These top-down initiatives demonstrate how out of touch university leaders are from what happens in classrooms and what students and faculty might actually need to engage the technical landscape. Just pushing products. Happening in K-12 now as well

Fascinating interview w/ field director of NYC DSA, Tascha Van Auken. Among many other things of note: the imprint of Obama 2008 organizing strategy devised by Marshall Ganz. The demobilization of that organizing cadre in the teeth of the Great Recession was a huge tragedy. Lesson learned.

“You may have never heard of a Fusion Center, but a Fusion Center has likely heard about you.”

“The labor movement needs a freedom agenda,” says David Bacon—cities that work for everyone, opposition to wars abroad and anti-immigrant fascism at home, climate justice. Only an expansive social movement can organize the millions needed to rebuild labor power labornotes.org/2025/12/toda...

Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.

Power from the Past: Back in '78 organizers and legal advocates in Los Angeles blocked the deportation of over 100 workers rounded up to undermine unionization at a shoe factory. The strategy spread across activists networks to Chicago and other cities--an echo of the fight-back we're seeing today

What happens when socialists run a major U.S. city? Good things for working people, says @ericblanc.bsky.social. Basic services like municipal water, sewage, parks, public education, safe workplaces, and union power--addressed the "affordability" crisis of the early 20th century. Lessons for NYC

This Day in Labor History: November 19, 1915. Utah executed IWW organizer Joe Hill for a murder he almost certainly did not commit. But he was an Wobbly and dispensable to society, especially in Utah, a starkly conservative western state outraged by the sheer existence of these radicals!!!

“Hovering over all proposed solutions was the prospect of faculty unionization.… A lot of tenure-track faculty are now where graduate students were a few decades go.” @cnewf.bsky.social reflects on his recent tour of U.S. universities utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/11/line...

Great wrap of education news in the recent elections. Turns out defending public education is popular! Also… Arne Duncan launching a trial ballon for a Rahm Emanuel presidential bid?? I’d rather not.

”The resolution agreements, which exhibit high degrees of uniformity, are an emerging blueprint for a system of federal surveillance of campus speech and dissent.” AAUP/MESA report explains how a novel approach to Title VI investigations developed pre-Trump, then took off under Trump II.

“One way or another, we need to get our hands on the steering wheel of AI.” @tedunderwood.com makes the case for higher ed engagement w/ AI development. Okay, if ”steering” implies choice of when and how to deploy tools (or not) in research, teaching, management. www.chronicle.com/article/ai-i...

Universities spend gazillions on EdTech software that doesn’t serve faculty or student interests and often doesn’t work well. But what if we got off that path and leveraged internal resources to produce non-profit systems? Here’s a proposal to leverage the CUNY systems platforms.

Much love to our UCLA student leaders who stuck their necks out to support the faculty and staff lawsuit against Trump's attacks on the UC system!

Especially grateful to the brave, steadfast undergraduate students who filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.

BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!! We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org

When we fight, we win! Judge issues injunction against Trump attacks on Univ of California. Faculty with @aaup.org are defending this public university calmatters.org/education/hi...

"The news comes as the first signs of winter descended on the Chicago area, including several inches of snowfall over the weekend."

Engaging discussion about ICE and the University with UCLA's @lucecaroline.bsky.social and @aaronkrall.bsky.social from U of Illinois Chicago faculty union discussing campus and community responses to Trump's anti-immigrant assault on AAUP TV www.youtube.com/live/62uji3s...

#OtD 11 Nov 1887 4 of the Haymarket martyrs were executed in Chicago. They were anarchist labour organisers framed for a bombing because of their role in the fight for the 8-hour day. Learn more in this history of May Day, which commemorates them: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the...

Tentative agreement for 20K @uptecwa.bsky.social workers across Univ of California campuses. Planned strike called off pending ratification of the contract by members. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Trump is demanding $1.2B from UCLA and UC leadership won't fight back or tell the public that they are negotiating in secret. Write to the Board of Regents and UC Office of the President (UCOP) demanding No Negotiation with Trump. cucfa.solidarity.tech/tell-ucop-an...

Eye-opening boat tour of the Port of LA today with UCLA Labor Studies students and ILWU guides @uclairle.bsky.social

Wage theft is rampant in the meatpacking industry. New research findings from the UCLA Labor Center shed light on the experiences of meatpacking and food processing workers in LA county. 📊 Full report: bit.ly/LAMPFP

Judge blasts Trump’s Chicago border ‘Blitz,’ extends curbs on use of force that ‘shocks the conscience’ chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Faculty and staff are fighting for the University and academic freedom. Administrators? Not so much

Faculty doing what the administration won't- defending the institution.

