#new york labor posters

[newyorkthegoldenage]

A 1936 campaign poster for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Lehman (who was running for governor) put out by the American Labor Party. It was created by William Sanger.

The ALP was founded mainly as a vehicle to help ensure Roosevelt's victory in New York. It was funded mostly by the needle trades and lasted until 1956, when it was elbowed off the stage by the Liberal Party.

Photo: Google Arts & Culture

[traddmoore]

NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents: Lawra Suits Clark September 28th, 2023 • 7pm • 370 Jay Street • Brooklyn, NY Poster "Faith Companion" (2023) by Tradd Moore "Lawra Suits Clark (MFA '14) is a video-games artist, designer, and educator living in New York, a co-founder of Babycastles Gallery, and a recent addition to Game Center faculty as Visiting Assistant Arts Professor. Primarily a solo developer, Lawra's work has been nominated for, or won, several awards and accolades at festivals in San Francisco, Zurich, Seoul, Berlin, and many other places across the globe. This talk will cover their current work-in-progress, Faith Companion, a game of time-traveling dogs and wage workers in a company-town struggling to be noticed. Lawra will go into the design, themes, ethos, and structure of the project, where it came from and where it is going. As a collection of numerous small experiences, Faith Companion offers a strange and funny allegorical fantasy of labor alienation, end-of-life, debt, magical thinking, and the failures of tech utopianism."

[sardonic-the-writer]

𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

↳ warnings: none

↳ song: not quite almost christmas time—tom cardy

masterlist | coms | carrd

• Christmas in New York is always a hectic time of the year. The last week of the holiday season was always spent with adults rushing to buy a last minute gift for their partner while parents attempted to pry their kids from shiny display windows

• However, you, being friends with a guild of ninjas, had your own problems. Namely, what exactly were you supposed to get four giant mutant turtles and their rat dad?

• Food and gift cards were out of the question. Unless it was pizza, you weren't sure they would eat it, and gift cards would be rendered useless by their mutant appearance. No shopping sprees were going to be held for the brothers anytime soon

• After many frantic late night texts sent to both April & Casey—and one call to Splinter on the cheese phone, which you were scolded for later—you eventually settled on four gifts for them

• From you, Michelangelo would be getting a new skateboard with a five hundred pack of stickers to decorate it with. That had been a tough call, considering you knew how much he loved his current set of busted wheels, but you decided the purchase was worth it in the end

• For Raphael, you got him a can of roach killer

• It's a gag gift, of course, but he wouldn't have to know that until after the embarrassing teasing ceased

• His actual present was a new set of paints and canvases—most of them from a brand you knew he loved, but had a hard time getting ahold of since they were produced in Japan

• Leonardo's gift would consist of a limited edition Space Heros comic you knew he had been itching to get at for a while now. It was probably the most expensive—and when you say expensive, you mean expensive. Comic owners were really protective about first editions—but it's worth it

• As for Donnie, you had gone a little old school with him. Instead of going out and buying a gift, you had instead sat down at your kitchen table and brought out the scrapbook scissors

• The following poster you created consisted of all of the most memorable moments in scientific history—from the creation of the periodic table to the splitting of an atom

• Right in between all of those amazing discoveries, you made sure to include important milestones in Donatello's life. Starting on the day that all five of you had met

• While you were slaving away over your rickety dining table that was very much due for an upgrade, the turtles were having a present wrapping party of their own

• When it comes time to wrap their gifts, Raph's the artist of the group. He would probably be really good at it—cool bows, smooth taping jobs and all—if he didn't get so pissed off at the wrapping paper for giving him little paper cuts. In the end he just uses the little bags with tissue paper stuffed in it. Much easier

• Mikey is. Uh. Mikey. His presents are always fun and full of surprises—one year, you got a pie to the face—but his wrapping most certainly is not. Ends up just having to go to Leo or Donnie to help him, or it just ends up an amalgamation of tape and paper. Mostly tape.

• Leo's probably the most normal out of the group during the seasonal activity. Gets it done all in one afternoon fairly easily, and most definitely uses some limited edition Space Heros wrapping paper he found online. What else, of course

• Donnie is really methodical about it for some reason? It's just wrapping, but he uses equations and an actual whiteboard full of complex math for it. What color matches best, how to cover an awkward shaped present perfectly, the cost of labor, etc

• April ends up doing both her and Casey's in the end. He's too lazy to actually do it and just ends up annoying her until she does

• In the end, Christmas in the lair goes down perfectly. You, April and Casey were all able to slip away from your parents houses for just a moment to witness the Hamato clan open up your gifts, each of you sitting beneath the soft glow of a Christmas tree that Splinter had pulled out from somewhere

[psychotrenny]

wasn’t the Bund a prominent socialist jewish group who opposed zionism when it was first proposed on the grounds that jews deserve to feel safe wherever they are? my knowledge of jewish anti-zionist movements is not that great so i could be wrong but i was wondering what your thoughts on this were😭

