A very stirring review by a noted activist for independent unionism in Egypt. Eager to read No Neutrals There and planning to do it collectively. We need union visions and union models in accord with them that have anti-imperialism at the heart.

What's some stand out writing about historic rank & file responses on the shop floor to automation? If possible, connecting to today and AI.

* repeats for emphasis * "Neither movement waited for courts to recognize their rights; they interpreted the Constitution for themselves" or to paraphrase Justice Thurgood Marshall, do what's right and let the law catch up

Hard agree

I did a quick skim so take this with a grain of salt. But it's clear enough that California's sectoral bargaining law in ride share should concern workers and their allies who believe in rank & file theories of change and real union power.

You should prep and then assess every 1:1 organizing meeting. Yes, it's significant work. But that's how you do them well, learn from each one, and put the insights into use for next steps. Very good 1:1s are key to forming an organizing committee. And an OC is a key cause of union victory.

My dear friend has been struck with brain cancer :( Mahoma is without exaggeration one of the great rank & file organizers in the U.S. of the last decades. His organizing at the NY deli he worked at and a resulting documentary brought him to public attention. His work has only deepened since then.

Disappearing workers from the narrative is a core capability of corporations. @karenhao.bsky.social has done exemplary work in empireofai.com including workers at the center of the AI story, especially folks in the Global South. Every working person has a giant stake in the AI fight.

Immigrant food factory workers have been at the heart of the struggle for dignified wages and safety, and against ICE, for years. Stand with Brandworkers this month. givebutter.com/2025BWAwards...

Mark Bray is a decent and gentle person. I've known him for probably two decades. He's brilliant and very knowledgeable about visionary strands of labor history. The label the right-wing is putting on him is false. It's terrible for Rutgers students that he won't be there and for free expression.

Time and energy to think is the most valuable currency in building a union. If I had to choose between time to think and resources, I'd choose time to think. With time to think, you can get resources. With resources and without time to think, the funds are not getting you very far.

Content warning: video of assassination and grave bodily harm Here's what happened to Efraín Fueres, an indigenous Ecuadorian worker, and an unnamed good samaritan when a military turned "within" on Sunday. youtu.be/8UQmp6a0akA

Not an electoral person, but as a union organizer I try to understand the full constellation of relevant conditions. So when a couple of workers tell me they felt moved and even "emboldened" to connect on a union campaign because of Zohran Mamdani, I will indeed take note.

ICE kidnapped my friend on his way home from work in New York

Tech friends, take a look if you haven't yet, this will be good! A tech worker from the @sununion.org community should be on hand for folks interested in solidarity unionism.

“The erasure of May Day has robbed the U.S. working class of one of its most sacred holidays…” Time for a labor movement that takes it back

Tens of thousands of immigrant workers abducted by ICE. 1M federal workers stripped of collective bargaining rights. Systematic attacks on OSHA, NLRB and BLS. But this #LaborDay, attacks on labor aren't stopping workers from ORGANIZING across the food chain and beyond! 🧵👇

The real Labor Day is May 1st. The labor movement I believe in makes that abundantly clear. U.S. exceptionalism is a key pillar of imperialism and we need to repudiate it.

Workers across very different industries and across borders are talking about and in various stages of taking on the AI fight. It's a huge thread through which we can concretely link union building, renewal, and growth initiatives across the working class.

great new episode of Black Autonomy Podcast by @williamcson.bsky.social JoNina Ervin, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin is about JoNina’s newly re-released book which I encourage everyone to get from @akpress.org She explains why the stories of every day people involved in the Black Power era are so important

It’s truly striking from the early 1900s up to the present day the sheer scope of people trained as IWW members who went on to build unions in a wide variety of industries and labor orgs

The most difficult part of unionism is coming together as coworkers. It's also the most powerful part. Do this thought experiment: You and your co-workers are organized, you've done it. What dynamics among the coworker base did you make use of to make that happen?

Union-builders build in good times. In bad times. And in the in-between times.

What a gift. I’m still waiting for Dave to break decisively to radical unionism haha. But I trust that he shares his copious wisdom honestly and insightfully. I’ll be reading the hell out of this book with my notepad at hand.

