Laborwave Revolution Radio

"Rather than viewing strikes as a last-resort bargaining tactic, the labor movement must embrace them as engines of political transformation." Erik Baker, an American historian, associate editor at The Drift, and a former UAW staff organizer, joins Laborwave to discuss his article for Jewish Currents, Revaluing the Strike. You can read the full article at https://jewishcurrents.org/revaluing-the-strike

Eric Dirnbach joins the show to discuss premajority unionism, where you don't need to wait around to act like a union but can be a union from the start! We also talk about strikes, dues checkoff, fighting corporate giants like Starbucks and Amazon, and more. Check out the article written by Eric Dirnbach and Colette Perold on premajority unionism at https://workerorganizing.org/premajority-unionism/

Back from hiatus with a no holds barred takedown of every popular argument for reviving the power of organizing labor! Marianne Garneau, editor in chief of Organizing Work, joins the discussion to breakdown the debates on organizing the unorganized, the rank and file strategy, and forming new types of contemporary unions. Check out my new article in Organizing Work that dives deeper into the problems with the "militant minority" tendency: https://organizing.work

Matthew Dimick, Professor of Law at the University of Buffalo, joins the show to respond to recent debate over the Wagner Act. Dimick makes clear that rather than trying to posit the Act was a gift to labor that the labor movement should be cautious whenever the state seeks to substitute its powers for unions own self-activity. Our discussion touches on the following articles written by Dimick in Organizing Work and Catalyst Journal. Counterfeit Liberty- https://catalyst-journal.com/2019/07/counterfeit-liberty The Wagner Act, Cause and Consequences- https://organizing.work/2022/08/the-wagner-act-causes-and-consequences/

Toni Gilpin joins the show to discuss her book, The Long Deep Grudge, which chronicles the epic battles of the Farm Equipment Workers Union (FE) against corporate giant International Harvester. From the book description, "International Harvester – and the McCormick family that largely controlled it – garnered a reputation for bare-knuckled union-busting in the 1880s, but in the 20th century also pioneered sophisticated union-avoidance techniques that have since become standard corporate practice. On the other side the militant Farm Equipment Workers union, connected to the Communist Party, mounted a vociferous challenge to the cooperative ethos that came to define the American labor movement after World War II." Order the book at https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1383-the-long-deep-grudge Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwaveWe have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Second episode in our discussion of the life and thought of William Z. Foster. On this go around Lucas Carpenter and Tim Shields join the show to do a deep dive over Foster's proposed methods for effective labor organizing. In particular we examine his pamphlets Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry and Strike Strategy. We also discuss the techniques of pink sheeting, role of popular education in organizing, and competing conceptions of leadership identification and development. This and more on the latest episode of Laborwave Radio. Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwaveWe have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Nick Driedger joins the show to discuss the legacy and ideas of William Z. Foster, former president the Communist Party USA and trade unionist involved in the early IWW and AFL. We adopt a critical lens discuss Foster's concepts of a "militant minority" and "boring from within" as a strategy for pulling conservative unions to the left. Driedger also explains the reaction and criticism leveled against Foster's ideas when he presented them to the IWW in 1911. This and more on the latest episode of Laborwave Radio. Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwaveWe have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Graham Kovich joins the show to discuss varying media and communications strategies for increasing union power. Graham is running for the role of Communications Officer for the IWW and explains his viewpoints on the need for internally focused communications that are member-driven, and how and when it's most effective to utilize external communications to meet union needs. Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Daisy Pitkin joins the show to discuss her book about labor organizing and solidarity, On The Line. Daisy Pitkin has spent more than twenty years as a community and union organizer, working first in support of garment workers around the world, and then for U.S. labor unions organizing industrial laundry workers. Her essays have been awarded the Montana Prize, the DISQUIET Literary Prize, the New Millennium Award, and the Monique Wittig Writer's Scholarship. She grew up in rural Ohio and received an MFA from the University of Arizona. Pitkin lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she works as an organizer with an offshoot of the union UNITE. Find her at daisypitkin.net.

