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Work StoppageInterview: No Neutrals There by Jeff Schuhrke PREVIEWTo get access to the full interview, support us on Patreon @ http://patreon.com/workstoppage
Professor Schuhrke joins us once again to discuss his newest book No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine. We discuss the history of the Zionist project and how US labor leadership guided a huge amount of support for the settler colonial project, but also ways that the seeds of resistance in the imperial core were there as early as the Nakba. The book gives us a real view of the scope of what we are fighting against when...
2025-12-2625 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 9: Mexican Workers Organize The Factories (1920-1950) PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
For the final episode in our series, we finally discuss the struggle of Mexican workers in the factories of the southwest. We've covered farmworkers, miners, oil workers, and by the 1920s, more and more jobs began to open up for Mexican workers in more stable jobs in canneries and other factories. But just as with the extractive sectors, bosses used open racism to segregate their workforce and drive conditions down for everyone. We discuss the organization of railroad workers in...
2025-10-1628 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 8: The Real Salt of the Earth PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
Even as the Mexican Revolution was winding down, the struggle for equal rights in their own country by Mexican miners and oil workers was still heating up. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, spurred by the forces of change in the revolution and the staunch internationalism of the IWW, Mexican miners launched some of their biggest strikes yet. Facing intransigent bosses, gunboat diplomacy by the US, and dealing with a bourgeois government dedicated to ensuring stability for investment, the...
2025-10-0217 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 7: Mexican Miners Power The Second Industrial Revolution PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
For the first of two episodes focusing on the struggle of miners in the Southwest, we discuss the critical role played by Mexican miners in the growth of the US electrical industry at the turn of the 20th century. As demand for copper exploded, the mines of Arizona and northern Mexico became incredibly valuable, and thus demand for labor soared. Mine owners used racial hierarchies and job segregation to split their workers against each other to prevent the power of s...
2025-09-1818 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 6: Fighting California Fascism PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
In our sixth episode, and final episode of our subset on the struggle of farmworkers, we discuss the epic agricultural strikes of the 1930s. With farm wages slashed to starvation levels during the Great Depression, organization in the fields made the slogan "Fight, Don't Starve!" a reality. While the AFL continued to refuse to organize farmworkers, the Communist Party stepped into the gap and organized the largest agricultural strike wave in US history in 1933. In response, farm owners and their al...
2025-09-0426 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 5: Farmworkers, The IWW, & Fighting Eugenics PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
In the fifth episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we continue our deep dive into the history of the fight by farmworkers in the Southwest to demand fair wages, working conditions, and dignity. The 1920s were an area of ruling class dominance in the US, and along with their surging wealth, the ideology of eugenic "race science" was developed to justify the extreme inequality and exploitation of the oppressed. In this context, Mexican workers...
2025-08-2115 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 4: Farmworkers Fight To Survive PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
In the fourth episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we begin a three part section on the history of struggle by Mexican farmworkers in the fields of the Southwest. At the turn of the 20th century, the center of gravity of US agricultural production shifted to California, and the demand for labor soared. This era was dominated by attempts by large landowners to split up their workforce by race, and use demonization and discrimination...
2025-07-3113 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 3: From Revolution to Repression PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
In this third episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we finish our high level overview of the political class struggle on the border from the end of the Mexican Revolution to the end of World War 2. With the consolidation of the Revolution in a liberal direction, we will discuss the attempts of workers to capitalize on their gains, and the Mexican state to control and contain their struggles. We cover the rise of nativist...
2025-07-1715 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 2: Workers Shape The Revolution PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
In this second episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we explore the working class movements that helped shape the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Over the decade long revolutionary period, Mexican workers and peasants fought to establish rights that had been held back by the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Through the PLM, the IWW, the COM, and various peasant organizations, the working classes organized and fought in unprecedented numbers. The different bourgeois forces vying to replace...
2025-07-0319 minWork StoppageThe Working Class Has No Border Ep 1: Pre-Revolutionary Foundations PREVIEWIf you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.
As migrant workers across the US face an onslaught of racist state terrorism from ICE and other federal agencies, solidarity from the labor movement is more critical than ever. One of the most powerful tools of repression that the bosses have is using racist dehumanization to split workers against each other across national lines. So now more than ever, it's critical that American workers understand that these migrant workers are our brothers and sisters, and that only by uniting with...
2025-06-1913 minWork StoppageInterview Preview: Make Your Own Job by Erik BakerIf you're not a patron, you can get full access to this episode by supporting us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
We were very excited to be joined this week for a special interview episode by Dr. Erik Baker, lecturer at Harvard University and author of the great new book, Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America. The book is a fascinating intellectual history of how the concept of "entrepreneurialism" came to dominate ruling class narratives about the economy. This ideology of the individual business owner charting their own course, being their own boss...
2025-03-2016 minWork StoppageMovie Time 9 Preview - ZwigatoIf you're not a patron, you can get full access to this episode by supporting us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
After a long hiatus we are back with another Movie Time episode covering another excellent piece of Labor Cinema. This week we discuss the 2023 Indian film, Zwigato, about the crushing burden faced by workers in the modern gig economy. Though this is a rare one film episode of Movie Time, this film covers so many aspects of what it means to be working class in the 21st century that we couldn't possibly have covered a second film...