Yeah that's pretty much it. The original General Jewish Labour Bund (often shortened to just "The Bund) was a Secular Jewish Socialist party formed in the Western parts of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th century; a part of the world where Jewish people faced significant legal and extra-legal oppression. It sought to create democratic socialist Russia in alliance with other DemSoc groups, with particular emphasis on ending the antisemitic oppression of Jewish people and allowing them to live in freedom as equals with other citizens. While Jewish national liberation was central to the organsation, they tended to mistrust Jewish members of the Bourgeoisie and generally rejected co-operation with conservative Jewish groups. Their enthusiasm for the use and preservation of Yiddish was also a point of direct conflict with the Zionist who favoured the use of Hebrew. A major part of their ideology was "Doikayt", a Yiddish word that effectively translates as "hereness", which was all about how Jews needed to challenge antisemitism in the countries where they currently lived, in contrast to the Zionist approach of leaving to some new homeland. This poster from the 1917 Kiev City Duma elections has been posted around a lot and summarises some key points of their ideology pretty well; with the header reading " Where we live, there is our country!" and the bottom reading "A democratic republic! Full national and political rights for Jews"

In 1917 the Polish Bundists has split from the rest of the organisation after years of German occupation in Poland (during the course of WW1) made communication with the central party unviable. By 1921 the non-Polish Bunds had decide to disband and merge with the Communist Party of the newly formed Soviet Union; many former Bundists ended up as high ranking officials in the USSR although a number of them did end up getting imprisoned, exiled or executed during the 1938 political purges. Meanwhile the Bund in Poland continued to function as a Jewish DemSoc political party, even under the pressure of a relentlessly reactionary and antisemitic regime, and formed a key part of Jewish Resistance to Nazism during the German Occupation. It persisted for a little while after the war but dissolved after the consolidation of single party rule by the PZPR. Many Bundist emigrants exiles (both before, during and after ww2) also played a significant role in Jewish Leftism in places like the USA (such as socialist New York City alderman Baruch Vladeck) and Australia (the political activist Bono Wiener). This played a part in spreading the idea of Bundism outside of the Russian Empire and is likely why they are so relatively well known and seeing a resurgence today. Indeed, many Jewish Socialists with no direct connection to original Bund will use the term "Bundism" to describe their ideology and you can find Bundist Organisations right around the world, from France to Argentina. The aftermath of WW2 saw the establishment of the International Jewish Labor Bund, a collection of various Bundist organisations either founded by former Russian Bundists or inspired by their example. The central committee (based in New York City) was dissolved in the 2000s but many of the member Bund groups persisted

So long story short the Jewish Bund was a relatively short lived but very significant Jewish Socialist party with an impact and legacy that continues to this day

[venicepearl]

United States Department of Labor poster, 2010

Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World.

After Jones's husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867 and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she became an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. In 1902, she was called "the most dangerous woman in America" for her success in organizing mine workers and their families against the mine owners.In 1903, to protest the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a children's march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York.

[deniroarchives]

“Poster for One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger, 1970 Robert De Niro Papers osf 132 After a successful career starring in such films as A Double Life (1947), A Place in the Sun (1951), Night of the Hunter (1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), and Lolita (1962), Shelley Winters returned to theatre in the late 1960s to write and teach at the Actors Studio in New York City. Her play, One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger, starred De Niro and Diane Ladd in the last of three one-act plays titled "Last Stand." The play was to open on November 16, 1970 but was delayed due to a labor strike by Actors' Equity in a dispute over wages for off-Broadway actors and stage managers. It finally opened on December 30, 1970 at the Actors' Playhouse and ran for seven performances. Reviews were mostly positive and De Niro's performance was highlighted in the Village Voice and other papers.”

[sohinitheexplorer]

My introduction to the world of Digital Activism.

Today I learnt a little bit about a phenomenon called digital activism. In vague terms it is the process of standing up for a cause or advertising any kind of ideology that may help serve some kind of issue for the betterment of some kind of community......all done electronically. It is a revolutionary way of mass communication that helps people become aware of situations that they haven’t come across personally and can further influence them to take a certain course of action towards a particular cause or causes.

This whole discussion about led me to think deeply about what really is ACTIVISM?

Well this question has multifaceted answers and verbs to look forward to:

1) When we want to talk on behalf of someone in a way that brings light to their struggle so that people become aware of it, it is called ADVOCACY. For example, actor Ethan Hawke standing up for LGBTQ+ community rights.

2) When we want an audience to focus on what we want to say and stand for a cause, it is called DRAWING ATTENTION to the cause. For example, The Principles of Communism (1847) by Friedrich Engles is a small booklet that highlights worker rights and future of capitalistic worldview/economy and it’s dangers. He predicted the colonisation of India and China via rapid industrialisation.