Joe Burns discusses class struggle unionism on this joint episode between Laborwave Radio and Wobcast of Organizing Work. Marianne Garneau collaborates on this interview with Joe Burns about his forthcoming book from Haymarket, Class Struggle Unionism. The current labor movement is dominated, and negatively influenced, by what Burns describes as "labor liberalism." In order to revive a militant union movement, he argues, we need to break free of labor liberalism and return to the aggressive tactics that animate the spirit of class struggle. To order a copy of the book, visit https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1767-class-struggle-unionism Check out the articles on Organizing Work and episodes of Wobcast at organizing.work Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Michael Beyea Reagan discusses the characteristics of intersectional class struggle and shares insights around movement-building geared toward the task of fighting all forms of oppression. Get a copy of the book that informs this conversation at https://www.akpress.org/intersectional-class-struggle.html Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Liz, host of Rebel Steps podcast, joins the show to discuss a fictional workplace campaign to unionize the hotel workers at the illustrious White Lotus! Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Andrea Haverkamp, a labor organizer based in Seattle, joins the show to talk shop about organic leaders, private vs public sector organizing approaches, one-on-one conversations, internal democracy, and more! Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Bill Fletcher Jr joins the show and discusses the need for "social justice unionism" in a post-Janus United States. Workers are increasingly atomized in the US, and the state continues to rollback any investments into the reproductive labor that stitches society together. The moment, as Fletcher Jr states, that organized labor can seize for victory is almost over. We might not get another moment. What role do teachers strikes, worker-owned businesses, and housing cooperatives play in seizing this current moment? How do the rank and file push labor leadership to understand that we cannot continue doing "business as usual" despite not being knocked out by Janus right away? Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Joe Burns, a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer and the author of Strike Back and Reviving the Strike, joins the show to discuss the role militant traditional labor strikes have in revitalizing the labor movement. His forthcoming book is Class Struggle Unionism, from Haymarket Books. Burns highlights the limitations of labor strategies that prioritize either reforming labor law, electing new labor officials, or seek to "organize our way out of the crisis" by increasing union density. All of these approaches, while they may possess beneficial aspects, fall short of accomplishing the rebirth of a militant labor movement if they are not backed by a wave of traditional labor strikes. We discuss this and more in our conversation. Get a copy of Reviving the Strike and Strike Back at https://www.igpub.com/reviving-the-strike/ and pre-order a copy of the forthcoming title, Class Struggle Unionism, at https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1767-class-struggle-unionism Laborwave Radio has joined the Channel Zero Network, an english-based anarchist radio/podcast network run by radical media makers. Explore the network's co-conspirators at channelzeronetwork.com Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Marianne Garneau, publisher of Organizing.Work, joins the show to discuss her article Workplace Struggles Are Political. Garneau's provides a necessary corrective over common views amongst "socialists" that work and politics are two separate spheres in which struggle takes place. Following the wrongheaded opinion of Lenin, who assessed workers as only capable of rising to a level of "trade union consciousness," these socialists, according to Garneau, "take a surprisingly apolitical view of what goes on in the workplace."