2025-03-0718 minWork StoppageCrossover Ep: Labor Zionism (ft. The Minyan)We're extremely excited this week that Dan was invited to sit down with Prez and Talia from The Minyan podcast to discuss the long history of support for Israel by US labor unions and how that has changed in recent years. Building off our recent interview with Professor Jeff Schuhrke, we discuss how anti-communism was used by labor leaders to justify supporting US imperialist policies around the world, including support for Israel. We dig into the ways rank and file efforts to embrace Palestinian solidarity were often stifled from the top in the name of keeping US interests in...
2024-11-271h 56Work StoppageInterview: Build a Fighting NALC PREVIEWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We are joined by C Moline a coordinating committee member of Build a Fighting NALC to talk about the many issues with the current TA that was presented to city postal workers by NALC national. We also go over working conditions for postal workers, international solidarity, and what the near future for NALC members looks like. From the 'Vote No' campaign to rallies in the streets, workers are organizing in the face of it being...
2024-11-2215 minWork StoppageOT Ep 77: Anti-Union Talking Points Pt1 PREVIEWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In this episode we go over a ton of classic anti-union talking points and tear them apart. From tired points like "unions are a business" to unions "protecting lazy workers", in this first episode in the series we focus on the more reactionary arguments against unions. In future episode we will dig down on other misconceptions surrounding unions.
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2024-10-1016 minWork StoppageOT Ep 76 Preview: Cannabis and Labor Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In this installment of “The Weed Series,” the gang discusses the conditions of the cannabis industry in New Mexico and Arizona. We cover workers who organized the first agricultural cannabis union in New Mexico, and Arizona workers who unionized with UFCW Local 99, including one group that now has a contract. We ask why New Mexico has so many dispensaries, and investigate the takeover of social justice initiatives in Arizona by gigantic multi-state operators. We round out...
2024-08-1517 minWork StoppageOT Ep 75 Preview: Cannabis and Labor Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In this installment of “The Weed Series,” the gang discusses New York. We cover workers in Syracuse who unionized with RWDSU/UFCW 338, the state of employee protections in New York for lawful cannabis users, the multifaceted disaster of Hochul’s legal cannabis rollout, a cannabis product recall, and once again encounter the scourge of fake unions. John encourages maximum conjecture against the pod’s better journalistic instincts.
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2024-08-0116 minWork StoppageOT Ep 74 Preview: Cannabis and Labor Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the second episode of this THC-infused Overtime series, the gang investigates the cannabis industry stronghold: California. We examine the status of employee protections for lawful cannabis users, the pesticide and additive issues prevalent in California cannabis, fake cannabis unions infiltrating the state's labor landscape, and the shape of the illegal weed industry across America's largest and most notable producer of sticky icky. John also learns how to say “bona fide”.
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2024-07-1815 minWork StoppageOT Ep 73: Cannabis and Labor Pt 1 PREVIEWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
The Work Stoppage crew starts a new series examining the conditions for workers and consumers in the exploding cannabis industry. First congratulating the workers at Ascend Cannabis in Aberdeen for joining the Teamsters, we launch an investigation into the conditions faced by cannabis workers across Maryland. We cover the conditions that lure young people into the industry, the structural racism of state licensing programs, an ultimately unsuccessful but highly instructive union drive at cannabis mega-corporation...
2024-07-0415 minWork StoppageOT Ep 72 Preview: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 6If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
By the time she was in her mid thirties, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn had been on a non-stop, nationwide tour of the class struggle in the United States, joining every fight she could. That work made her one of the most beloved organizers in US history, but also took a toll on her health. Joining the Communist Party in the late 30s following years of convalescence on the West Coast, Flynn spent much of her later...
2024-06-1318 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 71 Preview: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 5
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The first Red Scare following the US entry into World War 1 threw the US left into intense turmoil. Though Elizabeth Gurley Flynn had left the IWW over organizational and strategic differences, she was swept up in the Palmer Raids alongside many of her comrades. She would devote much of the rest of her life to the legal defense of workers imprisoned for opposing war or fighting for their rights on the job. She fought...
2024-05-2316 minWork StoppageOT Ep 70 Preview: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Following the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a national name in labor. Her organizing skills and rousing speaking were sought after by workers all over the country. Flynn helped organize many epic struggles during this period, including a 6 month confrontation between workers and mill owners in the silk capital of the US, Paterson, NJ, and a violent struggle for justice by miners in Minnesota. In all these efforts...
2024-05-0918 minWork StoppageOT Ep 70 Preview: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
The strike by textile mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in January of 1912 was one of the biggest labor struggles of the era, and launched Elizabeth Gurley Flynn onto the national stage. Already famous among radical workers for her fiery speaking abilities, her role in organizing the workers in Lawrence was critical to the strikes' success. Ensuring that all workers in town, even across 25 different nationalities, were included on equal footing, Flynn helped the workers unite...
2024-04-2515 minWork StoppageOT Ep 69 PREVIEW: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was already an organizer before she even left High School. Traveling the industrial cities of the northeast to speak for workers, she quickly decided to dedicate her life to the cause of the working class. Her work with the IWW would take her across the whole Northern half of the country, and bring her in contact with many of the most towering figures in US labor history, like herself. Continuing her frantic...
