On Strike!

Two weeks ago, California was hit by devastating, unprecedented storms. The National Weather Service in San Francisco issued its first ever hurricane force wind warning since records have been kept, and then Los Angeles received more than 60% of an entire year’s rainfall in one day. The question of how to avert the impending climate catastrophe, and what it will take to dramatically change course...

In this episode, we’re focusing on Biden’s loss of support among Black voters, which has been dramatic in a number of polls. Black voters were crucial in Biden’s 2020 election, but recent polls have shown half of Black voters wanting a different candidate, and growing numbers who either said they wouldn’t vote at all or would support Trump. It’s clear so many working-class people want a genuine al...

We’re going back to the union drive at KCVG in Northern Kentucky, Amazon’s largest air hub in the world. Griffin Ritze is the latest worker to be fired by Amazon as part of their shameful anti-union campaign—he was fired for no other reason than for helping to organize the union. Hear from Griffin about Amazon’s slimy union-busting tactics, how the union is leveraging Amazon’s attacks against them...

Nearly two weeks ago, in a near disaster in mid-air, an Alaska Airlines flight of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 was forced to make an emergency landing after a side door ripped off the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes for further investigation and inspection. The news has exposed and brought attention to a wider breakdown which implicates not just Boeing exe...

What is the US-China Cold War, and why does it matter for working people? This new Cold War between US imperialism and Chinese imperialism impacts every aspect of the world situation today, from the war in Ukraine to the war on Gaza to climate change.  The horrific violence we’re seeing around the world has led millions of working people to wonder why these disasters are happening and how we can s...

The connection between sports and politics may not be immediately apparent—why should the left pay attention to the world of sports? What potential is there for organizing, for making connections to the need to struggle for working-class demands against the billionaires? To discuss these and other questions, we’re delighted to interview Suzanne Wrack, a British sports journalist and soccer writer...

Part 2 of our two-part special on Kshama Sawant’s 10 years as a socialist on the Seattle City Council! Long before democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were household names, Socialist Alternative and Kshama won an openly socialist campaign for the Seattle City Council in 2013. Kshama was the first socialist elected in Seattle in nearly a century. After a decade in...

Long before democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were household names, Socialist Alternative and Kshama won an openly socialist campaign for the Seattle City Council in 2013. Kshama was the first socialist elected in Seattle in nearly a century. After a decade in office, having overcome unrelenting big business opposition to win historic gains for working people a...

For over 11 months, during the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020-2021, small farmers and agricultural workers battled the right-wing regime of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in opposition to his anti-farmer/pro-billionaire laws. Through the power of their mass mobilization and their steadfastness, and the solidarity of over 250 million workers who went on a general strike in support,...

We return to Amazon’s air hub in Kentucky, with the nation’s most important union drive right now. This is a strategic choke point in Amazon’s delivery system, an air hub of over 4,000 workers. Since our first episode on the union drive, Amazon executives have ramped up intimidation and retaliation. Don’t miss this important update on how the workers are fighting back. Kshama Sawant and Bia Lacomb...

Millions around the world have protested the massacre of Palestinian people as Gaza’s death toll has risen to over 11,320 people. Yet, Biden, Antony Blinken, and the Democrats refuse to call for a ceasefire and continue their push to send billions more to the Israeli war machine. Hillary Clinton, who never met a war she didn’t like, is actively supporting the deadly Israeli state’s assault. Meanwh...

Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried carried out one of the largest financial frauds in the history of capitalism and was just convicted on all counts. This week, Kshama Sawant and Bia Lacombe talk crypto and other financial scams, which were talked up as new ways to get rich quick—but when working people invested what little money they had, the rug was pulled out from under them by big finance an...

UAW auto workers just won a historic contract as a result of their six-week strike at the Big Three automakers! This is a breakthrough victory. So, what did UAW workers win, and how does it compare to past contracts? In this segment from our Bidenomics episode, Kshama & Bia talk about the lessons of the UAW strike and Sean Fain’s “Stand Up” strike strategy, what’s next for the UAW with the bat...

What is Bidenomics and why are the Democrats trying to gaslight us into liking it?? Hear from Bia Lacombe and Kshama Sawant (who is a PhD economist as well as socialist) about what’s actually going on with the economy and why corporate politicians and mainstream economists twist the facts to defend the capitalist system. Also, we give an update on the exciting news from UAW about the tentative agr...

The Israeli state’s brutal war on Gaza rages on, with thousands dead and many thousands more injured. What is the agenda of the Israeli ruling class? What is the motivation of the US state? What is the solution to this crisis, and how can working and young people fight back against these abject horrors? Hear from On Strike hosts Kshama and Bia, along with Israeli and Palestinian workers, in this w...

In 2016 and 2020 Bernie Sanders campaigned for president on a platform that centered on Medicare for All. Millions of working people had their aspirations and hopes raised by the fight for free healthcare for all Americans—“everybody in, nobody out” as Sanders liked to say. Later self-described “democratic socialist” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the so-called “Squad” also campaign...

We’re covering two important struggles on different sides of the country. Grocery workers in Seattle, unionized with UFCW Local 3000, are taking on their “progressive” bosses at PCC Community Markets and fighting for exciting demands like a $25/hour starting wage and $35/hour after three years in their upcoming contract. Nurses in New Jersey at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, unionize...

11,500 writers organized with WGA have won historic concessions in their five-month, all-out strike against the wealthy executives of the multi-billion-dollar film & TV industry. Hear analysis from On Strike about how the WGA victory was won — and what fights lay ahead — featuring interviews with WGA & SAG-AFTRA members. 150k actors with SAG-AFTRA are still on strike. The solidarity of act...

This week, On Strike talks with Tom Barker about the UNISON teachers strike in Leicester, England, AND we give an update on the historic United Auto Workers strike in the United States. We speak to UAW workers on the picket lines in Oregon, Illinois, and Massachusetts about their views of the strike in its second week, and talk about the strike’s current level of escalation and our analysis of the...

On Strike interviews Cornel West about his Green Party campaign for president, which offers a sorely needed left alternative for working and young people. We talk with Dr. West about his working class political program, internationalism, the fight against racism and all oppression, and the vital importance of mass movements. As Dr. West says, “In the end, without mass movements, the best politicia...

Join us in Toledo where United Auto Workers are on strike! Hear from workers on the picket line and from host Kshama Sawant and on-the-ground correspondent Em Smith. We talk about our analysis of UAW President Shawn Fain’s "stand up strike” strategy, lessons from the 1930s auto strikes, & how we think auto workers can go all out to beat the bosses in this crucial fight.

In the first episode of On Strike, we talk to workers at Amazon’s biggest air hub (KCVG) in northern Kentucky, where the most important union drive in the country is underway.  Amazon workers are deeply exploited in the U.S. and globally, and KCVG is no exception, despite Amazon having racked up record profits in recent years. KCVG is essential to Amazon’s plans to realize one-day delivery, and it...