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Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: https://therealnews.com/organizing-workers-from-amazon-to-minor-league-baseball
Last month Working People hit a new milestone: We recorded our first live episode in front of an audience! Organized by the Action Builder / Action Network team and hosted by Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC, we got to speak with Michelle Valentin Nieves of the Amazon Labor Union and Harry Marino of the Major League Baseball Players Association about the incredible worker organizing victories for Amazon workers and minor league baseball players, and about lessons we have learned from an intense year of grassroots struggle that we will be carrying into 2023.
Michelle Valentin Nieves is the Executive Secretary and a founding member of the Amazon Labor Union. Harry Marino is an assistant general counsel at the Major League Baseball Players Association. He is formerly the Executive Director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, the nonprofit organization that joined with the MLBPA to unionize Minor League players. Harry pitched in the Minor League systems of the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since launching in 2012, Action Network tools have helped the Women’s March mobilize huge rallies across the globe, helped the DNC raise millions for candidates and organizations, and more. The Action Builder toolset, launched in 2019, helps dozens of unions and progressive organizations empower leaders and build strong organizing campaigns.
Post-Production: Jules Taylor
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Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/louisiana-to-imprison-juveniles-at-angola-prisons-death-row
The state of Louisiana is considering transferring at least 20 minors incarcerated in its juvenile correction system to be housed on death row. The state alleges these children are amongst its most problematic incarcerated minors, and that placing them on death row is in line with government obligations to rehabilitate juvenile offenders. Lana Charles, who has worked to provide arts programs in Louisiana's juvenile justice system for 15 years, joins Rattling the Bars to explain the situation of incarcerated youth in her state.
Luliana "Lana" Charles has worked with youth for over 15 years in the capacity of the arts, enrichment and cultural programming and the juvenile justice system. Lana is a social worker and trained artist, and a member of PAIMI Advisory Council and Louisiana Human Trafficking Prevention Commission and Advisory Board. She also serves as board chair at The Beautiful Foundation.
Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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As part of our investigative series "Tax Broke," reporters Taya Graham, Stephen Janis, and Jayne Miller discuss how Baltimore's first attempt at an exclusionary housing law was watered down behind the scenes.
"Tax Broke" is a TRNN investigative project focused on the use of tax break and subsidies stimulate growth in a city that continues to lose population and struggle with poverty. The centerpiece of the project is an hour-long documentary. However, as information comes to light about the cost, fairness, and political economy which fuels this system, TRNN will publish updates in the form of print pieces and podcasts.
ACLU of Maryland housing attorney Barbara Samuels joins this podcast to explain why Baltimore is critical to the growth of affordable housing and what has to happen to make it work as City Council debates a new inclusionary housing law.
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Editor's note: This video was recorded prior to Ray Liotta's passing.
Police Accountability Report show hosts Taya Graham and Stephen Janis kick off the holidays with a spoilers-free review of the exceptional film Cop Land. Taya and Stephen take a tour behind the scenes of police culture and explore how difficult it really is for individual officers to hold other police accountable for their crimes. Decades later, Cop Land remains one of the most revealing and honest movies about the current state of policing in America. As copaganda only becomes more pervasive, this blast from the past is a breath of fresh air'Cop Land' is still one of the best Hollywood depictions of police corruption that offers a more realistic look at the commonplace corruption and impunity rife in police departments around the country.
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With strikes and unionization drives spreading throughout the country, 2022 has been a year of intense labor struggle. However, the bosses, the ruling class, corporate politicians, and their lackeys in the media are doing everything they can to squash these rank-and-file movements and beat workers back into subservience. If we want to see the labor movement grow, we need to be there for workers when it counts the most, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure they win their fights. Now more than ever, we have to support working people on the front lines fighting for better lives, better workplaces, and a better world. In this special worker solidarity livestream, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with workers involved in the ongoing struggle on the railroads, the strikes at Warrior Met Coal and CNH Industrial, and more.Panelists include: Haeden Wright, President of UMWA Auxiliary Locals 2368 and 2245; Braxton Wright, member of UMWA Local 2368 on strike at Warrior Met Coal; Marcques Derby, member of UAW Local 807 on strike at CNH Industrial; Sammy Feldblum, graduate worker at the University of California, Los Angeles, and member of UAW Local 2865; Molly Ragan, part-time faculty at The New School / Parsons School of Design and staff member of ACT-UAW Local 7902; Kaley Johnson, Seeking Justice reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Vice President of the Fort Worth News Guild; Matthew Parker, full-time locomotive engineer and part-time Chairman of the Nevada State Legislative Board of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.Links mentioned in this video:
The planet we share, the only home we’ve ever known, has its limits. Its resources, its ability to sustain all life, are not infinite—and every day we are bearing witness to the disastrous consequences of mortgaging our collective future on the false belief that they are. The path we are on now is untenable, something’s going to give. Whether it comes from us or for us, change is coming nonetheless.As an ecologically and civilizationally sustainable alternative to an unsustainable global system driven by the economic necessity of infinite growth, "degrowth" can mean many things and could take many practical forms. But “degrowth” is perhaps less useful as a prescribed solution, a blueprint for the future, than as a frame for thinking and acting differently in the present. “What does degrowth look like in practice? How are different people, in different parts of the world, already embodying and enacting degrowth in their daily lives?” These questions have no single answer, but posing the questions in the first place, and searching for the numerous potential answers, is an essential process that can help us better diagnose what is off balance in our world and what it would take to heal.
