Delete Your Account Podcast

Unfortunately, our interview for this week fell through at the last minute, but we didn't want to leave you all without content! We dug deep into the Delete Your Account vault and pulled a clip from one of our favorite interviews, with one of our all-time favorite guests, Mariame Kaba. This clip was from Episode 27, recorded shortly after Trump's election, and we comment on how many of the points Mariame made then, particularly around the concept of left unity, are just as salient today. We also discuss how far the political discourse and balance of power has shifted, from then to now.

Follow Mariame on twitter @prisonculture.

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This week Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Garrett Kelly, a worker at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco and a member of the new Anchor Brewing Organizing Committee, and Evan McLaughlin, the new organizing coordinator of the DSA SF Labor Organizing Committee. They’re both involved in the historic effort to unionize the Anchor factory, the biggest such facility in San Francisco, and earlier this month called on Anchor in a MoveOn.org petition to remain neutral and recognize the outcome of the union vote. After Garrett and Evan each share a bit about their personal paths to organizing, Garrett explains that the legacy of Anchor Brewing as the original craft brewery and a cultural icon in SF is a rallying point for workers, and points to the negative impacts of the company’s 2017 takeover by Sapporo as a catalyst for the current campaign.

Evan and Garrett describe how the organizing committee observed best practices while mapping out attitudes towards the union among the rank and file, and reached out for support to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) because of the union’s unique history of radical organizing and solidarity with social justice struggles in the Bay Area and beyond. They go on to share highlights from their actions, including a “drink-in” at Anchor Public Taps, and the state of play with regard to management as the union drive picks up steam.

Follow the Anchor Union on Twitter @AnchorUnionSF, and make sure to show your support by signing their petition at MoveOn.org. To learn more about starting a union drive at your workplace, check out Labor Notes for organizing workshops in your area.

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 Olivia Katbi Smith and Isi Breen. Olivia is co-chair of the Portland, Oregon chapter of the DSA, and Isi is the former press secretary for then-Congressman Keith Ellison, and current Communications Director for Jewish Community Action in Minnesota.They join us for an in-depth discussion of the firestorm surrounding tweets on Israel and the pro-Israel lobbyist group AIPAC from newly-elected Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar. We explain the accusation of anti-Semitism Omar has been smeared with, and talk about the racist framing and bad faith nature of the accusations. Isi draws on his own experience dealing with bad faith accusations of antisemitism as press secretary for Keith Ellison, and stresses the importance of moral clarity on the subject of Palestine while also being mindful of the language we use from a tactical perspective. Olivia, who herself has been at the receiving end of a character assassination campaign due to her own Palestine advocacy, dives into the toll these kinds of smears take on someone. We talk about the importance of not engaging with bad faith accusations, often propagated by those with their own anti-Semitic records, and instead focusing on building solidarity across all communities with justice in mind. 

Follow Olivia on twitter @livkittykat, and Isi @isaiah_kb. Find out more about the work Olivia is doing at @PortlandDSA, and learn more about the work Isi is doing over at @JCA_MN.

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 rejoined by Katy Slininger, a former postal worker and DSA organizer who recently chronicled her personal experience of pregnancy discrimination and unemployment in an article for Popula.com. Katy was a member of the ad hoc steering committee for the Boston chapter of DSA before moving to Connecticut, where she started a DSA organizing committee in the rural Northeast, known as Quiet Corner DSA. Katy fills Roqayah and Kumars in on what she’s been up to and why she left DSA, then details how she suffered as a result of the US Post Office management’s disregard for pregnant workers’ health and the failure of existing union and welfare state protections like the Family Medical Leave Act to help her. She goes on to describe being forced to quit and undertaking the grueling process of applying for jobs given the grossly inadequate protections of pregnancy discrimination legislation for blue-collar and service workers. The gang ends on a practical note, examining Katy’s call for more radical unions and considering what organizers need to do differently to ensure that freeing reproductive labor is a priority on the left.

Follow Katy on Twitter @itsbreadtimebch, and read her piece ”Alienated Labor”.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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 Ciro Wagner of the climate justice grassroots organization Earth Strike to discuss the impact of climate change and the global general strike their group is organizing in response. Ciro explains the organization's international structure and goals, and why a global general strike is necessary to fend off climate catastrophe.

We discuss strategies for conveying the importance of striking to workers, including with those working in sectors of the economy—such as coal, oil, and gas—that would be impacted by a transition to a green world. The crew also gets into what other activists around the world are doing to fight for climate justice, from blockades to school walkouts.

Follow Earth Strike on Twitter @EarthStrikeInt and keep up with their efforts, and how you can get involved, over at their official EarthStrike website. Join with workers around the world by striking for the climate on September 27th, 2019.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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 investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein, whose explosive work has appeared in The Daily Beast, and The Young Turks, among others.