3)When we constantly supply information to some kind of platform to shed light on a particular situation that needs to be fixed, it is called RAISING AWARENESS. For example, Rollie Williams a climate change activist made a YouTube channel to publish videos and content about climate change and pollution. Now he has a huge platform of approximately 3,89,000 subscribers who engage with his work constantly and are constatly motivated to be more eco friendly in their life and life choices.

4) When we want to approach a person or a party who is causing the genesis of the cause everyone is standing for with all the appropriate evidence, it is called HOLDING someone ACCOUNTABLE. For example, Christian Smalls is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon's worker organization on Staten Island, a borough in New York City.

5) When someone exercises the act of retrospection of their own actions and situation, in a way they become aware of a certain kind of systemic advantage. This is called PRIVILAGE CHECKING. For example, Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea is a 2019 documentary directed by Alex Stapleton and starring Chelsea Handler. The premise revolves around examining the concept of white privilege.

6) When we try to engage in a conversation that encourages changes in behavior of the person or part at fault, that is called NEGOTIATION. For example, Throughout 1928 in Colonial India, cries of “Simon, Go Back” rang out in every city which the British Commission visited. And eventually, Indians got their independence on 15th of August 1947.

7) When we want to communicate our activism through visuals or art, that is called SYMBOLISING. For example, Pink Venus and Fist were created by the feminist community of the contemporary era to symbolise feminism and female power.

And as I said, all this activism done electronically is called digital activism. I think the coolest part about digital activism is it allows the causes to gain momentum in a short period of time....without taking too much space....or barely any space since it is virtual however the impact is very real. I am an environmentalist, so I really appreciate the part that this all is very eco friendly...no by products no wastage of resources, I mean not as much as making posters on paper to yell about saving trees, or travelling in cars rallying about how we hate Trump while burning fossil fuels or, the most wasteful activity of making an effigy of OPEC founders to let them know about their catastrophic impact on earth's ecology and economy. That is what I care about.

References :

1) Ethan Hawke supporting LGBTQ+ cause; 2011 publish Human Rights Campaign Youtube Chanel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4KeFiXBik&ab_channel=HumanRightsCampaign

2) The Principles of Communism by Friedrich Engles (1847)

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm

3) Rollie Williams Climate Town

https://www.youtube.com/c/ClimateTown

4) Christian smalls

Amazon fired Chris Smalls. Now the new union leader is one of its biggest problems. What’s next for the face of America’s new labor movement by Shirin Ghaffary  Jun 7, 2022. Photographs by José A. Alvarado Jr. for Vox

https://www.vox.com/recode/23145265/amazon-fired-chris-smalls-union-leader-alu-jeff-bezos-bernie-sanders-aoc-labor-movement-biden

5) Simon Go Back History

Opinion | 90 years later, India must send Simon back Columns By Arghya Sengupta Updated on Jul 19, 2019

https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/opinion-90-years-later-india-must-send-simon-back/story-2V64TbLO9T7EdyutjcHTPL.html

[wedesignyouny]

Using Digital Printing NYC, You Can Quickly And Affordably Print Any Quantity.

Using Digital Printing NYC, You Can Quickly And Affordably Print Any Quantity.

Modern digital presses, such as an HP Indigo and Xerox 700, are what we employ to handle a wide range of jobs. Digital printing is a creative and adaptable medium that offers our clients the ability to personalize brochures, magazines, reports, posters, art, and look books. It is perfect for any project that requires quick turnaround or is best suited for a short print run. In order to get your files produced and into your hands as soon as possible, our state-of-the-art digital print technology also enables NYC clients to request rush printing for a variety of tasks.

Many of our clients also find digital printing methods’ quick turnaround times beneficial in the fast-paced corporate world of New York City. For clients who are pressed for time, it can mean the difference between having that important presentation ready or getting those reports printed on time. We are aware that managing your company frequently entails meeting deadlines, and we are pleased to assist you in doing so.

Digital printing provides our clients with:

Quickness

Superior quality

Any quantity of print run

Reprints upon request

real-world examples of their files

Additionally, proofing is quick and simple with digital printing since it shows you the precise version of your work before we print the entire run. With the lossless quality and direct communication to the press system that modern digital presses provide, your ideas will print at a high resolution and with all the details.

Cost-Effective Digital Printing in NYC

Digital printing eliminates the need for labor-intensive press setup, thus small print runs don’t have to be prohibitively expensive. We can print as few or as many products as you would like thanks to digital printing. Additionally, there is no loss in quality when compared to conventional printing. No data is lost during transfer, and the image, text, or design flows directly to the digital press, maintaining excellent quality. We are able to print small tasks (50–100 copies) or large works (thousands), all with the same page quality.

Short Run Printing

Digital presses are ideal for short run printing since they can produce high-quality printed goods in tiny quantities. You can customize your order to just order what you need, cutting down on waste, by ordering a few dozen or several hundred copies of a particular item. Additionally, if and when you need more copies, it’s simple to reprint them from our files. Short run digital printing is the most effective way to satisfy the recurring and variable printing needs of the majority of NYC businesses. You may easily make modifications for the next quarter or season and reorder any documents or materials you need, saving you time and money on unnecessary stockpiling of printed products that might become outdated within the year.