2024-04-1118 minWork StoppageOT Ep 68 Preview: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Normally our history series tend to focus on mass movements, on structures, on the broad forces at play in the class struggle. But just because the class struggle is the motor of history, doesn't mean that individuals don't play critical roles. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was one of those exceptional working class leaders forged in struggle who played an outsized role in many of the most pivotal labor struggles in US history. Political agitator, firebrand public...
2024-04-0420 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 67 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 8Episode 8 - Feminism and Labor
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The last forty years have seen massive changes in the US labor movement. With the rise of neoliberalism, combined attacks from corporations and the state decimated union density across the country. But the fight for women's equality in the workplace continued to build to new levels. With organizations like CLUW and 9 to 5 formed in the 70s and 80s women workers fought for reforms to ban discrimination and sexual...
2024-03-2118 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 66 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 7Episode 7 - 1199 and the UFW
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In the years following the McCarthyite purges of the early 1950s, the pace of progress in the labor movement cooled from its heady heights of the CIO and the 1946 strike wave. But new struggles still emerged all over the country, and women workers continued to break barriers. The fight by Local 1199 to organize the majority Black and Puerto Rican women hospital workers of New York City became an...
2024-03-1415 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 65 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 6Episode 6 - Women Build the CIO
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For the first few decades of the 20th century, the AFL consistently failed to live up to its promises to fight for equal pay for equal work. But in the 1930s, an alternate labor federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, broke away and launched the most historic nationwide labor upsurge in US history, and a key part of their success was the organization of women. The UAW...
2024-03-0716 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 64 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 5Episode 5 - Communist Women In the Great Depression
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The Great Depression was one of the greatest crises in capitalism's history, throwing millions out of work and pushing them to the brink of starvation. Women workers bore the brunt of this, being the first to be fired in nearly every workplace. But women workers fought back, organizing massive strikes, marches, and demonstrations against both their atrocious working conditions and the inadequate relief from the...
2024-02-2913 minWork StoppageInterview Preview: The Modern IWWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We talk about a lot of labor history on our show, and one of the organizations we've come back to again and again is the Industrial Workers of the World. We've talked about the epic struggles in the early 20th century, but where is the IWW today, a century after its peak? We're joined by IWW Organizer and Trainer Maria Cunningham for a discussion of the modern IWW. We talk recent history, some prominent campaigns...
2024-02-2214 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 63 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 4Episode 4 - Revolutionaries Press The Issue
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On the eve of WW1, a radical new force shook the US labor movement with its vision of all the workers under one big union, running society instead of the exploiters. The IWW also had a much more advanced vision of women's equality than prior national labor associations. Women workers in the IWW made major gains and reached heights heretofore unheard of in a nationwide labor federation...
2024-02-1514 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 62 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 3Episode 3 - Garment Worker Rebellion
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On the third episode of our series, we zoom in to a few years at the beginning of the 20th century. From 1909-1913, tens of thousands of women workers in the garment industry in the industrial cities of the northern US organized and went on strike in record numbers. The conditions these workers labored in were truly shocking, and quite literally deadly. These were life and death struggles...
2024-02-0815 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 61 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 2Episode 2 - National Labor Organizations, But For Who?
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For the second part of our series on the history of women workers in the US labor movement, we discuss the earliest attempts to form national labor organizations. Coming out of the Civil War, women were fighting against exploitation in the workplace, but were excluded from most of the trade union movement which focused exclusively on men. But with the formation of national organizations like...
2024-02-0120 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 60 Preview: Women in the US Labor Movement - Pt 1Episode 1 - Women Workers in the Industrial Revolution
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We've covered a ton of different eras and stories of the US labor movement on our show, but unfortunately much of it has been heavily focused on solely male workers, leaving out the historic role women have played in shaping the trade union movement in this country. So in an attempt to help rectify that, we're embarking on the longest series we've ever done to...
2024-01-2523 minWork StoppagePreview: Confessions of a Union Buster Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
On the second part of our discussion of Confessions of a Union Buster, we sit down once again with our friend Pat to talk about the incredible number of ways that union busting tactics have remained the same for nearly 50 years. Wild stunts, illegal surveillance, and above all a crushing climate of fear characterize the campaigns described in Marty Leavitt's memoir of his time destroying workers lives, much like the campaigns we see from modern...
2024-01-1815 minWork StoppagePreview: Confessions of a Union Buster Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Friend of the show and head of our discord reading group Pat joins us this week to discuss one of their recent books, Confessions of a Union Buster by Martin J. Levitt and Terry Conrow. This book chronicles the life and tactics of one of the lowest, most disgraceful occupations out there, the union buster. Seeing the inner workings of those agents of the ruling class who make it their life's mission to hold down th...
2024-01-1114 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: 2023 Year In Review
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2023 was a monumental year for US labor. From the Teamsters contract fight at UPS winning historic gains, to the UAW's Stand Up strike changing the game tactically, workers fought back in huge numbers. On this episode, we run down the biggest stories we covered in the labor movement in 2023, from massive strikes to the endless stream of new major grad student union victories. Finally, we close out with some predictions for what we might see...
2024-01-0427 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 57 PREVIEW - Military Unions Pt 6
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For the finale of our series discussion various attempts at organizing soldiers during the 1970s, we arrive at one of the most dynamic of the era, Portugal. With the collapse of Portugal's fascist dictatorship in the wake of the Carnation Revolution, the organized military played a key, leading role in the social transformation of the country. We discuss how the political currents differed between the enlisted and officers, and the interactions between the rising political...