Graham Kovich joins the show to plan an organizing campaign for the servants in Beauty & the Beast! Graham and I imagine ourselves as two salt shakers, transformed into our alienated selves along with our fellow servants, under the repressive thumb of the "Beast" in a far-away castle in a long ago time. What pressure do we as servants have to change our circumstances? How can we recruit Belle into an ally in our struggle? And what role does emotional leverage have in orchestrating a servant uprising? We talk about this as well as the similarities between the conditions faced by these transformed servants with today's hospitality workers, and provide a sketch of an organizing campaign that could likely be imitated in many modern restaurants. Check out Restaurant Worker News on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/restaurantworkersnews Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Eric Laursen, author of The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State, joins the show to provide a concrete analysis of the State as opposed to states and compares the modern state to an operating system. As he explains, the State seeks to be everything. The State absorbs dissent and incorporates it into building a more expansive State. Though humans created the State, it has become nearly autonomous and now shapes our conceptions of ourselves. How do we break away from the State? What would it look like to replace the State? These challenging questions and more in our conversation with Eric Laursen. Get a copy of the book at https://www.akpress.org/operating-system.html Send comments and questions about labor organizing to laborwavenews@gmail.com Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Eric Dirnbach joins the show to discuss his experience as an advanced organizer with EWOC, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a joint partnership of the DSA and UE. Dirnbach challenges organized labor to train one million workers for unionizing the masses, and we discuss whether popular education models such as EWOC are suited for the task. Also discussed are the prospects for syndicalism to meet the task of organizing one million workers, and the role mainstream unions can or should have in popular education for organizing workers. Read the articles written by Dirnbach on EWOC at https://workerorganizing.org/millions-of-workers-want-a-union-ewoc-shows-how-to-help-2382/ Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Gabriel Winant, historian and author of The Next Shift, joins the show to discuss the decline of union power in the face of speed-ups and an expanding framework of labor relations. Our conversation focuses on worker rebellion, the political failure alongside economic gains for organized labor in the postwar era, and the lessons we can learn from the defeat of the New Deal. He draws attention to the period known as the "great exception," where unions experienced their high-water mark in power and organization, and problematizes some of the common claims about this era. Particularly, Winant shows how the present regime of privatized healthcare was embedded in the struggle over shop floor power in the postwar United States. Get a copy of Winant's book, The Next Shift, at https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238091 Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Comrades Luke and Tim join the show to discuss the rank and file critique of business unionism put forward by Stan Weir. Throughout his writings and his life Stan Weir operated by the creed that one should not "let people feel that their job is to sit back and admire somebody else." Our conversation focuses on Stan Weir's critique of "business unionism," guided by his confidence in the capacity of workers organizing their own independent and radical unions. Weir provides a corrective to the story of the CIO where he highlights how the CIO was formed by rank and file workers and then was pushed into bureaucratic forms by labor officialdom. Weir also challenges the romanticized historiography of union leaders like Walter Reuther and Harry Bridges, pointing to their methods of suppressing rank and file militancy. From the book jacket, "Blue-collar intellectual and activist, Stan Weir devoted his life to the advocacy of his fellow workers. Singlejack Solidarity offers a rare look at life and social relations as seen from the factory, dockside, and the shop floor." Get the book at https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/singlejack-solidarity Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Re-issue of our conversation with Marianne Garneau discussing her article in Organizing.Work, "You Say You Want a General Strike?" Garneau takes a critical look at general strikes conducted in Europe and argues they have not had the powerful impacts popularly imagined by US audiences. She then discusses the possibilities of importing the tactic to the United States. Read the full article at https://organizing.work/2019/08/you-say-you-want-a-general-strike/ Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Hamilton Nolan joins the show to elaborate on his article "Get Rid of No Strike Clauses and Stop Begging" written for In These Times. Nolan argues that the right to strike is the only thing that gives working people power. He identifies the weaknesses of organized labor within a paradigm of collective bargaining where surrendering the right to strike is the norm, and argues that in order to turn the tide of union power in the US it is necessary for rank and file union members to commit to reclaiming the strike and eliminating no strike clauses from their contracts. Read the article at https://inthesetimes.com/article/no-strike-clause-labor-peace-union-contracts Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Veteran labor organizer, Elizabeth Laycak, joins the show to discuss how two new workers employed by Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. in Scranton, PA would initiate a unionization campaign with a strategy to win. We cover mapping and charting, assessments, identifying leaders (and isolating anti-union workers), along with the importance of secrecy and inoculation throughout the campaign. Very fun episode and Laborwave Radio is making an open invitation to any of our listeners that wish to discuss the hypothetical union campaign they would conduct at any fictional workplace on television or the big screen! Contact LR at laborwavenews@gmail.com if you've got a pitch! Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Ruby and Zama, workers at Amazon and members of Amazonians United, join the show to discuss their methods of shop floor organizing and direct unionism. They share stories of how AU emerged, initially through breaking bread and resocializing the workplace, to their first direct action demanding access to water in the shop. We also discussed the dismissal of AU by proponents of business unionism, and offer a critique of conventional labor union practices. Learn more about AU at https://www.amazoniansunited.org/ Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 Music: Ty Segall- Love Fuzz