Large Format Printing

Printing in large or wide formats is another benefit of digital printing. Our digital presses are the best option if you require large graphic projects, such as banners, backdrops, artwork, and posters, to be completed quickly. They can print up to ten feet in length and breadth and are capable of printing on a wide range of materials, including cardboard, vinyl, plastic, and various papers. Larger projects, such as step-and-repeat backgrounds, can be finished in multiple parts.

Examples of Our Digital Printing Work: Tru-Art Sign Co., Inc.’s NYC booklet printing example, featuring saddle-stitched pages

An illustration of digital printing in New York City, a saddle-stitched booklet printed digitally Booklet for Wire-O

Customizable Digital Printing

Creating changeable data in printed materials is one of the things that digital print technology allows us to accomplish better than traditional offset printing. The term “variable data” describes the capacity to alter the information or data on various printed materials. The traditional illustration would be using individual mailing list addresses to personalize each magazine or print run advertisement, but variable data is also capable of more.

Creating changeable data in printed materials is one of the things that digital print technology allows us to accomplish better than traditional offset printing. The term “variable data” describes the capacity to alter the information or data on various printed materials. The traditional illustration would be using individual mailing list addresses to personalize each magazine or print run advertisement, but variable data is also capable of more.

Contact Us

Because Tru-Art Sign Co Inc prioritizes its clients, we are available to address any inquiries you may have regarding our digital printing capabilities and workflow, as well as to assist you in completing your print project as soon as possible. We can complete jobs quickly both inside and outside of our NYC location, and we can ship your final product across the country or send it via courier anywhere in NYC.

Customers are invited to contact us with any inquiries they may have regarding digital printing or to learn more about how we can assist with a specific project.

[kheelcenter]

Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins was the first female to hold a Presidential cabinet position, as Secretary of Labor during the Roosevelt administration. She was also industrial commissioner for the state of New York for four years, as described in the poster below. Did you know that she was a visiting lecturer at Cornell's ILR School from 1957 to 1965?

The Kheel Center contains a plethora of Perkins' records. See Collections #5017 Guide to the Frances Perkins Correspondence and Memorabilia, #/3047 AV Frances Perkins Lectures, and #5812 Interviews about Frances Perkins for more!

The poster above is from Collection #6227, the Kheel Center Poster Collection. Drawn from a variety of organizations, from unions to employers to government agencies, the Kheel Center poster collections are a great resource for studying the iconography of labor through time. The many ways in which workers were portrayed conveyed a certain image of themselves and offer insights into cultural assumptions and social norms of the time.

To explore the poster collections, check out collection #6227 G by visiting this link: https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL06227g.html.

[croskeys]

Hope Still Abounds

Scripture: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” - Jeremiah 8:20 I saw this scripture passage recently shared on social media and had to acknowledge the poster's virtual despair. After a long, hot Summer and dealing with the stresses that we all are dealing with in one way or another in the Year of our Lord 2023, apparently the poster felt like he could identify with the "weeping prophet" of the Bible, Jeremiah.  It led me to look up the passage to see its context a little more, and I discovered that here, Jeremiah is noting that "The people...lament (v. 20) the length of time that they have suffered under the Babylonian siege (through the Summer and an apparently failed Fall harvest)"(Jeremiah, Fretheim 153-154). As a whole, it's part of a section of Jeremiah where everyone is wrestling with calamity and loss on a national and personal scale and trying to figure out why. The psychologist Dr. Mary Piper, in an opinion piece for The New York Times on the despair that she was feeling at the moment, observed, "Psychology teaches that the best way to cope with suffering is to face it. We must feel it in our bodies, explore its meaning, and then muster our inner resources to move forward. We find ways to balance our despair with joy. We reach out to our friends and family. We find a way to help another person. Action is always an antidote to despair."*  She reminds us of something that has always been a part of traditional Christian practice, serving others.  Perhaps Jesus and the followers who came after him realized the best way to resist letting yourself get lost in the brokenness of the world and the human condition is to be a part of helping your neighbors far and near, being the hands and feet of Christ's love in motion. Don't get me wrong, I am not discounting the direction of doctors and therapists and medication where needed. Those are valuable resources and have helped many people successfully cope with their emotional and mental struggles. But, grounding ourselves in an intentional and ongoing life of service to our friends, community, and world is also needed and a crucial part of the Christian experience. Have you looked at the many ways Eastminster reaches out to help others? From the Bradley Lunch Buddies program to our Prayer Shawl Ministry to working at the Transitions shelter, we have a lot of options and could use your time and energy.  Not all doom and gloom, Jeremiah does go on to later say, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" in Chapter 29, verse 11. Hope still abounds, God's grace still abounds. We need to be a part of that energy and action to help reflect it. Prayer: God, we labor often under the hard news of the day or the struggles we face. Give us a measure of your strength, joy, and energy to do what we can do in the broken world to help others know your love. In Christ's strong name, Amen. *Dr. Mary Piper, "Finding Light in the Darkness," (The New York Times, 6/28/22)

[celeisca]

The Soirée of Her Voyage

Chapter 1:

Agatha Celisca Huang came into the world on October 1, 1999, in the bustling city of Nakayuma, New York. With her unique blend of American-Chinese and Indonesian heritage, she embodied a rich cultural tapestry from the start. Agatha's father, a Chinese-American entrepreneur, and her Indonesian mother, a talented artist, fell in love during a business trip that would forever intertwine their lives.