Ken takes us through his reporting process, his use of FOIA requests and several of his most important discoveries, including his work exposing the dealing of utility company Whitefish Energy Holdings in Puerto Rico.

Ken discusses his most recent efforts covering the so-called government shutdown, and how mainstream discourse has all but marginalized the voices of the most disenfranchised furloughed workers, like federally contracted janitors, and why programs that are lifelines for low income communities, such as WIC and SNAP, are facing even more trouble should the shutdown continue. We discuss how the discourse around the shutdown takes for granted that government functions like the military are sacrosanct, while government functions that provide services to the poor must constantly be justified and deliberately funded. Ken shares with us several stories from affected workers, and we discuss the challenges and possibilities facing all of us as the shutdown continues.

Follow Ken and keep up with his work on Twitter @kenklippenstein.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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 live in the Delete Your Account Studios by friends of the show Brett Payne and Bryan Quinby, hosts of the anarcho-comedy podcast Street Fight Radio. Kicking off the California leg of their West Coast tour, Brett and Bryan dish about their favorite moments from the tour so far and what they love about doing live shows. The gang discusses the ongoing government shutdown drama over border wall funding, as Trump holds an address blaming undocumented immigrants for the opioid epidemic. Bryan and Brett touch on their usual beat on Street Fight, sharing personal and listener stories about drugs and addiction, bad bosses and bad customers, before capping things off with a rundown of Rashida Tlaib’s swearing scandal.

Follow Brett on Twitter @BrettPain and Bryan @MurderBryan. You can also follow Street Fight Radio @StreetFightWCRS and get information on future tour dates and all things Street Fight on their official website.

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 returning guest Shaun Scott, organizer, filmmaker, and author of “Millennials and the Moments That Made Us: A Cultural History of the U.S. from 1982—Present”. Shaun joins us for the start of the show for a little pop culture talk before getting into a special announcement: his candidacy for City Council in Seattle’s 4th district.

Shaun explains his platform, and highlights some of his policy positions as well as the solutions to the issues facing Seattle's most vulnerable communities. We hear about the steps Shaun would take to address climate change and how he would confront corporate polluters who are destroying our environment and wrecking our climate. Shaun also discusses several proposals to address Seattle's housing crisis, and highlights how housing, transportation, and climate change are inextricably linked.

Shaun, a member of Seattle DSA, also talks about how he is going about building his campaign and remaining accountable to the organizers that will be necessary to get him elected. We discuss how one can build a winning coalition made up of a broad range of working-class constituents while not compromising one's principles for the sake of expediency.

Follow Shaun at @eyesonthestorm and follow his campaign at @ElectScott2019. Learn how to support his campaign here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.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, Kumars is joined by Maya Little, an anti-racist organizer and PhD student-worker at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, for a conversation about the ongoing TA and faculty strike to prevent the reinstatement of a Confederate monument on that campus. Maya describes in detail the openly racist origins of “Silent Sam,” the statue of a soldier dedicated under Jim Crow in 1913 to honor UNC students who fought for the Confederacy, and its continuing function as a gathering place for white supremacists and symbol of the racial hierarchies that persist on campus and in the broader community.

Maya explains the #StrikeDownSam campaign’s demands, and how it came together to block the UNC leadership’s proposal to reconstruct the statue after direct actions, including her unique own unique protest, finally resulted in its toppling on August 20th. As she once more faces charges for protesting in the wake of the university’s proposal, Maya describes how the backlash she’s experienced from the university has outstripped the legal ramifications of her protest, and how the UNC administration’s tacit support for open fascists points to the work of dismantling white supremacy that will remain to be done after the last statue falls.

Follow Maya on Twitter @readkropotkin and the Strike Down Sam campaign @strikedownsam. You can donate to the legal and strike fund for Maya and other TAs facing charges here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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 Adam Johnson. Adam is a media analyst with Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting or fair.org. He is also the co-host of the media criticism podcast Citations Needed alongside Nima Shirazi.Adam joins us for an in-depth discussion of a number of important media-related topics. We start out dissecting the recent case of academic Marc Lamont Hill who was fired from his position at CNN for his remarks before the United Nations about the Palestinian struggle against occupation. We also discuss the oversaturated media coverage of the death of George H.W. Bush as well as the larger issue of American attitudes towards deceased domestic political figures, and how appeals to civility undermine conversations we must have regarding the human rights abuses these figures have had a part in.

Adam also takes us through the article by New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser of VICE (intentionally not linking), where they examine how they became friends despite political differences, a superficial and conciliatory attitude that exposes extreme privilege and more common political ground than either Bari or Eve might like to admit. We also talk Russiagate, the migrant caravan, and more.Follow Adam on twitter @AdamJohnsonNYC. A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.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!!!