Marybeth Seitz-Brown, organizer and former rank-and-file member with the NewsGuild of New York, joins the show to discuss how deep organizing is necessary for building robust union democracy and pushing union members to tackle the biggest issues of the day. Building off her article, "The Left Needs to Engage Members If We Want to Win Big" in The Forge, Marybeth puts forward grounded advice on how to develop methods for ensuring union democracy is an active practice and organizing approaches workers with the expectation that their politics and activity can change over time. We discuss why it matters to view democracy as the practice of "governing by obeying," the need to expand the political imagination around what unions can fight for and win, and how deep organizing can build the structures within our unions necessary for accomplishing the above. Read the article at https://forgeorganizing.org/article/left-needs-engage-members-if-we-want-win-big Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 Music: Mika Miko- Turkey Sandwich

Comrades Andrea, Kali, Luke, and Nick join the show to discuss the film Lapsis, from writer/director Noah Hutton. In a parallel present, delivery man Ray Tincelli takes a job in the gig economy. He begins pulling cable to link together the new quantum trading market. We talk about the film's realistic depiction of working in the gig economy and the power of organizing against it, the tactic of sabotage, and how capitalism is a ponzi scheme that keeps us sick and pits automation against the toiling masses and natural environment. Thanks to Taylor Hess, film producer for making it possible for us to have this discussion, and director Noah Hutton for allowing us to screen the movie! You can find Lapsis online for rent at vudu.com and Laborwave Radio highly recommends it for you and all your friends. Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

MK Lees, contributor and regular editor of Organizing Work, joins Laborwave Radio to discuss the strategy of "salting" a workplace to boost a union campaign, and the need to refine this practice for optimal impact. Among topics discussed in this episode is a response to the claim that salting is the best strategy for revitalizing a militant labor movement, and how salting done well abides by understanding that a salt cannot substitute for a committee of rank and file workers. The article, "Salt: The Flavor, Not the Meal," published in Organizing Work formed the basis of our conversation. Read it at https://organizing.work/2020/06/salt-the-flavor-not-the-meal/ Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871

Tom Wetzel, author of the forthcoming book Overcoming Capitalism from AK Press, joins Laborwave Radio to discuss a syndicalist critique of Kim Moody's rank and file strategy. Our conversation focuses on arguments made by Wetzel in two pieces for Black Rose Anarchist Federation, The Case for Building New Unions https://blackrosefed.org/the-case-for-building-new-unions-wetzel/; and The Rank and File Strategy: A Syndicalist View https://blackrosefed.org/wetzel-rank-and-file-strategy-syndicalist/ Wetzel points out that Moody's strategy exclusively relies on transforming existing business unions, an unlikely task but also one that overlooks how nearly 90% of workers do not belong to unions and can be organized into independent unions. Rather than reforming business unions and then hoping it expands into more unions, Wetzel maintains our primary focus should be on organizing the non-unionized workers into entirely different types of unions. This and more in our conversation. Please support Laborwave Radio by subscribing to our patreon at patreon.com/laborwave We have gifts depending on the tier you join, and exclusive access to our archives and Discord server. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/labo…io/id1536697871

Comrades Andrea Haverkamp, Nick Fisher, Tim and Joe Clement join Laborwave Radio for another series of Comrades Read! We dig into the "Rank and File Strategy" a popular 30-page pamphlet written by Kim Moody in 2000 for the publication Solidarity. We provide a summary of Moody's argument, that socialists are marginal in labor unions and therefore need to create "transitional organizations" to insert radical activity into unions and build toward a larger international socialist organization, and also talk through our points of agreement, departure, and the possible limits of the rank and file strategy. Comrades challenged the idea that unions need to build toward a "socialist party" apparatus, while others acknowledged Moody's emphasis on focusing where we have current capacity in the working-class and therefore the rank and file strategy gives us a pathway for contemporary conditions. This and more in the first episode of another mini-series where we'll be discussing the Rank and File Strategy! Read the pamphlet at https://solidarity-us.org/rankandfilestrategy/ Become a Laborwave Radio patron to support this show at patreon.com/laborwave Patrons receive gifts based on their membership tier and are added to our Discord server where you'll have access to all the episodes in our vault! Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 MUSIC: Link Wray- The Bad and the Good