Growing up in Nakayuma was a blend of experiences. Agatha's days were filled with the vibrancy of American life, coupled with the cherished traditions her parents brought from Indonesia and China. As a curious child, she soaked in the diverse cultures around her, and her heart developed an early passion for dance and makeup.

Life took a turn when Agatha's family decided to move back to Indonesia as she was about to enter junior high school. Adapting to a new environment in Jakarta was both challenging and exciting. She enrolled in Mentari International School, where she forged new friendships and embraced the Indonesian way of life.

Agatha's journey through junior high and high school at Mentari International School was transformative. Her passion for dance and makeup grew even stronger, and she began sharing her talents on various online platforms. Her dual heritage and unique experiences helped her connect with a diverse audience.

With her sights set on a career in communication, Agatha enrolled in the Communication Studies program at Universitas Indonesia. Her double degree program took her to Australia, expanding her horizons further. Exposure to different cultures fueled her creativity and broadened her perspective on content creation.

After completing her studies abroad, Agatha decided to return to Indonesia. Armed with knowledge and experiences from different corners of the world, she embarked on a career as a content creator and influencer. Her engaging content spanned a range of topics, from dancing and makeup tutorials to lifestyle and K-Pop enthusiasm.

Agatha's dedication to her craft didn't go unnoticed. Alongside her thriving content creation journey, she secured a formal role in a corporate office as the Corporate Communication and Content Creator. This role allowed her to merge her passion for communication with her creative flair, contributing to both the company's brand image and her personal growth.

Agatha's journey resonated with many, inspiring her audience to embrace their own unique backgrounds and pursue their passions. She continued to engage with her followers through workshops, collaborations, and events, using her platform to empower others.

Her life was a testament to the beauty of embracing diverse roots and leveraging them to create a meaningful impact. Born in Nakayuma, raised in Jakarta, and educated across continents, she left an indelible mark as a content creator, influencer, and advocate for cultural exchange. Her legacy lived on through her work, inspiring generations to come to celebrate their individuality and connect with the world around them.

Chapter 2:

Agatha's love for K-Pop ran deep. It was a passion she had nurtured since her teenage years, and as she stepped into the world of content creation, her fascination with Korean pop culture took center stage.

Agatha's content creation process was a blend of meticulous planning and spontaneous bursts of creativity. She carefully curated ideas for her videos, from dance covers to makeup looks inspired by K-Pop idols. Her bedroom-turned-studio was adorned with posters of her favorite groups, serving as a backdrop for her energetic dance routines and beauty tutorials.

Each video was a labor of love. Agatha would spend hours perfecting choreography, paying attention to every detail to capture the essence of the songs. For makeup tutorials, she drew inspiration from the bold and unique styles of K-Pop artists, sharing step-by-step guides to help her followers recreate their favorite looks.

Being a K-Pop influencer required Agatha to stay up-to-date with the rapidly evolving industry. She dedicated time each day to watching music videos, variety shows, and interviews to stay informed about her favorite groups. This knowledge not only enriched her content but also allowed her to engage in meaningful discussions with her audience.

During her college years, Agatha noticed a growing interest in K-Pop dance covers among her followers. Many of them admired her dance routines and expressed a desire to learn and create similar content. Recognizing the potential to foster a supportive environment, she took the initiative to start a dance cover community.

Agatha's dance cover community quickly gained traction. Through online platforms and social media, she brought together individuals who shared a passion for K-Pop and dance. The community provided a space for members to learn from one another, share their progress, and collaborate on dance cover projects. Agatha's leadership and welcoming attitude fostered a sense of belonging that attracted dancers of all skill levels and backgrounds.

As the CEO of the dance cover community, Agatha took on the role of mentor and guide. She organized dance workshops, where she broke down choreography step by step, allowing participants to learn at their own pace. She encouraged collaboration among members, pairing dancers with varying strengths to create dynamic and visually appealing dance covers. She also formed several groups where she served as a supervisor and a member of the crew, overseeing the progress of her team.

Beyond the realm of dance, Agatha instilled values of perseverance, teamwork, and self-expression within the community. Members learned that hard work and dedication were paramount to mastering dance routines, and the collaborative nature of the community fostered a sense of unity and shared purpose. Under Agatha's leadership, the dance cover community blossomed into an enthusiastic global network. Members not only improved their dance skills but also formed meaningful connections with like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Agatha's role as a mentor and motivator empowered dancers to wholeheartedly pursue their passions. Despite her busy daily routine, she enthusiastically sought new opportunities in her life, driven by her love for acquiring new knowledge.