2023-12-2116 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 56 PREVIEW - Military Unions Pt 5If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
On this week's installment of our series examining attempts to organize unions of soldiers, we move to Western Europe. In a whirlwind tour we discuss Germany, Italy, France, and Spain's various forms of military labor organizations. The refusal of the US to de-Nazify West Germany played a major role in the rebuilt Bundeswehr's conservatism, including on the issue of soldier unions. In France, the history of repeated military coups made government leaders extremely wary of...
2023-12-1420 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 55 PREVIEW - Military Unions Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
On Part 4 of our series looking at attempts to organize soldiers, we discuss the Scandinavian countries. While none of the various soldier unions formed in these countries transformed their society, they showed a wide range of levels of effectiveness. From Norway's quasi-company union, to Sweden's VVDM-esque liberal militancy, to Finland's conscript mass organization which actually demanded peace, the Scandinavian militaries showed a broad range of organizing tactics. We discuss the results, comparison to the US...
2023-12-0716 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 54 PREVIEW - Military Unions Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For the third installment of our series discussing the history of attempts to unionize members of the military, based largely on the book Left Face: Soldier Unions and Resistance Movements in Modern Armies by David Cortright and Max Watts, we discuss the Dutch. From the 1960s to the 80s, with the Dutch military squarely in the middle of NATO's confrontation with the USSR, multiple organizations were formed attempting to unionize soldiers. We discuss how the...
2023-11-3014 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 53 PREVIEW - Military Unions - Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back with the next installment of our discussion of attempts in (relatively) recent history to form unions within military organizations. In this episode we cover the brief period following the end of the Vietnam War when major public worker unions in the US began seriously considering organizing soldiers. We discuss a planned campaign by the AFGE to potentially add soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to their membership, and the response from the state when...
2023-11-2314 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 52 PREVIEW - Military Unions - Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
One question that has arisen over and over in the history of revolutionary movements has been: what about the military? Does it make sense to try and organize soldiers, sailors, and airmen, especially if they come from working class backgrounds? Or is it a futile effort to try and break into such a hierarchical, rigid system? In this series, we'll examine some of the history of attempts to organize soldiers into unions both in the...
2023-11-0916 minWork StoppageMovie Time 8 PREVIEW - Joe Hill and The Molly MaguiresIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back to our regular bonus schedule this week with another episode on labor cinema. This week we have two historical dramas from the 1970s, Joe Hill and The Molly Maguires. First we discuss the 1971 Swedish biopic of the legendary IWW organizer and songwriter. Joe Hill follows the life of the young immigrant worker as he worked his way across the US, experiencing the full range of abuses workers faced in the early 20th century...
2023-10-2616 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 51 PREVIEW - The General Strike in US History Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We've talked about some of the more well known general strikes in US history: the interwar strikes in Seattle, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Toledo. But even before them, in the 19th century, there was one general strike that predated them all. In New Orleans in 1892, tens of thousands of workers, Black and white, stood as one against their exploiters. They fought not just for better wages and shorter hours, but for the bosses to recognize...
2023-10-1213 minWork StoppageMovie Time 7 PREVIEW - On The WaterfrontIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
After wrapping up our series on the history of allegations of mafia involvement in the International Longshoremen's Association, we'd be remiss not to discuss likely the single biggest cultural touchstone related to the issue, the film On The Waterfront. Elia Kazan's 1954 crime drama is considered an all time classic film, buoyed by an iconic performance from Marlon Brando. But the film's attacks on unions as an institution, and its obsession with individual rather than collective...
2023-09-2812 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 50 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 7If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 7 - Where Do We Go From Here?
Wrapping up our series on the history of allegations of mafia involvement with the ILA, we reach the 21st century. Today, the workforce on the docks is a shadow of earlier years. Decimated by automation, the union continued to be hounded by federal prosecutors, but was never ordered to make itself more democratic. We discuss various corruption trials of the last 20 years, the end of...
2023-09-2113 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 49 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 6If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 6 - Things Fall Apart
Following the deal to allow unrestricted automation of longshore work in exchange for higher salaries and benefits, the ILA entered a period of a long decline. As containerization ate away at the number of jobs on the docks, the union was also encircled by another force, the FBI. The FBI's UNIRAC investigation into the ILA was its largest racketeering trial ever at the time. But by refusing to...
2023-09-1417 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 48 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 5If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 5 - Automation and Attrition
Emerging from the 1950s having survived government crackdowns, receivership, and attempted raids by the AFL, the ILA was immediately confronted with a new existential threat: automation. The introduction of containerized cargo posed a greater threat to the profession of longshoring than any previously faced. Organizing on the Port of New York in the 1960s was dominated by the fight to keep the shipping companies from slashing the workforce...
2023-09-0715 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 47 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 4 - 1953
Following World War 2, longshoremen in the Port of New York refused to accept the traditional company friendly deals that ILA President Joe Ryan arranged during the war. A wildcat strike movement shook the ILA, and alongside an investigation into his corruption, Ryan finally lost his grip on the union. 1953, the same year "King" Joe Ryan stepped down as President of the ILA was a momentous year for the organization. In this e...
