Working People

Latest Episodes:

LRPN Member Spotlight: Maximillian Alvarez (Empathy Media Lab podcast) Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

The next time you see us, it will be the premier of Season Four of Working People! Until then, we wanted to share this interview Max did with Evan Matthew Papp of Empathy Media Lab about why Max started the show and how it's developed over the years. They also talk about why Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio / Podcast Network, and about the importance of making labor- and human-centered media. Check it out (and check out all the great shows in LRPN)!

Additional links/info below...

Evan's Twitter page
Empathy Media Lab's website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and YouTube channel
Labor Radio / Podcast Network's website and Twitter page

"We Are More Than Just Nametags" w/ Max Alvarez (Our Calgary podcast) Nov 03, 2020

Show notes

We'll be back with Season Four of Working People very soon, but in the meantime, here's an interview Max did with Our Calgary, a great new Canadian podcast. Max talks with Lucas about the 2020 election and his hopes and fears for the country, the left, and for alternative media. Check it out (and give Our Calgary a follow!).

Additional links/info below...

Our Calgary's Twitter page, link tree, and Patreon
Lucas' Twitter page

Soul Rot (w/ Hamilton Nolan) Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

We talk to Hamilton Nolan, labor reporter for In These Times, about reporting on the Trump re-election campaign during a pandemic and seeing up close the rotting core of America.

Additional links/info below...

Hamilton's author page and Twitter page
Hamilton Nolan, In These Times, "Risking Your Life For a Trump Rally Means There's Nothing Left to Lose"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Edith Frost, "Temporary Loan"

Working-Class Politics: Labor Slate Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

We're back with another installment of our ongoing series Working-Class Politics, where we talk to working-class folks and advocates who are running for office. We sit down with two members of California's Labor Slate, Eduardo Torres (running for Ambrose Recreation and Parks Board) and Gaelan Ash (communications director for Labor Slate).

Additional links/info below...

Labor Slate's website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Eduardo's candidate page
Hamilton Nolan, In These Times, "In California, a "Labor Slate" Aims to Redefine the Relationship Between Unions and Politics"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

This Could Change Everything (w/ Veena Dubal) Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

Everyone who is a worker or who cares about workers should pay attention to Prop 22 in California and understand the potentially devastating impact it could have. Professor Veena Dubal joins us on the show to talk about why.

Additional links/info below...

Veena's faculty page and Twitter page
Sarah Ashley O'Brien, CNN Business, "The $185 Million Campaign to Keep Uber and Lyft Drivers as Contractors in California"
Alexander Sammon, The American Prospect, "How Uber and Lyft Are Buying Labor Laws"
Edward Ongweso Jr., Vice, "Uber, Lyft Give California GOP Millions While Fighting Driver Reclassification"
Veena Dubal, Dissent, "Digital Piecework"
Veena Dubal, Berkley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, "The Drive to Precarity: A Political History of Work, Regulation, & Labor Advocacy in San Francisco's Taxi & Uber Economies"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Mini-cast: #DropTheChargesCO (w/ Amanda Yee) Sep 27, 2020

Show notes

We talk with Amanda Yee for this urgent mini-cast on the deliberate and terrifying persecution of leftist organizers and activists by the state, including members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in Denver.

Additional links/info below...

Amanda's Twitter page
PSL website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
PSL Legal Fund: Donate to the legal and political support campaign for arrested Denver organizers
PSL Petition: Drop All the Charges on Anti-Racist Organizers in the Denver Area!
PSL Solidarity Statement: Sign-On Statement: Drop the Charges on Denver Anti-Racist Organizers
Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post, "Protesters, Demonstration Leaders Arrested in Connection to Rallies in Aurora"
Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "The Whimper of Democracy"
Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "A Show Trial That No One Watched"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Remastered) Sep 07, 2020

Show notes

We've remastered our Labor Day special from Season One and are re-releasing it for all our new listeners. In this episode, we talk to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. We talk about LaDonna's life, the #NoDAPL movement and the erasure of Native peoples, and about learning ways of living with the land.

Additional links/info below...

Sacred Stone Village Facebook page
Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page
Wisdom of the Elders, "Turtle Island Storyteller, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard"
Democracy Now!, "Standing Rock Sioux Historian: Dakota Access Co. Attack Comes on Anniversary of Whitestone Massacre"
Democracy Now!, "'Is This America?' Co-Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Recalls Dog Attack on Native Americans"
Water Protector Legal Collective
#NoDAPL Archive
Standing Rock Syllabus

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
King Kong Ding Dong, "Distant Drums"

Cops — Labor: Which Side Are You On? (w/ Kim Kelly, Halimat Alawode, & Julia Wallace) Aug 29, 2020

Show notes

We close out Season Three of Working People with a critical discussion about why cops have no place in the labor movement and about the rank-and-file push from groups like No Cop Unions (AFL-CIO) and Drop the Cops (SEIU) to get them out. Featuring Kim Kelly, Halimat Alawode, & Julia Wallace.

Additional links/info below...

No Cop Unions (AFL-CIO) website and Twitter page
SEIU Drop the Cops Linktree and Twitter page
SEIU Drop the Cops "Labor Stands Against the Cops" event page
Kim Kelly Twitter page
Halimat Alawode Twitter page
Julia Wallace Twitter page
Kim Kelly, The New Republic, "No More Cop Unions"
Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "Police Unions: What to Know and Why They Don't Belong in the Labor Movement"
Kim Kelly, The Baffler, "Rank-and-File Revolt"
Hamilton Nolan, The Guardian, "It's Time to Kick Police Unions Out of the Labor Movement. They Aren't Allies"
Paul Clark, The Conversation, "Why Police Unions Are not Part of the American Labor Movement"
Louis Casiano, The Orange County Register, "Union Law Firm's Private Detective Gets 1 Year in Jail in Scheme to Set up Costa Mesa Councilmen"
Greg Coy, Fox Memphis, "Activists Find Camera Inside Mysterious Box on Power Pole Near Union Organizer's Home"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Pete Seeger, "Which Side Are You On?"

No Evil Foods Got Our Last Episode Removed Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

UPDATE: We were notified by Libsyn (the service where we host our podcast) that No Evil Foods demanded to have our last episode removed due to our use of an "unauthorized recording" from the union-busting captive audience meetings they subjected their workers to. We are re-uploading the episode with an intro/update from Max. You can still listen to the recordings in question here: http://andrew-miller.com/blog/2020/why-doesnt-no-evil-foods-want-you-to-hear-this/

We talk to Jon, Meagan, Josh, and Cortne, four former employees at No Evil Foods, a vegan plant-based meat producer in North Carolina that made headlines over the past year with its union-busting tactics. We talk about the failed unionization drive, the captive-audience meetings management held, and about companies like NEF using "progressive" branding to mask their anti-union practices.

Additional links/info below...