Peter Cole joins the show to discuss the second edition of his book Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly published by PM Press. The range and scope of this episode expands over the backdrop of early 20th century Philadelphia and recounts the biographical details of Wobbly organizer Ben Fletcher and the tale of IWW Local 8, a powerful dock workers union that practiced anti-racist unionism which Ben Fletcher helped to create. We also discuss the demise of Local 8, brought down by a multitude of historical forces such as WWI and employer counter-offensives as well as fraught internal divisions between the IWW and Communist Party and competition from business unions such as the International Longshoremen's Association. Get a copy of the book at https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1144 Become a Laborwave Radio patron to support this show at patreon.com/laborwave Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 Music: Dead Milkmen- Big Lizard Thee Oh Sees- Adult Acid

Laborwave Radio and the One Big Podcast collaborate on this episode discussing the particulars of solidarity unionism in contrast to business unionism. We dig into the various tenets of solidarity unionism; its emphasis on direct action over contracts, focus on the workplace and industry over legal strategies and electoralism, and the prospects for dual-carding in a shop represented by a business union. One Big Podcast is the official podcast of the Ypsilanti IWW, listen to the podcast and find out more about the branch at https://www.iwwypsi.org/ Become a Laborwave Radio patron to support this show at patreon.com/laborwave Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 Music: Natural Child- Sure Is Nice

Sarah Jaffe, author, labor journalist, and one of the hosts of Belabored Podcast, joins Laborwave Radio to discuss her new book, Work Won't Love You Back published by Bold Type Books. You’re told that if you “do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” But as Sarah Jaffe shows, “doing what you love” is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives. We discuss the themes of the book, the downsides when punk rock is created by trust fund kids, and what love might look like in a world free of capitalist forms of work. Get a copy of the book at https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/sarah-jaffe/work-wont-love-you-back/9781568589398/ Find more work from Sarah Jaffe at https://sarahljaffe.com/ Become a Laborwave Radio patron to support this show at patreon.com/laborwave Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/labo…io/id1536697871 Music from In The Red Records: Thee Oh Sees- Adult Acid Tyvek- Origin of What Transcript at laborwaveradio.com/post/_work

Support Laborwave Radio at patreon.com/laborwave Alex Press, labor reporter and staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, joins the show to discuss Joe Biden's union credentials and what organized labor should and shouldn't expect from a Biden administration. As made clear in this interview- not much without a fight. We also dig into the details of the PRO Act, the types of unions the working class wants and needs, and how the primary means for workers to win progressive legislation is to form militant unions and engage in class struggle. This interview follows an article from Alex Press that you can read at https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-labor-unions-afl-cio-kamala-harris Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps our content reach new listeners. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laborwave-radio/id1536697871 Music from In The Red Records: Fuzz- Rat Race

Sustain Laborwave Radio by becoming a patron at patreon.com/laborwave Laborwave spoke with workers at No Evil Foods about the company's union busting strategy against a unionization campaign organized by employees. Megan, John, and Max discuss in detail the tactics of No Evil Foods union busting, including a marathon series of captive audience meetings totaling 14 hours, illegal firings, and censorship, and how workers should prepare for aggressive anti-union campaigns conducted by bosses. We also delved into a conversation about "solidarity unionism" and the IWW as a viable alternative to conventional union recognition campaigns. This episode includes never heard before leaked audio from captive audience meetings owners of No Evil Foods forced their employees to attend! Despite being a "progressive" company producing vegan meat alternatives and naming their products in socialist language like "comrade cluck," No Evil Foods prioritizes profit over people and demonstrates a no-holds-barred approach to union busting. Workers have compiled an extensive catalog of information, interviews, and resources for the union busting that took place housed at the website https://www.moevilfoods.com/ Additional resources mentioned in the show: Confessions of a Union Buster by Martin Jay Levitt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-0gxca-VxM Thanks to John Dwyer and In The Red Records for use of music! Thee Oh Sees- Acid Wash The Spit- Shitty World

Support Laborwave Radio at patreon.com/laborwave Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese are the editors of The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy published by Pluto Press. Order a copy at https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341484/the-cost-of-free-shipping/ With cutting-edge analysis, this book looks at the many facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers' struggle, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. Mentioned in the talk is a panel event with the editors from November, when this episode was recorded, you've missed that discussion but you can watch the video of it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYeH0jLmHFM Join the fight against Amazon by connecting with Amazonians United at https://www.amazoniansunited.org/ and read an interview with the workers at https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/amazon-manages-us-through-stress/ Learn more about forms of solidarity work from this piece at Jacobin, Amazon Workers Desperately Need an Insurgent Union Campaign https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/amazon-worker-organizing-salting-union-coronavirus All our content is at laborwaveradio.com Music: Fresh and Onlys- I'm a Thief