“The fact of this case shows that the federal government is using the threat of legal and financial sanctions in order to coerce the University of California and to commandeer the University of California in imposing its own ideological and political agenda,” www.courthousenews.com/uc-faculty-s...

Researchers see “an emerging societal consensus across labor, professional associations, and consumers that key functions such as education, health care, and government are vital for the public good and must be performed by a human.“ AI automation is not inevitable.

Happy Halloween! Here's a classic from the SEIU/USWW Justice for Janitors archive @uclalibrary.bsky.social.

Labor in the archives! Had a blast showing off the Justice for Janitors collection to David Huerta who shared stories of the epic 2000 LA janitors strike. Thanks to our @uclalibrary.bsky.social partners!

300 LACMA workers are organizing with AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36. "As the museum nears completion of the new David Geffen Galleries — a project estimated to cost more than $700 million — ensuring the stability of staff should be equally crucial to the future of the museum"

Useful article, and an interesting study from 2020 (linked in the article www.gao.gov/assets/d2145...) Most states don't properly collect employers, & the study only profiles a few. One that jumped out at me? The #1 employer of recipients of SNAP benefits in Massachusetts is Dunkin'

The UC Regents finally released the “settlement agreement” the Trump administration proposed in August. It’s a doozy. UC alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, donors—and all citizens of California: Now is the time to let the UC Regents know you do not want them to sign this bad deal.

UC has released the Trump settlement demand to UCLA after losing a court effort to block its release. Here it is. www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/s...

At long last, and after untold legal fees, UC has released the DoJ's proposed settlement terms to UCLA. Over $1B in fines, invasive monitoring, ideological vetting of international students, exclusion of trans athletes, etc. This would destroy the university as we know it. ucop.edu/communicatio...

Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? ucop.edu/communicatio...

Rejected. California Supreme Court rules UC must release Trump extortion demands: www.latimes.com/california/s...

NEXT WEEK: This virtual panel will explore the findings of the upcoming UCLA Labor Center and El Centro report, Harm to Table: Vulnerability and Exploitation in Los Angeles County Meatpacking and Food Processing. ⚠️ RSVP now: bit.ly/4hbWf6O 🔗

Update: UC asks Calif Supreme Court to block release of Trump extortion letter: www.latimes.com/california/s...

UC faculty and administrators square off over cybersecurity and academic freedom: www.science.org/content/arti...

Seeing these demands out in the open is especially important because we are a public instituion. Our stakeholders include not only the faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni, but also all the people of the state of California (the people we are all ultimately working for around here).

Anna Markowitz from @uclafa.bsky.social: “We went to court for us, but also for them — because UC’s lack of transparency isn’t consistent with UC’s position as a major public good in our state.”

UCLA must release Trump's extortion demands. Courts side with UCLA Faculty Association to force release of public documents. The 28 page letter should be released by Friday. Big victory for @uclafa.bsky.social, all faculty, students, parents, and Californians www.latimes.com/california/s...

Don’t poke the bear

Big #NoKings turnout in downtown Los Angeles. Marched with my UCLA Faculty Association colleagues and thousands of others. Groups from unions, churches, and schools marching together. Civil society waking up. @uclafa.bsky.social @aaup.org

Refreshing to read these words from a university leader: “We must be steadfast in opposition to extortion under the guise of dealmaking, and we must create alliances rooted in a common devotion to freedom of inquiry, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.“ No Trump Loyalty Oath!

Remember April 2009 when about 250,000 people took to America’s streets in Tea Party rallies and the media was like “oh man, the Dems are in trouble?” Approximately 28X as many people took to the streets to protest Trump yesterday. Didn’t even make the NYT front page.

Energetic and surprisingly large turnout for No Kings in Alhambra, CA, a suburb on the east side of Los Angeles. Families, all ages, creative signs! Still going strong when we left. Passed a second protest in South Pasadena on the way home. Heading downtown soon.

Anti-fascism is a family tradition and as American as apple pie. Here’s a picture of my father, Peter Higbie, who dropped out of college in the middle of World War II to join the fight against Nazis. He wasn’t a radical. He was a Republican most of his life. He would have hated Trump.