union protections and benefits. Olivia and Sahar explain how this dynamic has resulted in an environment of low pay, little transparency and no input from workers that has led workers to demand a union. Olivia describes how she was fired for her vocal support of the union drive, and Olivia and Sahar detail the union-busting tactics they witnessed before they were forced out, including the hiring of a union-busting law firm with a reputation for violent intimidation. Finally, Olivia and Sahar talk about why it’s essential that the people serving marginalized communities are empowered in their own workplaces, and share their hopes for the future of the IRCO union.

Follow Olivia on Twitter @livkittykat and Sahar @Gulujoon.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Christine O’Donovan-Zavada, a reproductive rights organizer in central Pennsylvania. After Christine shares how she cut her teeth as an organizer, she discusses the implications of restrictive anti-abortion legislation that is on the rise, including so-called “fetal heartbeat” bills that have emerged recently in Ohio and Georgia.

The gang talks about the role trigger laws may play in states where abortion restrictions have failed should Roe v. Wade be overturned, thereby making abortion illegal. Christine goes on to describe the chilling effect of these unconstitutional bills, including now-failed Texas House bill 948, which would have not only banned abortion but would have made it a capital offense. We also discuss the Trump administration's domestic Title X gag rule, and how this will obstruct pregnancy options by slashing access to contraceptive care, and deny patients abortion referrals.

Christine describes the restrictions that have historically faced those attempting to access abortion facilities: from the trauma of having to travel some 100 miles to reach one of only 780 clinics in the United States, to the costs associated with making the journey as well as having the procedures themselves. The crew also dives into what solidarity efforts you can engage in, including the National Network of Abortion Funds’ annual Bowlathon, and why the fight for abortion access is an integral part of the struggle for reproductive justice.

Follow Christine on Twitter @queenozymandias.If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Kooper Caraway, the current president of the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO central labor council in South Dakota and a Labor Rep for AFSCME Council 65, representing workers in Minnesota as well as North and South Dakota. Before being elected central labor council president at age 27, making him the youngest ever in the history of the AFL-CIO, he worked with the American Federation of Teachers and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Kooper begins by sharing his first experiences of organizing, including successfully thwarting an ICE deportation raid while still in high school.

The gang talks about the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO’s decision to ban white supremacists from union membership, and Kooper discusses the need to forge lasting connections between the labor movement and community organizers, including the actions his organization has taken to support workers in South Dakota’s Native communities. Kooper ends with his thoughts on the importance of changing the culture of union organizing towards inclusivity and international solidarity.

Follow Kooper on Twitter @KooperCaraway.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by John Halcomb, a computer technology preparatory teacher at Prescott Elementary in Oakland, California. John is a rank-and-file member of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and participated in last month's week-long teachers’ strike which resulted in a tentative four-year agreement with teachers will reportedly receive an 11% salary increase and one-time 3% bonus.

We discuss the reasons behind the OEA's 3,000 member strike—from paltry wages, congested classrooms, to a startling lack of school nurses—and how the city's growing inequality has impacted students and staff. John explains how the strike emerged, and the tactics that were implemented to pressure school administration and discourage workers from crossing the picket line.

John discusses why he believes both the OEA demands, and the ratified agreement didn't go far enough. He also stresses the need for sustained political education and organizing among educators between contract fights.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Dr. Adam Gaffney, instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pulmonary and critical care doctor at the Cambridge Health Alliance as well as the President of the single-payer health care advocacy organization Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). After sharing his obligatory origin story, Adam puts the unprecedented mainstream momentum behind Medicare for All in context by detailing the insufficiencies of the system today and how the increasing corporatization of health care in the neoliberal era has impacted people’s day-to-day decisions.

Adam describes the different versions of Medicare for All currently in Congress like the Senate bill introduced by Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s House bill, highlighting where they differ and where they could go further. The gang also discusses the role of grassroots organizing in pushing the health care debate to the left over the last several years, and Adam touches on some of PNHP’s strategies for mobilizing doctors in the push for single-payer. Roqayah and Kumars also ask Adam about proposed alternatives to single-payer like the public option, as well as the best ways to counter common conservative arguments against Medicare for All, including the ones Adam successfully fended off in his viral guest appearance on Fox Business Network.

You can follow Adam on Twitter @awgaffney, and keep up with his work at theprogressivephysician.net.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by first-time guest Chris Schiano, an investigative journalist for Unicorn Riot. His work focuses on exposing white supremacists, discovering neo-Nazi cells, and the police repression of protest movements. We are also joined by returning guest and friend-of-the-show Freddy Martinez. Freddy is a technologist and journalist who works on the “Discord Leaks” platform, a searchable repository of over 1.5 million fascist and far-right chats. His work at Unicorn Riot focuses on hate speech, labor, and technology.Chris and Freddy explain the importance of the most recent so-called Discord leaks, leaked chat logs which expose the organizing efforts of white supremacist organization Identity Evropa, now rebranded as the American Identity Movement (AIM). We learn the details regarding how Identity Evropa members are actively working to infiltrate the GOP, and support far-right politicians like Iowa congressman Steve King. Chris and Freddy explain how Identity Evropa tried to enforce strict discipline related to outward messaging to give the group mainstream appeal, even as their private communications show them as a group with neo-Nazi beliefs and violent impulses. We also discuss the role of internet platforms like Discord and Slack in fascist organizing, and how tech corporations, including Twitter and YouTube, have failed to address the issue of white supremacist content, and online radicalization.Follow Unicorn Riot @UR_Ninja and Freddy @b_meson on twitter.If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Eli Valley. Eli is a writer and artist his work has been published in The New Republic, The Daily Beast, The Nation, among other outlets.

We discuss Eli's latest book “Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel”, a scathing work of satire designed as an act of rebellion to galvanize the Jewish left, center the diaspora experience and reject Zionist self-hatred. Eli explains his artistic aesthetic, oftentimes referred to as “grotesque”, the anger it elicits from his critics, and some of the trouble it has gotten him into.

We talk about the bad faith outrage surrounding Ilhan Omar and how Eli found himself in a back and forth with an extremely outraged Meghan McCain, who had described a caricature satirizing her tokenization of Jewish suffering as “one of the most anti-Semitic things” she had ever seen. Eli also explores how Jewish identity is being exploited by the far right at the immediate expense of millions of Palestinians living and dying as refugees, under occupation, or under apartheid.You can follow Eli on twitter @elivalley, and explore more of his work at elivalley.com.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!