[howieabel]

Vladimir Mayakovsky (1930)

At the Top of My voice First Prelude to the Poem

Source: The bedbug and Selected poetry, translated by Max Hayward and George Reavey. Meridian Books, New York, 1960; Transcribed: by Mitch Abidor.

My most respected                             comrades of posterity! Rummaging among                              these days’                                              petrified crap, exploring the twilight of our times, you,       possibly,                     will inquire about me too.

And, possibly, your scholars                                            will declare, with their erudition overwhelming                                                      a swarm of problems; once there lived                         a certain champion of boiled water, and inveterate enemy of raw water.

Professor,              take off your bicycle glasses! I myself will expound                                  those times                                                    and myself.

I, a latrine cleaner                           and water carrier, by the revolution                          mobilized and drafted, went off to the front                               from the aristocratic gardens of poetry -                the capricious wench She planted a delicious garden, the daughter,                  cottage,                            pond                                   and meadow.

Myself a garden I did plant, myself with water sprinkled it. some pour their verse from water cans; others spit water                         from their mouth - the curly Macks,                        the clever jacks - but what the hell’s it all about! There’s no damming al this up - beneath the walls they mandoline: “Tara-tina, tara-tine, tw-a-n-g...” It’s no great honor, then,                                       for my monuments to rise from such roses above the public squares,                                       where consumption coughs, where whores, hooligans and syphilis                                                           walk.

Agitprop              sticks                      in my teeth too, and I’d rather                    compose                                romances for you - more profit in it                         and more charm.

But I        subdued                    myself,                             setting my heel on the throat                  of my own song. Listen,        comrades of posterity, to the agitator                    the rabble-rouser.

Stifling          the torrents of poetry, I’ll skip          the volumes of lyrics; as one alive,                 I’ll address the living. I’ll join you                  in the far communist future, I who am            no Esenin super-hero.

My verse will reach you                                     across the peaks of ages, over the heads                     of governments and poets.

My verse            will reach you not as an arrow                       in a cupid-lyred chase, not as worn penny Reaches a numismatist, not as the light of dead stars reaches you.

My verse             by labor                        will break the mountain chain of years, and will present itself                                 ponderous,                                                crude,                                                       tangible, as an aqueduct,                      by slaves of Rome constructed,                 enters into our days.

When in mounds of books,                                        where verse lies buried, you discover by chance the iron filings of lines, touch them                with respect,                                  as you would some antique                   yet awesome weapon.

It’s no habit of mine                              to caress                                          the ear                                                   with words; a maiden’s ear                      curly-ringed will not crimson                        when flicked by smut.

In parade deploying                              the armies of my pages, I shall inspect                     the regiments in line.

Heavy as lead,                    my verses at attention stand, ready for death                      and for immortal fame.

The poems are rigid,                               pressing muzzle to muzzle their gaping                                  pointed titles.

The favorite                 of all the armed forces the cavalry of witticisms                                      ready to launch a wild hallooing charge, reins its chargers still,                                raising the pointed lances of the rhymes. and all          these troops armed to the teeth, which have flashed by                                  victoriously for twenty years, all these,            to their very last page, I present to you,                        the planet’s proletarian.

The enemy               of the massed working class is my enemy too                         inveterate and of long standing.

Years of trial                    and days of hunger                                                 ordered us to march            under the red flag.

We opened                each volume                                  of Marx as we would open                           the shutters                                            in our own house; but we did not have to read                                          to make up our minds which side to join,                           which side to fight on.

Our dialectics                    were not learned                                             from Hegel. In the roar of battle                             it erupted into verse, when,        under fire,                      the bourgeois decamped as once we ourselves                                had fled                                            from them. Let fame             trudge                     after genius like an inconsolable widow                                         to a funeral march - die then, my verse,                           die like a common soldier, like our men                  who nameless died attacking! I don’t care a spit                          for tons of bronze; I don’t care a spit                           for slimy marble. We’re men of  kind,                             we’ll come to terms about our fame; let our         common monument be socialism              built                    in battle. Men of posterity                         examine the flotsam of dictionaries: out of Lethe                 will bob up                                 the debris of such words as “prostitution,”                       “tuberculosis,”                                         “blockade.” For you,          who are now                            healthy and agile, the poet           with the rough tongue                                            of his posters, has licked away consumptives’ spittle. With the tail of my years behind me,                                                         I begin to resemble those monsters,                      excavated dinosaurs. Comrade life,                    let us                           march faster, march         faster through what’s left                                                of the five-year plan. My verse             has brought me                                   no rubles to spare: no craftsmen have made                                    mahogany chairs for my house. In all conscience,                          I need nothing except         a freshly laundered shirt. When I appear                      before the CCC                                             of the coming                                             bright years, by way of my Bolshevik party card,                                                       I’ll raise above the heads                       of a gang of self-seeking                                                            poets and rogues, all the hundred volumes                                    of my                                            communist-committed books.