2023-09-0115 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 46 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 3 - Operation Underworld
Joe Ryan's two and a half decades of leadership of the International Longshoremen's Association could be most charitably described as "stable." His focus on labor peace at nearly any cost and his cozy relationship with the shipping companies, gangsters, and the federal government created a series of strange relationships as the country entered World War 2. Finding mobsters useful in keeping radical organizers off the docks, the federal government struck...
2023-08-2515 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 45 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 2 - Shape Up or Ship Out
To start our examination of the history of the International Longshoremen's Association, we go back to the birth of labor organizing on the docks in the late 19th century. We discuss the awful labor conditions faced by workers, forced to beg, plead, or pay for work in the hated daily shape up. We discuss the birth of the ILA on the Great Lakes, the rise of...
2023-08-1823 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 44 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: The ILA - Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Episode 1 - Communism vs. Corruption
One of the peculiarities of the US labor movement is the existence of two different unions for longshore workers, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) on the West Coast, and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) on the East Coast. Originally, the ILA represented members on both coasts, bringing all longshore workers in the country under one union. But after the refusal of the national leadership to support...
2023-08-1116 minWork StoppageShop Floor Discussion 8 PREVIEW - UAW vs the Big 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
2023 has already been a monumental year for labor, with over 300,000 workers striking in just the first 7 months. Now, in just six weeks, we could see tens of thousands of UAW autoworkers on strike at any one or all of the Big 3 US automaking companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis. This is another critical contract fight for the entire labor movement as the upsurge in union support continues to grow. So we decided that doing this story j...
2023-08-0414 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 43 PREVIEW - The General Strike in US History Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're diving back into labor history with a return to our short series on the history of general strikes in the US. On this episode, we round out the strikes of 1934 by discussing the Toledo Auto-Lite and Minneapolis general strikes. The pitched battles fought by workers across the country terrified the ruling class into accepting some of the most pivotal labor reforms in US history. Fighting scabs, company thugs, police, and even the National Guard...
2023-07-2824 minWork StoppageUNLOCKED: UPS Rank and File InterviewWith just a week until 350,000 Teamster workers could strike at UPS, we want to share with as many listeners as possible our great interview with several rank and file UPS workers. So we are unlocking it for everyone to hear!
If you like these sort of episodes, please support us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
Original Description:
The biggest labor story of the year has been the ongoing negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters and the possibility of 350,000 workers launching the biggest strike in the US in decades. So we're thrilled this week to...
2023-07-231h 31Work StoppageOvertime Episode 42 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - FinaleIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For our eighth and final episode (for now) in our series on the basics of Cybernetics and how it relates to the labor movement, we finally explore the details of Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model (VSM). John walks us through the various subsystems of Beer's model for analyzing organizations, and we discuss examples of how the model would apply to an individual human being, a labor union, and even an entire nation. We discuss the...
2023-07-2115 minWork StoppageUPS Rank and File Interview PREVIEWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
The biggest labor story of the year has been the ongoing negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters and the possibility of 350,000 workers launching the biggest strike in the US in decades. So we're thrilled this week to be joined by three rank and file UPS workers from Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City to talk about it. Stewards Scott, Shaine, and Ben cover the conditions facing full time package car drivers, 22.4 "hybrid" drivers, and part time...
2023-07-1422 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 41 PREVIEW: Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 7If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back in the world of Cybernetics for this week's Patron episode. On Part 7 of our series, John explains the admittedly very complex concepts of Autopoiesis and Eudemony, key ideas for understanding Stafford Beer's "Viable Systems Model" which stands are the core of his thought. Breaking down these concepts of how systems like machines and biological organisms reproduce themselves and how structures organize themselves towards a maximal goal also help show the parallels between Cybernetics...
2023-07-0718 minWork StoppageUSSW Worker Leaders Interview PREVIEWIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We've got a quick break from our series on the intersection of the study of Cybernetics and the Labor Movement for an interview! This week we were very excited to speak with AshlyRuth and Diana, two worker organizers with the Union of Southern Service Workers. The South has long stood as a bastion of Right to Work anti-labor laws, with bosses and politicians using racism to divide workers. The USSW is fighting to change that...
2023-07-0115 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 40 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 6If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Our series on Cybernetics and Labor continues this week as we dive into the beginning of Project Cybersyn and Stafford Beer's arrival in Chile. We discuss Beer's invitation from the government of Salvador Allende, his work with prominent government officials, and the incredible speed with which his project was assembled. We also begin breaking down Beer's concept of the Viable Systems Model as applied to a socialist government. In our next episode, we will discuss...
2023-06-2320 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 39 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 5If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back from our week off for Lina's wedding and in the latest episode of our series on the history of Cybernetics and its relationship to labor, we've finally arrived at the work of Stafford Beer. Beer's work on complex systems revolutionized the way management operations are thought of in both the business world and in all systems of planning. His book Brain of the Firm on how to better manage complex systems like factories...
2023-06-1619 minWork StoppageWorking People Crossover PREVIEW - Child Labor and SlaveryIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We know this week's episode is a little late folks, but we think it's well worth the wait. We've been fans of the Working People podcast ever since we started the show, so it was a big honor this week to sit down and have a conversation with Maximillian Alvarez. While it isn't the most upbeat topic, we decided to talk about the causes and purposeful expansion of child labor within the United States, as well...
