Working People

Latest Episodes:

The People's Movement, the People's Media (w/ Mel Buer, Gabby, & Garrison Davis) Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

We talk to Mel Buer (Protean Magazine), Gabby (DefendPDX), and Garrison Davis, three independent journalists who have been on the front lines this summer covering the anti-police protests in Minneapolis, Portland, and Omaha. We talk about how events have unfolded from their vantage point, the hazards of doing this vital work, and about the importance of anticapitalist media.

Additional links/info below...

Mel's Twitter page and Patreon; Protean Magazine's website and Twitter page
Gabby's Twitter page; DefendPDX's website and Twitter page
Garrison's Twitter page and YouTube channel

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Cletus Got Shot, "Take Out the Fascists"

Maggie Levantovskaya Aug 09, 2020

Show notes

We talk to writer, organizer, and adjunct lecturer Maggie Levantovskaya about immigrating from the Soviet Union, navigating class differences in the U.S., and about how so many higher education professionals have become gig workers.

Additional links/info below...

Maggie's website and Twitter page
Maggie Levantovskaya, LitHub, "On Flannery O'Connor's Chronic Illness ... and Chronic Racism"
Maggie Levantovskaya, Chronicle Review, "Faculty Are Not Cannon Fodder"
Maggie Levantovskaya, The Startup, "This Is Your Fight"
Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "Contingent No More"
Left Anchor, "Episode 76 UNLOCKED - Maximillian Alvarez on the Politics of Higher Ed"
Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, and Daniel T. Scott, Johns Hopkins University Press, The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in the Neoliberal University

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Nicolas Falcon, "Big, Big Boss"

Mini-cast: In the Lion's Den (w/ The Valley Labor Report) Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

We chat with David Story and Jacob Morrison, the hosts of The Valley Labor Report, a new radio show out of Huntsville, Alabama, about the importance of making pro-worker media in the South.

Additional links/info below...

The Valley Labor Report Facebook page, Twitter page, Youtube channel, and Patreon

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Jami Bellefleur Jul 25, 2020

Show notes

We're back from hiatus with a new full-length episode! We talk to Jami Bellefleur, a Maine native and shipbuilder, about her life and work, and about the ongoing strike at Bath Iron Works.

Additional links/info below...

IUMSWA IAMAW Local S6 website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
Local S6 strike fund
Andy O'Brien, Labor Notes, "Maine Shipbuilders Bring the Hammer Down to Reject Concessions"
Dan Neumann, Maine Beacon, "Younger Generation Takes Lead in Uniting Workers at BIW"
Todd Chretien, Jacobin, "Over 4,000 Shipbuilding Workers Are on Strike in Maine"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Derek Clegg, "If Only We Had More Time"
Big Luisiana, Willy Rafus, & Arthur Davis, "Let Your Hammer Ring"

Teaser: Mailbag Episode #1 Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

Oh shiiiit, it's mailbag time!! Max, Zak, and MacKenna (3/4 of the Alvarez siblings) sit down to answer listener questions.

Listen to the full bonus episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mailbag-episode-38475818

Labor Is Antifascist (w/ Kooper Caraway) May 31, 2020

Show notes

UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE: We talk to Kooper Caraway, President of the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO and Labor Rep for AFSCME Council 65 about the labor movement in South Dakota and about doing labor organizing that is bold, inclusive, anti-racist, and antifascist. (If you want to hear more bonus episodes like this, subscribe to our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/WorkingPeople)

Additional links/info below...

Kooper's Twitter page
Sioux Falls AFL-CIO's website and Twitter page
Rebecca Zweig, The Nation, "'Organize or Die': Kooper Caraway Ushers in a New Labor Movement"
Brendan O'Connor, Strikewave, "Want to Celebrate May Day? Fight for Antifascist Unions"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Roger McGuinn, "When I First Came to This Land"

Struggle Session (w/ Michael Brooks) May 28, 2020

Show notes

We talk to Michael Brooks about his new book, Against the Web, and we try to move the ball forward on debates about the "woke left," working-class politics, and left internationalism.

Additional links/info below...

Michael's Twitter page
Michael Brooks, Zero Books, Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right (buy through Red Emma's)
The Michael Brooks Show Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube page, and Patreon
Weekends with Ana Kasparian & Michael Brooks YouTube page
The Majority Report with Sam Seder Twitter page and YouTube page
Benjamin Fong, The Bellows, "Unpacking the Left's Cultural Baggage"
Emily Jashinsky, The Federalist, "Could Surging Pandemic-Era Populism Help Forge A Left-Right Labor Coalition? (An Interview with Matthew Stoller & Saagar Enjeti)"
Maximillian Alvarez, The Nation, "Against the Pundits' Class"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Benjamin Banger, "June"

The Break Room: Daniel Stone May 21, 2020

Show notes

In this installment of The Break Room, Daniel Stone, a now-former employee of Dollar General in Nashville, tells us about issues with how the national chain has handled the #COVID19 crisis—and how he was fired after raising concerns with corporate about lack of protection for frontline employees.

If you'd like to send something in to The Break Room, hit us up at workingpeoplepod@gmail.com!

Additional links/info below...

Daniel's Twitter page
Kenya Slaughter, The New York Times, "I Never Planned to Be a Front-Line Worker at Dollar General"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

On Meritocracy (w/ Zak Alvarez) May 18, 2020

Show notes

(We are making this Bonus Episode public to provide a follow-up to Max's latest In These Times article on whether or not the working class and progressive professionals can form a political alliance.) Max and his brother Zak talk about meritocracy, work in the corporate world, and that feeling in your gut that most of what you do is pointless. Subscribe to our Patreon if you want more bonus episodes like this one!

Additional links/info below...

Zak's Twitter page
Daniel Markovits, Penguin Random House, The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite
Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times, "Class Traitors, Welcome to the Revolution"

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

Misty Mammas, "It's Gonna Rain"

The Break Room: Aminah Sheikh (Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario) May 15, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to The Break Room, our new, ongoing series where workers and organizers send in 15-20-minute clips to talk about issues they're facing, actions they're taking, and more! (Think of it as a community message board of sorts). In this installment, Aminah Sheikh, a labor organizer with Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), tells us about how she worked with educators in Ontario to launch a successful unionization campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic.

If you'd like to send something in to The Break Room, hit us up at workingpeoplepod@gmail.com!

Additional links/info below...

Aminah's Twitter page
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) website
Ryan Hayes, Labor Notes, "Ontario Early Childhood Educators Unionize during Pandemic"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

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