[robertreich]

Amazon workers’ astounding win, and how corporate America is trying to take back power

On Friday, Amazon -- America’s wealthiest, most powerful, and fiercest anti-union corporation, with the second-largest workforce in the nation (union-busting Walmart being the largest), lost out to a group of warehouse workers in New York who voted to form a union.

If anyone had any doubts about Amazon’s determination to prevent this from ever happening, its scorched-earth anti-union campaign last fall in its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse should have put those doubts to rest.

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Btw, if you’d like my daily analyses, commentary, and drawings, please subscribe to my free newsletter: robertreich.substack.com

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In New York, Amazon used every tool it had used in Alabama. Many of them are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act but Amazon couldn’t care less. It’s rich enough to pay any fine or bear any public relations hit.

The company has repeatedly fired workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions or who even suggest that workers need a voice.

As its corporate coffers bulge with profits — and its founder and executive chairman practices conspicuous consumption on the scale not seen since the robber barons of the late 19th century — Amazon has become the poster child for 21st-century corporate capitalism run amok.

Much of the credit for Friday’s victory over Amazon goes to Christian Smalls, whom Amazon fired in the spring of 2020 for speaking out about the firm’s failure to protect its warehouse workers from COVID. Smalls refused to back down. He went back and organized a union, with extraordinary skill and tenacity.

Smalls had something else working in his favor, which brings me to Friday’s superb jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report showed that the economy continues to roar back to life from the COVID recession.

With consumer demand soaring, employers are desperate to hire. This has given American workers more bargaining clout than they’ve had in decades. Wages have climbed 5.6 percent over the past year.

The acute demand for workers has bolstered the courage of workers to demand better pay and working conditions from even the most virulently anti-union corporations in America, such as Amazon and Starbucks.

Is this something to worry about? Not at all. American workers haven’t had much of a raise in over four decades. Most of the economy’s gains have gone to the top.

Besides, inflation is running so high that even the 5.6 percent wage gain over the past year is minimal in terms of real purchasing power.

But corporate America believes these wage gains are contributing to inflation. As the New York Times solemnly reported, the wage gains “could heat up price increases."

This is pure rubbish. But unfortunately, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome Powell, believes it. He worries that “the labor market is extremely tight,” and to “an unhealthy level.”

As a result, the Fed is on the way to raising interest rates repeatedly in order to slow the economy and reduce the bargaining leverage of American workers.

Pause here to consider this: The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that corporate profits are at a 70-year high. You read that right. Not since 1952 have corporations done as well as they are now doing.

Across the board, American corporations are flush with cash. Although they are paying higher costs (including higher wages), they’ve still managed to increase their profits. How? They have enough pricing power to pass on those higher costs to consumers, and even add some more for themselves.

When American corporations are overflowing with money like this, why should anyone think that wage gains will heat up price increases, as the Times reports? In a healthy economy, corporations would not be passing on higher costs — including higher wages — to their consumers. They’d be paying the higher wages out of their profits.

But that’s not happening. Corporations are using their record profits to buy back enormous amounts of their own stock to keep their share prices high, instead.

The labor market isn’t “unhealthily” tight, as Jerome Powell asserts; corporations are unhealthily fat. Workers don’t have too much power; corporations do.

The extraordinary win of the workers of Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse is cause for celebration. Let's hope it marks the beginning of a renewal of worker power in America.

Yet the reality is that corporate America doesn’t want to give up any of its record profits to its workers. If it can’t fight off unions directly, it will do so indirectly by blaming inflation on wage increases, and then cheer on the Fed as it slows the economy just enough to eliminate American workers’ new bargaining clout.

[collapsedsquid]

But r/unemployment is an orderly, well-lit place compared to the rest of Reddit, where conversations are typically crude and unmanaged. Its moderators run it with temperance rules: no swearing, no memes, no trolling. “Remember the human,” regulations say. They do not allow posts of phone numbers or emails, lest they be reported as “doxxing” by Reddit administrators. Subscribers must tag their posts with “flair” that delineates what state they’re in, so unofficial experts, often on unemployment themselves — grad students, gas station managers, stadium workers, car salesmen, servers — can weigh in effectively on hyperspecific questions.

Tailored help usually comes within a few hours, sometimes in the form of a hack: In Michigan, dial 991111 to get a real person. In New York, tag the Department of Labor on Twitter. Many people are worried about committing fraud because they got a few hours of work one week. “Can I cash my check?” “What if I sold something on eBay, do I have to report it?” A poster from Texas recently asked if they could resist the government’s order to pay back $3,300 for refusing to return to work in a store that was not providing PPE. The consensus was no.