The IWW is 115 years old! In celebration we invited Marianne Garneau & Nick Driedger from Organizing Work to discuss the nuts and bolts of organizing within the IWW and our future as a union. What accounts for the recent upsurge in IWW organizing campaigns? How do we make more universal for all Wobblies our educational documents and training programs? What, if any, strategic industries should we focus on and should we target smaller workplaces or larger ones to build power? Finally, how much should we branch off from organizing in the workplace to forms of organizing outside of it? We discuss all of the above questions, as well as the challenges we face in building one big union, including the dominant presence of business unions and increasing precarity of workers in North America. Transcript forthcoming! Links: Laborwave Radio patreon patreon.com/laborwave Organizing Work https://organizing.work Join the IWW! (but you have to promise to organize your coworkers!) https://iww.org The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor by Steve Early https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/350-the-civil-wars-in-u-s-labor Music: Thee Oh Sees- Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster (intro) The Traditional Fools- Get Off Of My Back (outro)

Preview of our upcoming episode w/ Jake Alimahomed-Wilson & Ellen Reese, editors of the book The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy available from Pluto Press.

Laborwave Radio presents a podcast mini-series, After The Revolution. ​ After the Revolution is inspired by the desire to offer more than a diagnosis of what is wrong with today by focusing on what we might be able to bring about instead. Each episode within this series will begin by highlighting the importance of one particular feature of society, then imagining what it might look like after the revolution, and finally offering some ideas on how we get to this revolutionary society. Our fourth episode is Malls After the Revolution featuring Shawn of Srsly Wrong, a utopian leftist comedy podcast (https://srslywrong.com/). "We can't just have a perfect mall that works and is static. We can think of a bunch of different things that are the conditions of a good mall that we can try to increase over time, such as making sure that community members have access. We could try to make a static mall, but it's like trying to paint the smell of oranges. Or trying to translate the taste of soup into a song. It does not follow."

Crossposting an interview Laborwave Radio host, Alex Riccio, had with Joseph Orosco of the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures about the #ScholarStrike. The recent online #ScholarStrike claimed to be a way for higher ed faculty to engage in radical action in support of racial justice and against police violence in the US. In the conversation I argue that the #ScholarStrike missed big opportunities for social change and revealed some misunderstandings that many academics have about power and their own place in systems of oppression. Rather than have digital conferences, higher education workers should build alternative organizations to challenge the power structure of their universities to bring racial justice to the BIPOC staff and community that work at their institutions. Read the full article at https://www.laborwaveradio.com/post/strikes-are-not-for-spectacle For more information on the Anarres Project, visit @AnarresProject on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or go to anarresproject.org. Support our show at patreon.com/laborwave

Marianne Garneau, editor and contributor of Organizing Work, and Nick Driedger, regular contributor to Organizing Work, joined Laborwave Radio to discuss the future and present of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This is a preview clip from the episode set to be released in full in December 2020.

Join in on the fun Discord conversations by becoming a Laborwave Patron at patreon.com/laborwave We're reading books, sharing articles, and watching movies via discord with our patreon subscribers. We've finished No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power by Jane McAlevey! Each chapter has been discussed at length in our series Comrades Read Together, and three veteran labor organizers join us for this final conversation. Michael Marchmann, staff organizer for GTFF 3544, Sarah Pishioneri, staff organizer for CGE 6069, and Andrea Haverkamp, president of CGE 6069, chat with Laborwave Radio about the difference between "pretend power" and "real power." Our conversation circles largely around the question of, what Marx famously described, "class in itself" vs. "class for itself." How do we, as leftist organizers, connect disparate movement agents during times of crisis to move from having history enacted upon the working class to the working class enacting history? With the looming pandemic providing pathways towards multiple futures, what are the necessary steps and vision we need to push toward the future we wish to make? All this and more in our final episode of Comrades Read Together: No Shortcuts! Music from In The Red Records: Ty Segall- Class War

