Socialism in the Time of Corona

Robert Cuffy is: member of the Organizing Committee of the New York City Afrosocialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a member of the Org Committee of the NYC Labor Branch of the DSA, co-founder, Socialist Workers’ Alliance Guyana, and organizer with the People’s Strike Network, the NYC org of the Fight for our Lives Coalition. In part 2 we talk about the nitty gritty of the Defund demand in the specific context of the NYPD, and the importance of political debate and education in the middle of it all.

Robert Cuffy is an organizer with the People’s Strike Network, the New York City organization of the Fight for our Lives Coalition, confronting one of the most powerful police departments in the U.S. Cuffy is also a member of the Organizing Committee of the New York City Afrosocialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a co-founder of the Socialist Workers’ Alliance in Guyana. I’ve divided our conversation into two pieces that are more or less self contained, though best absorbed together. First we discuss the current protests in their broader historical context, including the question of why now?

Clare Hammonds of the UMass-Amherst Labor Center discusses the results of recent surveys of essential workers in MA. The surveys reveal important differences among these workers' experiences, along the dimensions of occupation, income and other factors. Hammonds is Professor of Practice at the UMass Amherst Labor Center, where she conducts applied research and the labor education program. Hammonds has worked with a wide variety of labor unions and worker organizations in the Pioneer Valley and around the state, with a particular focus on improving the conditions of low-wage workers. Hammonds is also the Labor Center’s Graduate Program Director, and co-editor of Labor in the Time of Trump (2020).

The last of three political biographies this week with Rose Bookbinder of the Pioneer Valley Workers' Center: food insecurity during the pandemic among the essential workers, the difference between workers’ centers and unions, and some reasons for hope over the next few years. Please donate to their pandemic support fund for undocumented workers in the area.

The second of three political-biographical episodes this week with Rafi Ash, who at the age of 16 may be the youngest member of our local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, DSA. Rafi is organizing a chapter of the DSA at his high school. https://y.dsausa.org/

The first of three political-biographical interviews this week with AJ, who has been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America since the 1980s. We discussed the political potential of the ongoing protests against police brutality in the U.S., the potential for democratic socialism generally, and the significance of the upcoming presidential election. We also talked about the challenges for people of color in political organizations.

www.dsausa.org

We discuss the question of police unions in the broader context of the diverging fortunes of public and private sector unions in the U.S., the wave of labor organizing among essential workers during the last few weeks, and whether unionization is reducing the risk to these workers, especially minority ones. 

Jake Rosenfeld is Professor of Sociology at Washington University-St Louis. His new book You’re Paid What You’re Worth And Other Myths of the Modern Economy will arrive early 2021. He is also the author of What Unions No Longer Do (2014).

If you were born in the early 1980s through the mid 1990s, you came of age during Obama, the financial crisis of 2008, Black Lives Matter, Me Too, DACA, and the political upheavals of Trump and Sanders. What might those experiences imply for the labor movement in the U.S.?

Ruth Milkman's new book is Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat, discussed as part of a CUNY panel 'Rethinking immigration' (May 1, 2020; Milkman starts around 25:00). Earlier work includes On Gender, Labor, and Inequality and studies of Millennial activists summarized here (both 2016). 

To date there have been more than 200 documented strikes, walkouts and other types of labor protest in the U.S. by essential workers in warehouses, meat processing plants, hospitals and grocery stores. What might this wave of activity mean for the labor movement after the pandemic?

Guest: Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics (Verso: 2019), and organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America's Emergency Worker Organizing Committee (EWOC)

What are unions in the U.S. doing in response to the pandemic, and is it enough? What is the right balance for the left between being "deferential" and "hypercritical" towards unions?

Frances Boyes is former union representative with Unite Here and board member of Mass-Care, as well as member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Background: Culinary Union vs Bernie Sanders, American Prospect; Medicare vs COBRA, Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at University of Massachusetts-Amherst