2023-06-0413 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 38 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
On the fourth episode of our series on the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relationship to the labor movement, we continue our discussions on the work of W Ross Ashby with his creation of the first fully self regulating machine, the Homeostat. This machine and its systems for returning itself to equilibrium provide a theoretical analogy for looking at how organizations like a labor union respond to changes to their environment. Ashby's...
2023-05-2621 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 37 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
On the third part of our deep dive into the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relations to the labor movement, we discuss the life and theories of W. Ross Ashby. His work on measurement of the complexity of a system with the concept of "Variety", helps us understand the ways complex structures, like a labor union, can be set up in ways that either give it the ability to adapt to changing...
2023-05-1915 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 36 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For our second episode on the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relationship to the labor movement, we dive a little deeper into what Cybernetics actually is. We discuss the way Cybernetics seeks to bridge varying disciplines and systems and examine their interrelations, paralleling the dialectical way of looking at the world in Marxism. We also discuss Norbert Wiener's attempt to use his newly formed discipline of cybernetics to help labor, by reaching...
2023-05-1218 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 35 PREVIEW - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 1
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're very excited this week to be starting our long awaited series discussing the history of the field of cybernetics and how it intersects with the labor movement. In this first part, John explains the life and work of polymath and founder of the study of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener. We discuss the parallels between Wiener's thinking and Marxism, the ways that his conception of cybernetics requires a dialectical outlook at the world, and how the systems theory approach o...
2023-05-0515 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 34 Preview - The General Strike in US History Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We continue our dive into the history of general strikes in US history this week with the San Francisco general strike of 1934. As with the 1919 Seattle general strike, this one started on the docks but quickly spread to the entire city. Unlike Seattle, which was entirely peaceful until the violence unleashed after the strike, the San Francisco strike became immediately violent. This strike reverberated across the entire country, paralyzing west coast trade and driving the...
2023-04-2113 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 33 PREVIEW - The General Strike in US History Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Whenever we've talked about general strikes on our show, it has most often been to explain why you can't just declare one on Twitter. In this two part series, we dig into US labor history to find out what it takes to launch a real general strike, and what lessons we can learn from the workers who participated in them. In this first episode we discuss the Seattle general strike of 1919, when workers shut down...
2023-04-1414 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 32 PREVIEW - Tales From the Thaw: The CIO and the USSRIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Pamphlet Link: https://ladyizdihar.com/blogs/izdihars-soviet-archive-2/report-of-the-cio-delegation-to-the-soviet-union-1945
We talk a lot about labor history on our Overtime episodes, looking back at past struggles by workers to see what lessons we can draw out for our own struggles today. One of the lesser known but very interesting periods in US labor history came during the temporary friendly relations between the US and the Soviet Union during World War 2. Immediately following the war, quite...
2023-04-0721 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Interview with Temple University Graduate Students’ AssociationIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Graduate student workers have been organizing in droves across the country, fighting back against abysmal wages and impossible working conditions. Recently, the workers at Temple University won a hard fought strike that lasted over a month. While we have covered many graduate worker strikes on the show, the level of repression unleashed by the university administration to try and crush the strike was truly unprecedented, which only made the new contract the workers won even m...
2023-03-2410 minWork StoppageShop Floor Discussion 7 PREVIEW - Off The RailsIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
The rail systems of the western world seem to be collapsing all at once. As the railroad workers have been telling us here in the US for years, capitalist ownership of the railroads has hollowed out the safety of the networks and left them in a dangerous condition. We saw this illustrated all too clearly in Greece, where a recent tragic collision between a passenger train and a freight train left over 50 people dead. We...
2023-03-1717 minWork StoppageMovie Time 6 PREVIEW - A Bug’s Life and Chicken RunIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Now, at first glance you may be wondering why your favorite communist labor podcast is doing an episode on two animated kids movies. But that's why we encourage you to take another look at these two classic examples of Marxist cinema. With wholesome messages of working class unity, struggle against oppression, and never trusting Americans, these two films are examples of how complex ideas can be presented simply.
Join our discord: discord.gg/t...
2023-03-1008 minWork StoppageMovie Time 5 PREVIEW: Hoffa and The IrishmanIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
As a coda to our recent series on allegations of corruption and mob involvement in the Teamsters, with a special focus on the career of Jimmy Hoffa, we decided that we couldn't skip out on some of the media portrayals of Hoffa's story. First we check out Danny Devito's 1992 biopic, Hoffa, starring Jack Nicholson. Then we discuss Martin Scorsese's recent 3.5 hour megafilm, The Irishman. For both films, we discuss the ways they track with the...
2023-02-2415 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 31 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 6If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the final episode of the Teamsters portion of our examination of the history of allegations of union corruption and mafia collusion, we close out the story of Jimmy Hoffa. We discuss the changing of the guard from Hoffa to Frank Fitzsimmons, Hoffa's relationship with Richard Nixon and his eventual release from prison, and of course Hoffa's disappearance, which remains controversial to this day.
But this is a story not just about Hoffa, b...
