Smaller show this week with the holiday and an illness among the hosts, but we persevere and have the news for you as always. We start with headlines from American Axle, Nexteer, Allison, Amazon, the LIRR, REI, Starbucks, Delaney Hall Detention Center, and the working classes of Italy and Argentina. Just two main stories this week: First, we check in on the rapidly developing situation in Bolivia, where the people are staring down brutal military repression. Lastly, we close with another look into the broader state of the economy, the war on workers, and why unions are critical nodes of struggle even in times of lower union density.

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In this new series we aim to talk about topics that are a little deeper than we can get into on a main feed episode based on some of the things that we are reading outside what we use for our main feed episodes. Each one will be self-contained and Patron Exclusive! There will still be previews in our main feed but to get the whole thing become a patron at http://patreon.com/workstoppage

This first episode's discussion focuses around the compatibility of slavery with capitalism, how slavery was a major factor in fueling the industrial revolution, and many aspects of colonialism, including primary accumulation/expropriation. This longer view of history allows us to more accurately orient ourselves as working class internationalists so we are not fooled by the historical revisionism of the ruling capitalist class.

Main Texts Discussed:

Other Media mentioned:

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A week of major strike action as well as victories. We start with headlines from UC, American Axle, Belgian trade unions, Texas State University, Penn State University, Starbucks, and the government of Virginia. Samsung workers could shut down one of the largest and richest corporations of the world as the bosses refuse to share even a portion of the massive profits they are making. Workers and Indigenous groups in Bolivia have risen up against attacks on their living conditions.  Finally, we discuss the first strike on the Long Island Railroad in over 30 years.

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The US war on Iran and resulting war on the rest of the world is a constant theme in this week's headlines. We've got stories from World Cup workers, Spirit Airlines, German and Italian students, DeepMind, the University of California, SAG-AFTRA, Indiana University, Stanford, and Cornell. For our first main story, we discuss a recent Labor Notes piece on the deadly nature of working with engineered stone. Immigrant workers incarcerated at a privately run concentration camp in Michigan have gone on strike for nearly a month in protest of their mistreatment. Finally, we actually have a labor story about someone we never thought we'd discuss on the show: Mr. Beast.

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Text of the episode: https://tinyurl.com/WSSI2TXT

Matteo brings us another wonderful report from Italy and the Mediterranean region on the days leading up to May Day, as well as what happened on the day itself. He tells the story of Liberation Day, the defense of the flotilla to Palestine, and May Day and the inspirational actions of workers fighting against imperialism, genocide, and for a better world. We also learn about what a CSA (Centro Sociale Autogestito) is in Italy and its importance to the workers' struggle.

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PAPER: https://ourpapernow.org/

May Day was the biggest it's been in years, and we spend much of the episode discussing the major protests in the US and around the world for International Workers Day. Workers in South Carolina spent their May Day picketing Elbit Systems in an effort to end their community's role in US-Israeli genocide. Bozeman mobile home residents have launched the state's first rent strike in half a century after their absentee landlords have left their communities to rot. We also have headlines from ISU, UIC, the Woodburn School District, the former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, REI, Hachette, and Amazon.

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May Day is this week!  Nationwide shutdown, bring your community together and hit the ruling class where it hurts, the bottom line!

Getting to our regular headlines, we have stories from Starbucks, Harvard, REI, the University of California, Samsung, Bangladeshi gig workers, Portuguese nurses, and the workers of Brazil. For our main stories, first we discuss a strike by workers at Illinois State University, who are fighting just to afford to live where they work. A recently launched initiative, Union Now, aims to harness the energy workers have to support organizing, we discuss the possible implications.  Finally, we do a deep dive into the countrywide assault on speech on university campuses, and the ongoing war by the ruling class to silence any voice but their own.

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Headlines on this 20th of April start with the breaking news of the change in Labor Secretary. Then we've got stories from Amazon, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Texas Tech University, Columbia University, Long Island Concrete, Florida's hospitality industry, and NASA. Over 30,000 building workers in NYC nearly went on strike, we discuss what the strike threat won in their new contracts. We discuss more of the ever increasing indicators that our economy just...doesn't work. Finally, educators and school staff in LA just won massive contract gains after nearly following their fellow workers in San Francisco on strike.

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This week's headlines include: Chicago nurses, Starbucks, Philz Coffee, Apple, the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Illinois Springfield, ProPublica, and the California Faculty Association. We start our main stories discussing the recent victorious strike at JBS in Colorado and break down what workers won. St John's University recently became the latest Catholic university in the US to try and dissolve its faculty union, but workers are fighting back. Finally, we discuss the impacts workers around the world are facing from the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran.

Suggested Reading: https://inthesetimes.com/article/permanent-war-state-iran-workers-struggle

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This week we are excited to bring listeners an interview that brings together two of our most urgent areas of discussion on our show: union democracy and the fight against ICE terror. We're honored to be joined by Leo and Kevin, two organizers with CREW, the Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers, an internal reform caucus in the IBEW. Not only are the folks in CREW working hard to make the IBEW a democratic, fighting union, as workers in the construction industry they are on the front lines of ICE's war against the working class. We discuss their goals of internal union reform, strategies for talking to coworkers who might have absorbed right wing talking points, and how the fight against ICE terror and the fight for our rights at work can't be separated.

Contact CREW: https://www.rankandfilecrew.org/

Email: [email protected]

Maine Solidarity Fund: https://www.mainesolidarity.org/

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