It’s a serious job being unemployed these days

[my18thcenturysource]

On International Women's Day we celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and economic achievement of women, but I would not call it a happy or quite celebratory holiday. Today we also highlight the current work towards equality, and raise awareness against bias, and this years' theme is #ChooseToChallenge (because a challenged world is a world in alert, so challenge and call out gender bias and discrimination when you see it.)

Today's post (hey! I'm back!) is a little timeline for International Women's Day, for all of us to take a look at what we have achieved, and what the road ahead looks like. So, here we go:

1909 - the Socialist Party of America created the "National Women's Day" held in February 28th in New York City. This was a the original idea of activist Theresa Malkiel.

1910 - The International Socialist Women's Conference takes place in Cophenhagen, Denmark. 100 women from 17 countries agree on an annual Women's Day to promote equal rights (including the vote), but no date was specified.

1911 - International Women's Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19th. On March 25th the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City took the lives of 146 working women, most of them immigrants, this drew attention to working conditions and it became a main focus on the next International Women's Day events. James Oppenheim published a poem in The American Magazine, quoting "bread and roses" from a 1910 speech by Helen Todd calling not only for basic rights and equality, but also for beauty and dignity, creating the "Bread and Roses" slogan that became representative of the women's fight, but also key for the 1912 Lawrence mills strike.

1914 - International Women's Day was held on March 8th for the first time. In London was held a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women's suffrage, and Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested.

1917 - On the last Sunday of February (March 8th on the Gregorian calendar) women in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) began a strike for "bread and piece" for the end of WWI, this demonstration eventually covered the whole city, and days later forcing the Czar to abdicate and women were granted the right to vote by the provisional Government. This marked the start of the Russian Revolution.

1927 - There's a march in Guagzhou, China, of 25,000 women and male supporters. Even though the Women's Day was commemorated in China since 1922, it was until 1949 that it was declared an official holiday and women would be given half a day off.

1936 - Dolores Ibáuri led a women's march in Madrid on the eve of the Spanish Civil War.

1967 - Women's Day is taken up by second-wave feminist, and it stops being perceived as a "communist holiday". It is now a day of activism and its sometimes refered in Europe as "Women's International Day of Struggle".

1975 - International Women's Day is celebrated by the United Nations. During the 70s and 80s, women's groups were joined by leftists and labor organizations in calling for equal pay, economic opportunity, legal rights, reproductive rights, child care, and prevention of violence against women.

1996 - The UN announced the first annual theme: "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future", each year there's a new them and 2021's is "Choose to Challenge".

2007 - Violence sparked in Tehran on March 4th, when police beat hundreds of men and women who were planning a rally, arrested dozens of women and some were released after several days of solitary confinement and interrogation.

There is of course so much more to say about this day, but this post is getting LONG, and of course I added at the bottom links for further learning.

Finally, this is a day to take action. And the marches are not the only option, you can:

Support female-centric charities.

Raise awareness of women's struggles.

Pressure your local government to achieve gender parity.

Share and celebrate women's achievements.

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Learn more:

International Women's Day

Remembering Theresa Serber Malkiel, the forgotten woman behind International Women’s Day, Adrija Roychowdhury, The Indian Express, 8th March 2019.

International Socialist Conferences of Women Workers, Alexandra Kollontai, International Socialist Conferences of Women Workers, 1918.

The roots of International Women’s Day are more radical than you think, Erin Blakemore, National Geographic, 2020.

Death in the Afternoon Podcast, ep 11: The Least Worst Death, 2019. MAJOR CONTENT WARNING this episode talks about the tragedies of 9/11 and the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, and it might be VERY disturbing for some. Please take care while listening if you choose to.

Uncovering the History of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, David von Drehle, The Smithsonian Magazine, 2006. - Again, CONTENT WARNING for fire, mass death, suicide,

Bread and Roses: the origins of a Mount Holyoke tradition, Rachel Nix, 2019.

Bread and Roses poem, by James Oppenheim, 1911.

From the archive, 11 June 1914: Arrest of Miss Sylvia Pankhurst, The Guardian

The Strike that Shook America, Christopher Klein, History.com, 2012.

Russia’s February Revolution Was Led by Women on the March, Carolyn Harris, The Smithsonian Magazine, 2017.

In China, Women’s Day Marches On Despite Decline, Chen Yan, Sixth Tone, 2018.

Memories of Resistance: Women Activists from the Spanish Civil War, Shirley Mangini, Signs (vol. 17, no. 1), 1991.

Iranian Police Clash With Women's Day Protesters, 2007.

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Images from top:

Poster for Women's Day, March 8, 1914, demanding voting rights for women, Karl Maria Stadler.

Female tailors on strike, New York City, February, 1910.

The Bread and Roses strike, 1912.

Women's demonstration for bread and peace – March 8, 1917, Petrograd, Russia

Alexandra Kollontai with Clara Zetkin at International Women's Conference, 1921.

A Tehran University female student protesting against the government of Iran, December 9, 2007, Tehran University in Tehran.