2023-02-1713 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Interview: Johns Hopkins University Teachers and Researchers UnitedIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're so excited to be joined this week by Andrew and Jasmine, two organizers from Teachers and Researchers United (TRU), the union for graduate student workers at Johns Hopkins University. Workers won an incredibly victory last week, with a near unanimous 97% of workers supporting the union drive. So it was great to be able to hear directly from some of the organizers who helped make that landslide win happen. We discuss the power of rank...
2023-02-1011 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 30 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 5If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the fifth episode of our new series examining historical allegations of union corruption and relations with organized crime, we discuss Jimmy Hoffa's tenure as president of the Teamsters. We discuss how while on the one hand, Hoffa negotiated some of the best contracts Teamster workers had ever had, he also stole an enormous amount of money from the rank and file. We cover the many criminal trials Hoffa faced during the 1960s, especially the...
2023-02-0311 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 29 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 4If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the fourth episode of our new series examining historical allegations of union corruption and relations with organized crime, we discuss the McClellan Committee investigations into the power of organized labor. We talk about the differences between how the committee's investigations were portrayed, as a fight against corruption, and the actions of the committee, which minimized its focus on corruption and instead took aim at worker power. We discuss the downfall of Teamster president Dave...
2023-01-2711 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 28 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the third episode of our new series examining historical allegations of union corruption and relations with organized crime, we discuss the changing of the guard at the top of the Teamsters, from the long era of Daniel Tobin's presidency, to the rise of Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa. We discuss Beck and Hoffa's real talent for organizing and the way their efforts helped the Teamsters experience massive growth in the 30s, 40s, and 50s...
2023-01-2013 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 27 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the second episode of our new series examining historical allegations of union corruption and relations with organized crime, we discuss the Daniel Tobin era of the Teamsters from the first decade of the 20th century to the end of WW2. In this period, massive technological changes revolutionized the work of Teamsters, shifting from driving teams of horses in busy urban streets to interstate motorized trucking. This period also saw the rise of the mafia...
2023-01-1316 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 26 PREVIEW - Unions and The Mob: Reputation vs Reality Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're very excited to be launching a new, wide ranging series on the history of allegations levied against unions of corruption and relations with organized crime. Ever since the formation of the first labor unions, the capitalists and their media have been denouncing organized labor as corrupt, violent, led by racketeers, and in bed with the mob. This allegation remains common today, and what better way to help fight these ideological attacks on unions than...
2023-01-0610 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Work Stoppage 2022 Year In ReviewIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
It's the last show of the year, and what better way to finish out 2022 than by reviewing some of the biggest stories in labor over the course of the year. We go back through the year's worth of stories to highlight some of the biggest trends, from the explosive growth of the Starbucks Workers United movement and the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the US to the betrayal of the rail workers by President Biden...
2022-12-3017 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Interview: Academia is a RacketIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
This year has seen a huge surge in organizing at academic institutions across the country. Academic workers have formed the five largest new bargaining units of the year AND led the country's largest strike, the ongoing 48,000 worker strike at the University of California. So we thought it would be a good idea to bring on a guest who could help us dig into the conditions that have prompted this increase in labor action in academia...
2022-12-0913 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 25 PREVIEW - Rank and File Rebellions of the 1970s - Pt 3If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For the final part of our series on rank and file movements of the 1970s, we cover the movements formed by rank and file women workers to fight not only for better wages and conditions, but also to stop the entrenched culture of discrimination on the job. As millions of public sector workers joined unions, teachers, nurses and civil servants had bargaining rights for the first time. Along with flight attendants, nurses, and many other...
2022-12-0212 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 24 PREVIEW - Rank and File Rebellions of the 1970s Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For the second part of our series on rank and file movements of the 1970s, we cover the militant workers of the UAW and the CWA. Both these unions faced similar trends of class collaborationist leadership more focused on enforcing existing contracts than resolving problems faced by union workers. Movements like the United National Caucus and the Bell Workers Action Committee arose in response, fighting for democratic control both on the shop floor and within...
2022-11-1816 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 23 PREVIEW - Rank and File Rebellions of the 1970s Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the first part of a new Overtime series we dive into the history of rank and file movements that arose during the crises of the 1970s. The 70s were the beginning of the long decline of unionism in the US, but this decline did not happen without worker opposition. In every major union there were workers who refused to accept concession-filled contracts from sellout leadership and took resistance into their own hands. These movements...
2022-11-1115 minWork StoppageUNLOCKED - Royal Mail Strike InterviewIn order to let as many folks as possible hear directly from the workers about the conditions Royal Mail workers are fighting to change, we've decided to unlock our full interview from last week! We hope you enjoy the interview, and if you like the show please support us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
Original Description:
We are so excited to be joined this week by Gary Banks, a worker for the British Royal Mail and local union representative for the Communication Workers Union. We discuss the conditions that led to over 100,000 Royal Mail workers to hit...
2022-11-0548 minWork StoppageMovie Time 3 PREVIEW - The Organizer and Western GhatsIf you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back at the movies again this week, this time covering films from Italy and India. First we discuss 1963's The Organizer, a working class drama about the early days of labor organizing in northern Italy in the late 1800s. The film covers the extreme exploitation of 19th century textile workers and their earliest attempts at organizing, even before major national unions existed. For our second film this week we watched Western Ghats (Merku Thodarchi...
