Audio from June 27, 2026 ILC of NYC panel and town hall event for pride month on LGBTQ workers self-organizing, past and present.

Watch and subscribe on ILC's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVfkabZCR04&t=4s

With the increase in anti-LGBTQ (and especially anti-trans) sentiment among American legislators, the Independent Labor Club views it as pressing to host a public conversation on issues facing LGBTQ workers. We are inviting historians and organizers in order to discuss the history of autonomous struggles and what lessons can the working class at large learn from their efforts.

Featured Panelists:

Maggie Schreiner (CUNY Grad Center)

Garrison Davis (It Could Happen Here)

April M. (Reform and Revolution DSA)

Carla González (CUNY Grad Center)

Moderated by Matt Brim (College of Staten Island)

NEWS EP! Andy's reportback from Summer of Ludd! Sean on the 42nd Street building collapse and its YIMBY origins! Finally, the war's back on. But did it ever end?

For the full episode, support the show at https://www.patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

Brooklyn Public Library event Monday: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/am-gittlitz-discusses-central-library-dweck-20260713-0600pm

Our visit to the Verso Archive. Use WRECKAGE at checkout for 50% off the books we mention: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/the-verso-archive-featuring-this-wreckage

Summer of Ludd schedule: https://buttondown.com/nycofftech/archive/summer-of-ludd-schedule/

Charming 42nd St man: https://x.com/thisismeryan13/status/2074530438035435827

Former Pfizer hq collapse: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/business/midtown-development-pfizer-headquarters.html

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/08/nyregion/nyc-midtown-building-collapse

CIA-backed drone attacks target Russian energy: https://www.ft.com/content/d0f82c05-c35f-4e0f-b452-f61dc8a7e697?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/30/world/europe/ukraine-war-us-russia.html

Song: The Ramones - 53rd and 3rd

A chat with Freddy G, @orangefreddyg on IG, a Leftist/Antizionist Jewish comic and Content Creator for @trackaipac

Check out Freddy and Anders' DSA-benefit comedy show: @paidprotestcomedy

Some of his vids:

Birthright https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaVtPlwiuC7/

Watermelon: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYU7Op2hYC1/

Pod Save America: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaNxxXahCbg/

Land Auction: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZIviHVtxnv/

With Jacob berger: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYSkspoRzUW/

Song: Yung Lean - Metallic Intuition

Devin Thomas O’Shea stops by to chat about his new book The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis

Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

Peter Thiel's Dialog leak: https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/

Song: Bryan Ferry - In Your Mind

Sean reports back on Labor Note drama!

In the fun half, we listen to some of Graham Platner's town hall in an effort to redeem the term ULTRA. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/c/thiswreckage to hear it!

For a Fighting Workers Movement, A Militant Critique of Labor Notes panel: https://youtu.be/lt5X16UQ6bA?is=T_W0N0gkrCqkl9Dw

NYT piece on how ultra is a slur: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/magazine/ultraprocessed-food-insult.html

Check out geese: https://www.geesemag.com/articles/enter-daedalus-2028 https://www.geesemag.com/articles/the-direction-of-determination

Platner video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjMLrU8mI9A

Minnesota 15 legal defense fund: https://chuffed.org/project/186570-minnesota-15-legal-defense-fund

Song: New Order - Ultraviolence

Henry Wallis of the FORMS podcast returns to help us read through Books 10-19 of BOOK OF REVELATION!

We meet the whore of Babylon, the Beast, and 666 On the next episode, we’ll finish Revelation and move on to Capital Vol III!

For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

song: Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

Thanks to friends in International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers, Sean was able to attend the 2026 Labor Notes convention in Chicago, Illinois. A bunch of fellow workers from ILC Chicago were also there so Sean sat down with them at a loud bar in the convention center hotel to discuss their experiences at various panels they went to.

Whither the Teamsters for a Democratic Union? Whither the labor movement? Is there a future for the types of left labor reform movements that Labor Notes calls for? Sean, Hope and Jamie Merchant give their assessment of the good, bad and ugly at the conference including those topic which remained unaddressed but hung in the air.

To support our work become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

Song: Neil Young - This Note's For You

The second episode from the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont, Illinois for Labor Notes 2026 convention. This time Sean sits down with fellow workers JoJo and Gav from ILC Chicago to discuss various panels that they had just seen. In a surprise appearance, friend from New York, Joyce of the dissident Teamsters Mobilize stops by to talk about the trouble their group had at the conference due to TM's adversarial stance towards the reigning Teamsters for a Democratic Union leadership.

Tune in to next week's new episode where Andy and Sean break down the counterprogramming event that occurred outside LN2026 featuring supporters of TM, Spartacists League and the leftcom group International Communist Party.

Become a supporter of our work at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

song: Neil Young - This Note's For You

Sean is joined by favorite guest and wife Rax King to discuss her upcoming essay in journalism cooperative Flaming Hydra on why organizing in the food service industry is so difficult but also so vital. What will it take for labor to break through in this industry? What can restaurant work teach us about labor in general? Why are these restaurant owners always clenching their jaws and sweating so much? Answers to these questions, an introduction to Rax's patented Nine Rigors system of becoming a human, an old fashioned gripezone and more on this special, last minute episode.

To support our work and get access to all our bonus material become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

Check out Rax King's excellent newsletter for all her great writings: https://www.patreon.com/c/raxkingisdead/home

Come see Rax in person in NYC for the Veiled Prophet event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-veiled-prophet-nyc-book-event-tickets-1990109537198

As Sean and Varn reconvene we are faced with the unenviable task of trying to understand what the hell the Democratic Party is going to run on in 2026 and 2028, How to understand this economic moment? How to understand the various geopolitical crises around the globe? How are counterhegemonic actors like Graham Platner and Alex Jones going to politically confront the brave new world of AI? Stay tuned!

To listen to the entire episode including the bonus section become a supporter of our show at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

To watch the video of this whole episode become a supporter of C Derick Varn at www.patreon.com/varnvlog

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqRb6xYtEQ

https://www.cio.com/article/4131876/data-center-capex-to-hit-1-7-trillion-by-2030-due-to-ai-boom.html