Working People

We are excited to launch our new ORGANIZE! series. In this ongoing series, we'll be talking to working people who have had enough of this rigged system and who have taken it upon themselves to band together and fight back. In a world where so many avenues for political change have just been swallowed up, colonized, and defanged by the ruling class, we want to see where working-class folks are turning. From the Poor People's Campaign to the Catholic Worker Movement, from labor unions to the Carolina Workers Collective, from radical indigenous collectives to the Sunrise Movement … we want to see what organizations workers are joining, or building from the ground up. We want to talk about the campaigns they're launching and the battles they are waging to claim a better future for working people everywhere.

To kick off our ORGANIZE! series, we're going to talk to folks who have found a home and a cause worth fighting for in the Democratic Socialists of America. In Part I we talk to Jen from the DSA-Eugene chapter in Oregon. We talk about growing up poor and the life-saving power of communal solidarity. We also talk about what brought Jen to DSA and about the organizing work that she and the other members of DSA-Eugene are doing.

Additional links/info below...

• The Democratic Socialists of America website, Facebook page, and Twitterpage
• DSA-Eugene Facebook page and Twitter page
• Jen's Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Friend of the show Kaytlin Bailey is back to tell us about the work she's doing at Decriminalize Sex Work and about the hysterical, disastrous push by legislators in Florida to further criminalize sex workers.

Additional links/info below...

• Kaytlin's website and Twitter page
• Decriminalize Sex Work website and Twitter page
• SWOP USA website and Twitter page
• SWOP Behind Bars website and Twitter page
• EJ Dickson, Rolling Stone, "Prosecutors Say There's No Evidence of Sex Trafficking In Robert Kraft Case"
• Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Florida Is Poised to Create an Anti-"Trafficking" Registry That Will Inevitably Hurt Sex Workers"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Activist Arielle Cohen shares her abortion story and some words of wisdom to guide us through these dark times.

Additional links/info below...

• Arielle's Twitter page
• National Network of Abortion Funds website and Twitter page
• Planned Parenthood Action website and Twitter page
• The Yellowhammer Fund website and Twitter page
• Center for Reproductive Rights website and Twitter page
• The National Women's Health Network website and Twitter page
• We Testify: Our Abortion Stories website and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• In Closing, "Days Past"
• Movie Theater, "To Smoke a Cigarette"
• Chad Crouch, "Arctic"

We chat with Walter Vicente, a Guatemalan immigrant and textile worker in North Carolina. But Walter isn't just a worker … he is also a proud co-owner at a worker co-op called Opportunity Threads, a cut-and-sew factory in Morganton, North Carolina. As it says on the Opportunity Threads website: "Everyone in our plant is hired with the expectation of becoming a worker-owner. Worker-ownership means that if a worker stays on at Opportunity Threads they are given the opportunity to be an owner in the company... Ultimately the workers themselves and their families are the beneficiaries of the success and growth of this business."

Opportunity Threads also distinguishes itself by the fact that most of the workers there are Mayan immigrants who are part of a vibrant community known as the Maya of Morganton. Together, they are showing that another, more just, more humane, and more communal and equitable mode of production and commerce is possible … one that puts workers and communities first.

Additional links/info below...

• Opportunity Threads FAQ
• Leon Fink, UNC Press, The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South
• Cecilia Garza, Yes!, "A North Carolina Textile Co-Op Gives Immigrant Workers a Stake in the Business"
• Astra Taylor, What Is Democracy?
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "Wrestling with the Demo(n)s"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• The Cedro Willie Band, "Moving On"

We are kicking off our new series: Workers' Book Club! In this ongoing series, we will record workers chatting with authors about books that relate to the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class. To get things started, our host, Maximillian Alvarez, sat down to chat with author, historian, and independent scholar Keri Leigh Merritt about the recent volume she co-edited with Matthew Hild, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power(University Press of Florida).

Additional links/info below...

• Keri's website and Twitter page
• Keri Leigh Merritt & Matthew Hild (eds), University Press of Florida, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power
• Keri Leigh Merritt, Cambridge University Press, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Maya Angelou reading 'Workers' Song'
• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• The Trumpeteers, "Little Wooden Church"

We chat with John Tormey, writer and track laborer for the commuter rail in Massachusetts, about his essay for The Baffler, "Known Assailants," Boston accents, and the white working class.

Additional links/info below...

• John's Twitter page
• John Tormey, The Baffler, "Known Assailants"
• John Tormey, Covered with Fur, "Dead Things"
• John Tormey, Rabble Lit, "Train Approach Warning"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We chat with Alexandra Carbone, gig worker and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, about the #StrikeUberLyft strike tomorrow and how you can show solidarity with workers. (Don't cross the picket line!)

Additional links/info below...

• Alexandra's Twitter page
• Rideshare Drivers United website, Twitter page, and strike map
• Salvo, "Striking the Gig"
• Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, "Uber and Lyft Drivers Are Planning a Strike on Wednesday ahead of Uber's IPO"
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "'They Treat Us Like Crap': Uber Drivers Feel Poor and Powerless on Eve of IPO"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We talk to disability and health activist Stefanie Mezigian about ride-sharing company Lyft's violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and how this is connected to the #StrikeUberLyft strike scheduled for May 8th. (Don't cross the picket line on May 8th! Turn your ride-sharing apps off and show solidarity with workers.)

Additional links/info below...

• Stefanie's Twitter page
• For Our Future Michigan, "Stefanie Mezigian Shares a Powerful Message about Healthcare for All"
• Samantha Maldonado, Politico, "Lyft Fights to Avoid Americans with Disabilities Act in Federal Court"
• Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), "Lyft Sued for Illegally Excluding Bay Area Wheelchair-Users"
• Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, "Uber and Lyft Drivers Are Planning a Strike on Wednesday ahead of Uber's IPO"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We chat with writer and podcaster Luke Savage about his recent Jacobin piece on how the media and politicians alike either reduce the working class to a few simplistic stereotypes or erase us entirely.

Additional links/info below...

• Luke's Twitter page and Jacobin author page
• Michael and Us podcast
• Luke Savage, Jacobin, "The Real Working Class Is Invisible to the Media"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We talk to Drew Edmonds, a Burgerville worker in Portland, Oregon, and an organizer with the Burgerville Workers Union. We talk about the fight Drew and his coworkers led to form the nation's first federally recognized fast food union (followed by workers at Little Big Burger, another Portland chain). We talk about what it was like to unionize from the ground up across Burgerville stores, about how they have used the power of their union in the push to secure better wages and fairer treatment, and about the union-busting backlash and firings that they've faced from the company in response. We also talk about how their story speaks to the effectiveness and necessity of the organizing model of the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World), which both the Burgerville Workers Union and the Little Big Union are affiliated with.

Additional links/info below...

• Boycott Burgerville
• Burgerville Workers Union Facebook page and Twitter page
• Little Big Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Wikipedia page and Twitter page
• Shane Burley, ThinkProgress, "These Burgerville Employees Organized the First Official Fast Food Labor Union in the Country"
• Eater Portland, Behind Portland's Fight for Unionized Fast Food Restaurants
• Don McIntosh, NW Labor Press, "Burgerville Continues to Fire Pro-Union Workers"
• Elise Herron, Willamette Week, "Workers at Little Big Burger Form Union, Joining Portland Fast-Food Labor Drive"
• Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "Fast-Food Industry Workers Continue to Fight for Their Right to Unionize"
• Annelise Orleck, Beacon Press, "We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now": The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• Cletus Got Shot, "Gravedigger"