2022-11-0408 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Royal Mail Strike Interview
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We are so excited to be joined this week by Gary Banks, a worker for the British Royal Mail and local union representative for the Communication Workers Union. We discuss the conditions that led to over 100,000 Royal Mail workers to hit the picket lines over the last few months, and how both the workers and the broader public have been hit hard since the privatization of the mail. We talk about the solidarity being built...
2022-10-2810 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 22 PREVIEW - Weavers of Revolution Pt 2If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In the second part of our series on Peter Winn's book Weavers of Revolution, we discuss the moves made by the workers at the Yarur Mill in Chile following their successful union election. Faced with sabotage by the mill owners, workers found themselves forced to take control of the mill in their own hands. Pulling the government along behind them, workers advanced the transition to socialism themselves, seizing the mill and demanding its nationalization. During...
2022-10-2109 minWork StoppageOvertime Episode 21 PREVIEW - Weavers of Revolution Pt 1If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
In this new two-part Overtime series we will be discussing Peter Winn’s fantastic labor history book, Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile’s Road to Socialism. The story of the workers at the Yarur cotton mill and their movement for worker control of the factory is rich with lessons for our struggles today. Though the Chilean Revolution was short lived, it was full of experimentation with different forms of worker control of the m...
2022-10-1409 minWork StoppagePREVIEW: Health Communism: An Interview with Death PanelOrder Health Communism here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We were so excited to be joined by our friends Bea and Artie from the Death Panel to discuss their new book Health Communism. We talk about the way capitalism divides us into "workers" and "surplus", and how the surplus are sorted into arrangements of extractive abandonment so they can be profited from. We discuss the fight for universal healthcare and why we c...
2022-10-0716 minWork StoppageMovie Time 2 PREVIEW – Sorry We Missed You and PrideIf you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
For the second episode of our series discussing the labor movement in films, we’re going across the pond to cover two movies from the UK. First up, we discuss Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, a devastating realist look at the state of the working class in Britain. The film follows the struggle of a working class family trying to provide for their kids in a job market where no matter how hard yo...
2022-10-0110 minWork StoppageUNLOCKED - Starbucks Workers United Oklahoma City InterviewIn order to let as many folks as possible hear from Starbucks workers fighting for their union, we've decided to unlock our full interview from last week! We hope you enjoy the interview, and if you like the show please support us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
Original Description:
This week we were excited to be joined by Alisha Humphrey, a worker-organizer with Starbucks Workers United in Oklahoma City. We discuss the ins and outs of organizing at Starbucks, what prompted her store to unionize, and how covid has played a major role in all of...
2022-09-3059 minWork StoppagePREVIEW - Starbucks Workers United Oklahoma City Interview
If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
No Contract No Coffee Pledge: https://crm.broadstripes.com/ctf/SJID0H
Solidarity Fund for SBWU partners: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/starbucksworkersfund
This week we were excited to be joined by Alisha Humphrey, a worker-organizer with Starbucks Workers United in Oklahoma City. We discuss the ins and outs of organizing at Starbucks, what prompted her store to unionize, and how covid has played a major role in all of this. We...
2022-09-2310 minWork StoppageMovie Time 1 PREVIEW – Matewan and Cradle Will RockIf you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Work Stoppage is going to the movies! In this first episode of a new series, we check out some classics of labor cinema, Matewan and Cradle Will Rock. Matewan tells the story of one of the most famous battles of the Appalachian Mine Wars of the early 20th century which would culminate in the Battle of Blair Mountain shortly after. Covering the struggle of workers in West Virginia to unionize, it gives audiences a wi...
2022-09-0907 minWork StoppageEp 12 - No Biscuits!Lina and John cover even more education strikes and actions, a UK biscuit strike, a union busting brewery, and a bit about the history of Labor Day.
www.patreon.com/workstoppage
San Diego State University vs Covid
https://twitter.com/sharky_marky17/status/1302361276945895425
2020-09-101h 01Work StoppageEp 11 - End "No Strike" Clauses [PREVIEW]www.patreon.com/workstoppage for the full episode! Thanks!
Lina and John cover a unionizing coffee house chain in the Minneapolis area, a faux leftist vegan meat company doing DMCA requests to silence workers they union busted, Amazon blatantly tracking labor organizing, the massive sports strike, and as always we talk about teacher's unions.
https://www.moevilfoods.com/blog/vice-no-evil-foods-scrubs-internet-audio-w8n5x
https://workingpeople.libsyn.com/mo-evil-foods
https://workingpeople.libsyn.com/no-evil-foods-got-our-last-episode-removed
2020-09-0410 minWork StoppageDeath Panel - Back to School w/ Work StoppageWe went on the Death Panel podcast today! Here is their description of the episode.
We're joined by Lina and John of Work Stoppage to discuss the push to reopen schools in the U.S. at any cost, and the actions teachers' unions have (and haven't) taken to stop it. We also get into the strikes vs boycotts discussion brought on by the NBA work stoppage.
Find Work Stoppage on your podcast player of choice and support them at www.patreon.com/workstoppage
As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod
2020-08-281h 35Work StoppageEP 8 - Strikes At Schools
John and Lina discuss the scummy things police unions are up to, what's going on in Seattle, how we do not understand sports whatsoever, turning employees into mask police, and especially some labor actions happening at schools scheduled to reopen across the country.
Hear the bonus episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage
2020-08-061h 10