We spoke with members of the Angry Workers, a political collective, about the insights from their recent PM Press title, "Class Power on Zero Hours." The Angry Workers spent the last six years working in a London backyard mostly among food and manufacturing workers, and they've chronicled their experiences as well as their efforts to organize alongside these workers in an expansive book. We speak about these experiences as well as the lessons learned from the ground, and the need to develop revolutionary forms of organization internationally. You can contact the Angry Workers at angryworkersworld@gmail.com or on their Twitter @angryworkers or Facebook @angryworkersworld https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1164 Music on this episode is provided thanks to In The Red Records! Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin- Drop Dead Baby https://intheredrecords.com/collections/the-ty-segall-band/products/ty-segall-mikal-cronin-reverse-shark-attack Support our show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/laborwave

On Election Night comrades of the show got together to play games, talk politics, and ease election anxiety (as much as that was possible). Here's a short clip of our four-hour hangout where we discussed Emma Goldman's position on women's suffrage and state politics, the Black Rose Anarchist Federation article on Voting or Abstention, and a recent Contrapoints video discussing the subject of voting for the lesser of two evils. Comrades heard here include Andrea, Kali, and Tali. Laborwave will continue putting videos and hangouts such as these on our YouTube, and you can access all of our content and help sustain our show at patreon.com/laborwave Links to the articles we discuss: Emma Goldman- Woman Suffrage https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/goldman/works/1911/woman-suffrage.htm Black Rose Anarchist Federation- Vote- Or Don't: On Abstentionism https://blackrosefed.org/vote-or-dont/ Contrapoints- Voting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Vah8sUFgI

David Graeber was an anthropologist, proponent of anarchism, and participant in many movement struggles of the past two decades including the Alter-Globalization movement and Occupy Wall Street. Among his popular authored books includes Debt: The First 5,000 Years, The Utopia of Rules, Bullshit Jobs, and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. He passed on September 2, 2020. We discuss his ideas and celebrate his memory in this conversation with comrades Tony Vogt, member of the IWW and co-founder of the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, and Shane Capra, an organizer and participant in the Institute for Advanced Troublemaking and member of the IWW. Our discussion covers topics of leadership and charisma, the tension between play and games, and falling in love with a ghost you cannot capture. Support Laborwave by becoming a patron at patreon.com/laborwave Links: Anarres Project for Alternative Futures anarresproject.org Institute for Advanced Troublemaking https://advancedtroublemaking.wordpress.com In the Red Records https://intheredrecords.com Music: King Khan & BBQ Show: Shake Real Low

A preview of our next installment of After the Revolution, a mini-series exploring aspects of a future revolutionary society that goes deeper than just what we are against to articulate our desires and wants in a society centered on emancipation. Shawn from Srsly Wrong podcast joins Laborwave Radio to discuss how current shopping malls can be creatively reinterpreted for a future after the revolution. Full episode will be published soon! Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/laborwave & check out our friends at Srsly Wrong at https://srslywrong.com/

We discussed the legacy and experiences of Occupy Wall Street with two movement participants Marina Sitrin and Vanessa Zettlers, contributors to the recent title Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid during the Covid-19 Crisis published by Pluto Press. Our conversation touched on the ways to recover the real history of OWS and overcome "historical forgetting," the mechanics of OWS through forms of direct democracy such as assemblies and working groups, and the lessons learned from this movement including the need to better anticipate "the fist of the state." In The Red Records, an independent music label based in Los Angeles, has provided Laborwave permission to use music from their artists on the show! This episode featured the following In The Red artists: Tyvek- Real Estate and Finance, off their 2016 album "Origin of What" Osees-Don't Blow Your Experiment, from their upcoming album "Panther Rotate" from Castle Face Records. Links: Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid During Covid-19 Crisis published by Pluto Press https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745343167/pandemic-solidarity/ They Can't Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy published by Verso Books https://www.versobooks.com/books/1433-they-can-t-represent-us Laborwave Radio is an independent podcast fully sustained by our patrons. Become a rank-and-filer, committee member, or strike captain and help support our show at patreon.com/laborwave

