Working People

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 Linktr...

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-m...

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.   Additio...

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/...

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 " Ma...

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 ) Lob...

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 Concession...

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  

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....

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...

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 !   ...

(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 episod...

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...

Happy #TeachersDay! To celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, we are putting this special bonus episode on the main feed: Another Alvarez joins the Working People universe! Max and his sister, MacKenna, a middle-school teacher in NYC, talk about the politics of charter schools and the disconnect between their touted CORE VALUES and how they treat their workers and students.    Additional li...

Our Season Three finale: we talk with Adam Ryan, a Target worker in Virginia and liaison for Target Workers Unite , one of the groups that has been organizing the coordinated strike actions planned for May 1st, 2020 . We talk about Adam's life, his path to becoming a leftist and getting involved in labor organizing, and we talk about the conditions that Target employees have been working under eve...

This is a clip from our bonus episode with Ken Klippenstein, DC correspondent for The Nation , about the Covid crisis and the scary powers our government has granted itself to deal with it. Subscribe on Patreon.com/WorkingPeople to listen to the full episode!     Additional links/info below... Ken's author page and Twitter page Ken Klippenstein, The Nation , " An Internal Pandemic Document Shows t...

Part II: The Covid-19 crisis and the current economic crash have broken our world apart. These are the voices of the people living, working, and fighting through it.      Additional links/info below... Change.org petition: Stand with Sprouts Farmers Market Workers: COVID-19 PPE for Workers & Customers Now!   Farmworker clip from UFW member Maria - video   No Rent Michigan Facebook page Connecticut...

The Covid-19 crisis and the current economic crash have broken our world apart. These are the voices of the people living, working, and fighting through it.    Additional links/info below... Clip from We the Unhoused  by Theo Henderson: " All in the Same Boat " Clip from Rustbelt Abolition Radio : " Bruce X Parker " Southern Solidarity — Solidarity for the Unhoused in New Orleans Food Finder websi...

The second installment of the Workers' Book Club is finally here, and it's a doozy! Our friend John Tormey, a track laborer and writer from just outside Boston, interviews working-class Kentucky artist, writer, and radio host Terry Tapp about his latest book from Zero Books, A Serf's Journal: The Story of the United States' Longest Wildcat Strike .   Additional links/info below... Terry's website...

This Monday (March 30) Instacart shoppers around the country will walk off the job to demand hazard pay and basic protections for working during the Covid-19 crisis. In this urgent mini-cast, we bring our friend, gig worker, and organizer Vanessa Bain back on the show to talk about the strike.    Additional links/info below... Working People , Season 3, Episode 6: Vanessa Bain   Gig Workers' Colle...

We're briefly coming back from hiatus to check in with an old friend and offer some thoughts on our breaking world.    Additional links/info below... Tom's Twitter page Gary Rivlin, The Intercept , " A Giant Pile of Money: How Wall Street Drove Public Pensions Into Crisis and Pocketed Billions in Fees " Eric Levitz, NY Mag , " American Capitalism Can No Longer Afford to Let Workers Retire in Digni...

We talk to activist and oral historian Candace Wolf about her self-published book of interviews with workers all over the world, Shifting the Universe , and about working people's birthright to tell their stories.    Additional links/info below... Candace Wolf, Shifting the Universe: Spoken Histories of Work & Resistance     Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusica...

In the newest installment in our ongoing series Working-Class Politics , we talk with Phara Souffrant Forrest, a union nurse, tenant activist, and democratic socialist running for Assembly in New York's 57th District.    Additional links/info below... Phara's website , Facebook page, and Twitter page Theodore Hamm, The Indypendent , " NYC's Next Socialist Wave: DSA Takes Aim at the State Assembly'...

Our election-themed crossover panel collective continues to grow! We're excited to share on the Working People feed the newest installment of these ongoing panel conversations, in which our friends at the Season of the Bitch coven and Lyta Gold and Vanessa A. Bee of Current Affairs share their Super Tuesday thoughts. GET YOUR HOT TAKES WHILE THEY'RE ... UMM ... HOT!    Previous election-themed cro...

In this special compilation episode, we hear testimonies from 10 different freelancers—journalists, artists, musicians, designers, and more—about the pains, joys, needs, and struggles of freelance work today. (This episode is supported by The Economic Hardship Reporting Project )   Additional links/info below... Economic Hardship Reporting Project website and Twitter page IWW Freelance Journalists...