The current total of those arrested last Thursday in Ventura County is in the mid-300s, according to KTLA. An absolutely devastating raid that has shattered scores of families.

Vital piece. One working class, solidarity for all.

sexism is alive and well in the labor movement! always fun to be reminded, right!

Basque unions have used the power they have in their workplace to cut off large steel shipments to an Israeli weapons manufacturer equipping the genocide in Gaza. In response to the solidarity call of Palestinian unions. This is the unionism we need. 🇵🇸❤️‍🔥 web.lab.eus/internationa...

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Not so long ago, labor was ignored in media or discredited by corporate PR. Not that good people weren't doing what they could. But a world of @kimkelly.bsky.social @lfelizleon.bsky.social @jamieson.bsky.social @laurenkaorigurley.bsky.social @melbuer.bsky.social etc is not one to take for granted.

The material gains of unionism are obviously essential and the foundation. But the community you make and the people you do it with are the most moving in the end. Enjoy the journey.

📣 Call to action for Portland-area folks! New Seasons Markets is stalling progress on a fair contract with New Seasons Labor Union, insisting on cutting wages and benefits. Even worse, they announced raises for non-union stores ONLY, a blatant union-busting tactic. Follow @nslu_pdx on IG for more.

tfw when the spreadsheet hits just right, the real organizing nerds know...haha.

We need a labor movement that is not about mitigating AI but about worker and community control of it. Including disposing of what shouldn't exist and equitably managing the gains of what should.

Some bosses are being more candid that AI, robots, and the like are about destroying jobs. But they say not too worry, we'll all be rich and free. Does that ring true to you? A few capitalists will have total control of production and distribution and they'll give us paradise in return? 🤔

Iron clad rules to avoid being duped and disappointed in a movement: 1) Don't allow yourself to be herded by giant non-profit or other large institutions that you have no say in 2) Don't be herded by non-rooted influencers, content creators, or movement entrepreneurs

Socialism will earn some new adherents over fascism as the material impacts of the raids inevitably hit all workers. In a country so split, those incremental gains are important on the path to a super majority.

These evil raids unintentionally offer good dynamics for movement building. In that rapid response has more of a decentralized, local, and organized character. Then you can mobilize big nationally or take national direction action but via the local organized clusters.

Solidarity and safety to Iranian workers and their families 🥹💔

The starting point for the union effort you might be thinking about is your problems at work. Making your job as you imagine it should be. But union is also a powerful platform to engage in broader social struggles. Those fights also help determine our life on and off the job. Get started. 🇲🇽🏴🚩

Recall, or be aware if not familiar, that the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor catalyzed anti-racist union organizing. Union-builders should move with the energy emerging in this current rising and make sure the on-the-job piece nourishes the street action too.

"The janitors of SEIU United Service Workers West felt driven, Mejia says, “to strike with the community” against the raids, threats, and immigrant-bashing hate speech that the Trump administration has unleashed."

Let me state this as clearly as possible: David Huerta and his co-leaders at USWW were at the very top of the traditional union leaders who rose to the occasion to take on Trump's immigration attacks from the very beginning. They went so far as to carry out a brief general strike at their shops.

Something to know about David Huerta, the illegally arrested president of a large service workers union in California. It turned out that back in the first Trump admin, a group of food factory workers at the multinational-owned Tom Cat Bakery in Queens were the first target for an ICE audit. 🧵

Beautiful work by the good folks organizing in LA. Could spark one of the largest nationwide direct action movements in history.

No collective bargaining provision illustrates the attempt of corporate America to subordinate and even humiliate the working class more than "management rights". Sit at the kid's table and shut up while we make the most important decisions that affect your job, community, and society.

You've got to be super intentional about the structural elements of the union you create or consider affiliating with. There are structures that, no matter how pure and noble the people involved in it are, will devolve into top-down and bureaucratic unionism. It may take time, but it'll happen. 🧵

Incarcerated workers in Minnesota and their allies on the outside are pushing for a minimum wage for people locked up, self-representation rights, and health & safety protections. www.kaxe.org/local-news/2...

It’s hard to fathom but without this courageous, determined and global movement the genocide in Palestine would be even worse. At the same time, the power at hand has been so painfully insufficient to stop the killing. Must keep building, especially in labor and strikes in particular.