We spoke with Amir Fleischmann of the Graduate Employee Organization, a union at the University of Michigan, about their latest strike leveraged to fight the university's reckless reopening plans amid a pandemic. Amir provides a play-by-play of the strike, the events leading up to it and the larger context in which it occurred, and how their union was able to raise expectations and demonstrate the organic links between worker justice and social justice. We discuss the demands of the strike, including demands to disarm and defund campus police, and take a look at the strike's mechanics and how workers were able to make their presence felt even during measures of social distancing as well as the power they were able to build among their own membership and in coalition with campus and community organizations. Laborwave Radio is an independent podcast sustained exclusively through our patrons at patreon.com/laborwave If you enjoy the show, please share our content across social media, like and comment, and join our patreon as either a rank-and-filer, committee member, or strike captain. All patrons receive custom-made gifts from our resident artist including original stickers, illustrated zines, and Laborwave tees. Music by: Damaged Bug- Transmute

Laborwave Radio is celebrating it's three-year anniversary! We've put together a highlight reel from our latest year featuring Jarrod Shanahan, Asad Haider, Boots Riley, Raj Patel, Holly Lewis, Micah Uetricht, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Sarah Jaffe, Natasha Lennard, Liza Featherstone, Bill Fletcher Jr, Andrea Haverkamp, Shannon Ikebe & Tara Phillips, Nick Driedger, and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò. We also take a moment to reflect on our history and give a shoutout to all our patreon members! Lots of credit needs to be given to our frequent guest host Andrea Haverkamp for all her work dreaming up this podcast and helping sustain it, thank you comrade for your all-around friendship and radical spirit that gives me hope! Thank you Rank-and-Filers, Committee Members, and Strike Captains that make up our patreon community! You help keep Laborwave running, and we greatly appreciate your contributions. Our patreon community includes: Nicholas Fisher, Jason Sarkozi-Forfinski, Caroline Hunter (my mom!),

Join in on the fun Discord conversations by becoming a Laborwave Patron at patreon.com/laborwave Andrea Haverkamp, president of CGE 6069, joins Laborwave to discuss chapters 5 & 6 of No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane McAlevey; "If We Can Change the White House, We Can Change the Hog House!" Our conversation highlights the importance of connecting our movement histories to fight against the consistent bracketing of social movements as self-contained and insular phenomenons, making the role of staff transparent and accountable for developing the leadership of the rank-and-file, and also pose some hard questions for the IWW asking why is it so prone to the "one-man organizing show" written about in Organizing Work and what prevents its own policies and structures from being consistently implemented? Chapter 5 analyzes the strategies of UFCW's multiple union campaigns at Smithfield Foods, where in their third round after 10+ years they finally won a union through a deep organizing model that brought in community allies under a banner of social justice to win. Chapter 6 examines the "mobilizing model," with promise, of Make the Road New York, an immigrants rights organization with more than 15,000 dues-paying members. McAlevey argues key ingredients for their success include "high-touch" participatory democracy and power over staff afforded by MRNY members. This and more in our penultimate episode of Comrades Read Together: No Shortcuts! Join us in discussion and some reading sessions on our Discord server! You can get in on the fun by becoming a Laborwave Patron at patreon.com/laborwave and joining as a Rank-and-Filer, or Committee Member, or Strike Captain. Once joined, you'll receive an invitation to our Discord where we have a pdf of the book, multiple channels for discussions, and voice channels for periodic reading and chat sessions together! Organizing Work, Beware the One-Man Organizing Show https://organizing.work/2019/07/beware-the-one-man-organizing-show/ Music: Thee Oh Sees- Bloody Water

Joining Laborwave is Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, to discuss his piece on Identity Politics and Elite Capture published by the Boston Review. "If elite capture boils down to the way power and resources tend to be distributed within groups, and not simply across groups, then it is a fully general problem of politics in a world that distributes power and resources unjustly and unequally. Elites get outsize control over the ideas in circulation about identities by, more or less, the same methods and for the same reasons that they get control over everything else." We discuss how elite capture is on display in the op-eds of Andrew Yang and calls for better representation within mainstream media, its manifestations in current discourse around "cancel culture," and the prospects for revamped social movements, especially in organized labor, to elevate politics to a level that transcends the capture of elites. http://bostonreview.net/race/olufemi-o-taiwo-identity-politics-and-elite-capture Music: Damaged Bug- Sold America