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This episode highlights...

-Kate Upton and the Whirlpool Upton family

-Michigan Governor Snyder 

-Anti-union, anti democracy, pro austerity Emergency Financial Manager laws

-MI State Rep. Al Pscholka 

-Land grab of Jean Klock park and public beaches

“We’ve allowed these corporations to take over and we’re suffering. In the city of Benton Harbor, the water bill tripled. Unemployment, I’m talking 70% of the people unemployed. 90% live below the poverty level.”

Part 2 highlights...

-Reverend Pinkney origin story and BANCO

-Benton Harbor deindustrialized by runaway shop policies

-Congressman Fred Upton and the Whirlpool Upton family

-St. Joseph Harbor Shores Land Speculation and Black Removal

-Police killing of African American men

Reverend Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan and the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), struggles against the takeover of this Western Michigan community.

In this 8 part series, Pinkney's fight magnifies the eternal struggle between labor, capital, race, and political economy.

To learn more about Reverend Pinkney and his organization, visit: https://www.bhbanco.org

This episode highlights...

-The history of Whirlpool

-African American unsolved murders

-Class and racial divide in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph

-Benton Harbor riots

-Governor Granholm’s sellout

“When it came time to figure out what I wanted to do, I really wanted to report on worker struggles, which isn’t that easy to do in this country, apparently.”

In Part 2, we sit down with Mike Elk, famed labor reporter and founder of Payday Report, as he discusses his experience with unions and labor reporting and the future of labor organizing.

Music by Pete Seeger - Homestead Strike Song

You can learn more about Mike’s work at www.paydayreport.com

Watch Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPA8tYSkmaY&t=1s

As part of our labor series that stretches from Pittsburgh to Chicago through Cleveland, Detroit, and Benton Harbor...

I met with labor journalist Mike elk in his hometown of Pittsburgh. 

Mike is founder of Paydayreport.com, which is a labor publication based in Pittsburgh, that is elevating a national conversation about workers.

In part 1, Mike talks about Pittsburgh labor history as we visit the sites of the 1892 Battle of Homestead, the Henry K. Frick Car Museum, and Carnegie Mellon University.

As part of our labor series that stretches from Pittsburgh to Chicago through Cleveland, Detroit, and Benton Harbor, I met with Alison Eichhorn, who is a Chicago Public School teacher at Lindblom High School. Alison is on the bargaining team for the Chicago Teachers Union and discusses the struggles teachers face to educate our youth. 

Alison discusses:

-The 2012 and 2019 teacher strikes

-Neoliberal education reform

-The importance of unions

-Winning union strategies

In the inaugural episode of The Power Struggle Podcast, Jerry Lightfoot and Evan Papp discuss the mass protests that have erupted in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the need for demands and organization to challenge the systematic imbalances of power.

The episode includes discussions on:

• Statements by James Baldwin, MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela, Reverend Barber, Tupac Shakur, Kwame Toure, Killer Mike, and Fred Hampton