For the past year, Max has had the honor of participating in a fellowship program for The Maintainers, "a global research network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world." In Part II of our special two-part episode produced in collaboration with The Maintainers, we meet some of the other members of The Maintainers team as well as the 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellows, and we take a deep dive into their cornerstone group project, "Embodying Degrowth." Featuring: Andy Russell, Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Maintainers; Lauren Dapena Fraiz, Project Manager for The Maintainers; Liliana Coelho, Community Outreach and Events Coordinator at The Maintainers; Rheanna Chen, 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellow; Tona Rodriguez-Nikl, 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellow; Sam Bennett, 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellow; Leila D. Behjat, 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellow; Maximillian Alvarez, 2022 Maintainers Movement Fellow. Additional links/info below...
As humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe, the need to envision and build more ecologically sustainable societies and economies becomes more pressing with each passing day. However, our collective imagination is often so limited that it becomes impossible to envision societies and economies that aren't organized around the quest for profit and infinite growth. So, what could a "degrowth" economy look like? To some, "degrowth" is a dirty word signaling a future of austerity that would translate to tremendous losses in jobs and economic stability for working people as societies race to cut back economic production to ward off the worst effects of climate change. To others, “degrowth” might mean the reduction of operations in the most environmentally destructive industries like oil and gas while targeting job growth in other areas like building green infrastructure, environmental cleanup efforts, sustainable farming, and so on. But, as is so often the case, you rarely get to hear what working people on the ground have to say about these issues.
For the past year, Max has had the honor of participating in a fellowship program for The Maintainers, "a global research network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world." Over the next two episodes, we're going to introduce you all to some of the work that Max and The Maintainers team have been doing for the fellowship. In today’s episode, you’re going to hear one of the interviews Max conducted as part of the cornerstone group project for the 2022 cohort of Maintainers Movement Fellows.
In a special panel discussion about what a worker-centered transition to a more ecologically sustainable economy could look like, Max speaks with: Megan Milliken Biven, a former federal government employee and founder of True Transition, an organization that focuses on speaking directly to oil and gas workers throughout the United States about their working conditions, their training and compensation needs, their hopes for tomorrow's industries, and is working to help create the kind of good-paying jobs and get workers the kind of training they need to transition to a sustainable energy future; James Hiatt, who was an oil refinery worker, lab analyst, and operator for a number of years and now works with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to promote alternative forms of economic development in Louisiana beyond the grip of the fossil fuel industry; and Clarke, a longtime commercial diver who’s done contract work primarily for oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico for over 15 years, but is now transitioning to other forms of commercial diving work.
Post-Production: Jules Taylor
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Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/big-tech-has-rigged-the-game-against-artists-heres-how-we-can-fight-back
TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez joins Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow for the launch of their new book, Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back. This event was hosted by The Peale Museum in Baltimore.
Rebecca Giblin is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor at Melbourne Law School. She is director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA) and heads up the Author’s Interest and eLending projects, as well as Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project. Chokepoint Capitalism is her latest book.
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books. Chokepoint Capitalism is his most recent non-fiction work. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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The Federal Reserve has responded to runaway inflation with a spike in interest rates. The real cost of such measures is primarily paid by the working class, who are caught in a double-bind of rising prices of goods and falling wages. As TRNN has covered extensively in the past, the real culprits of rising inflation are multinational corporations and financial institutions, who have opportunistically raised prices, recycled billions of dollars in stock buybacks, and benefited from massive federal bailout packages. Why is the Federal Reserve squeezing workers, and how should the inflation crisis really be solved? Anders Lee interviews CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies Assistant Professor Samir Sonti on behalf of The Real News to discuss how historical examples like the 1979 Volcker Shock can help us understand how the Federal Reserve will respond to our contemporary situation.
Anders Lee is a writer, podcaster, comedian and organizer. He is a co-host of Pod Damn America and was previously a correspondent on Redacted Tonight.
Samir Sonti is an assistant professor at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. He previously served as a special advisor for the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.
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Editor's note: This interview was filmed on Dec. 1, 2022. A 19th person, Edgardo Mejia, died at Rikers on Sunday, Dec. 11.
19 people have perished at Rikers Island in 2022, making this the deadliest year in the jail's history. Rikers Island's previous deadliest year was just last year, when 16 people died at the notorious pretrial detention center. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has rejected calls to close the facility, along with demands from advocates for a federal receivership. A federal receivership would give power to a court-appointed, nonpartisan expert to intervene in the situation on Rikers with wide latitude to change conditions in the jail. New York public defender Olayemi Olurin joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the human rights crisis on Rikers Island.
Olayemi Olurin is a public defender and staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and an analyst at the Law & Crime Network and The Hill’s Rising.
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