#union proud

[wilwheaton]

Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav made $246.6 million; Disney’s Bob Iger made $45.9 million; and Paramount Global CEO’s Bob Bakish made $32 million. These individuals make more money per year than almost any entertainment executive before them. Just a small portion of each major CEO’s annual salary could cover the cost of the guilds’ reasonable structural and financial demands, and yet, they say it’s not possible. How could that be? Because it’s not about the money. It’s about power and perception. Almost none of these CEOs built the companies they run. We are not negotiating with Jack Warner or Walt Disney. We’re not even negotiating with the people who enriched these companies, like producer Robert Evans at Paramount in the 1970s. These CEOs are basically people who just work there—and who have contracts that allow them very large amounts of money. And right now, they don’t want anyone to know that. They don’t want anyone to know that they don’t actually build anything. They don’t want anyone to see them capitulate and bend the knee to any degree by making a deal with the writers and actors who build the product they fund and distribute. They don’t want to reasonably negotiate with these artists, because they think it will make them look weak. They think it will make them look like chumps, make them look simply like the employees of these companies that they are.

Justine Bateman on the Destruction of the Film Business

[iww-gnv]

Play your part in the fight against the bosses and their system! Unionise the fight, join the IWW today wherever you work or live.

IWW.ORG/JOIN

[Image description & plain text: A black graphic with white text that reads, "This Halloween give your boss a fright, join a Union!" Above the text there is an edited version of the IWW logo that includes Halloween clipart like graves and bats. The typed caption below the image reads, "Play your part in the fight against the bosses and their system! Unionise the fight, join the IWW today wherever you work or live." End description.]

[emperornorton47]

[achilleanfemme]

Want to Save American Democracy? Build Civil Society and Popular Institutions.

Many do not know this, but in Fall 2020, I started a Masters in Political Science program and swiftly dropped out. There’s lots of reasons that this attempt at doing graduate-level political science failed, but a primary reason is that I am not interested in simply knowing about politics, a huge passion of mine is doing politics. Those who have attained (or tried to attain) any graduate degree in a social science field know that there’s not much time to do anything outside of your coursework, research, and teaching/TAing requirements. Once I experienced the sheer volume of time that completing such a degree would take, and better understood how abysmal the academic job market is in this country, I decided that I would rather do something else with my time and quit.

During my brief stint in an American Political Institutions class, I did learn that I am an institutionalist. I really love democracy and believe that robust popular democratic institutions, within and outside of the state, are vital to democratic flourishing. What is concerning about this is that, since the start of the neoliberal turn in American politics in the 1970s and 80s, there’s been a dramatic decline in popular participation in civil society (i.e. the part of society comprised of non-state institutions and organizations that bring residents of a particular polity together around common causes across lines of difference). From Labor unions to small-to-medium size parishes and houses of worship, from volunteer organizations and mutual aid societies to bowling clubs and knitting circles, US-Americans are far less likely to participate in civil organizations and institutions, like those I listed, in 2022 than they were in 1972. Even though the USA has always been a weak and limited liberal democracy, US civil society and civil institutions have historically been some of the most robust in the whole world, which has often made up for the lack of social provision and means of popular participation in formal liberal democratic governance. As neoliberal policies emerged, they undermined civil institutions like labor unions, which undermined social democratic policies, which further eroded civil institutions. What we are currently left with is a threadbear social order, mass oppression, immiseration, alienation, and inequality, and a liberal democracy on the brink of total collapse. 

I believe firmly that as socialists, we must build our own institutions of the Left (like the Democratic Socialists of America, Labor Notes, and Haymarket Books) but we must also support, build, and work to transform already existing civil institutions towards more liberatory and egalitarian ends. I am a proud Episcopalian. Not only does the Episcopal liturgy and social Witness really speak to my soul, but I am proud to be a part of a Mainline Protestant Christian denomination that has worked, and continues to work towards racial, gender, economic, and climate justice. We do all these things, with God’s help, through democratic participation at all levels of Church life. In this work, in this way, we are democratically transforming an old institution, that has historically been a safe-place for white US capitalists and aristocrats, into a justice-centered, democratic, popular institution for ordinary people. 

I am also a member of the Texas State Teachers Association, which is affiliated with the National Education Association, a large labor union representing teachers and education workers across the USA. I am genuinely proud to see my union dues come out of my account every month because I know, in my own small way, that I am contributing to the collective efforts of education workers across this country. Together we are organizing to protect our public schools, expand our public education system, and bring about education justice. When I attend a union organizing meeting, or share a meal with my co-workers and chat about what we could do if we had a more democratic, militant, robust union local, I am building on the work of union educators of the past who fought to build and protect our schools for kids like I was, a child who went to well-funded public school from Kindergarten through my Master’s degree (I have a Master’s of Education). 

Both of the examples of civil institutions that I gave, churches and labor unions, also control large amounts of money. Many of these institutions still have mechanisms for democratic oversight and management of these resources, even as the actual exercise of these democratic rights has fallen away. In my view, this creates a window for socialists to engage in these institutions so that we can democratically take control of their monies, buildings, durable assets, and clout and use them towards our project of building a new democratic socialist republic in North America. Moreover, If we are going to break out of our democratic malaise and transform our economy and society into one that democratically works for the popular majority, and not just a tiny, largely white-male affluent elite, then we need to build on the legacy of our movement foreparents who struggled daily in union halls and parish halls, who communed daily around kitchen tables and backyard fires, to build a social fabric that could endure sways in the whims of the ruling elite. 

As I have lived through wave after wave of social crises, political crises, ecological crises during my 26 years on this planet, it has become clear to me that the ruling class is not going to save us. They do not care if we live or die. Therefore we need to do what we can to build civil institutions that can support ordinary people like ourselves and those we love, that can endure for generations to come. Let our legacy be that we built a world where workers are cared for. Let future young radicals know what we know now, that socialists and freedom fighters of the past loved them so much that we fought for a society and a planet where they can live a delightful, free life.

[grumpy-cardigan]

Unions fought for this much. Don’t let those strides be eaten by corporate greed! Support union shops, don’t cross picket lines and if you can, join your local union and get active!

[vyorei]

BASED IRELAND OUT SUPPORTING PALESTINE BY OCCUPYING THE EC OFFICES IN DUBLIN

🇵🇸💜🇮🇪

[possamble]

mickbell would not survive in post-canon melini. melini will be a pro-union kingdom because otherwise chilchuck would come and kill laios with his bare hands. mickbell would either have to abandon kabru and get the hell out of melini or abandon his scabbing and exploiting ways to start paying kuro a decent wage and letting him learn common

[mishapen-moth]

hey folks is it gay to turn you and your transitive best friend invisible and take her for a lil fly over the nightmare forest to try and get some info on it during the absolute rager of a party your friends are throwing (that she started so you would stay) and then kiss in a tree before she skateboards away?

[breadandblankets]

Duke's bat union should extend workers rights to Bruce against Batman, because I think it would be a riot if Duke manages to do what Tim's been trying to do for a decade and get Bruce to take PTO

[rosie-kairi]

Managed to find some old screenshots I took of khux from right before it shut down

I think the only reason I took that first one was because I was proud of getting to 100th in the rankings (it was super early on a sunday after the rankings reset and most normal people weren't awake at that time) Grind never stops 💪

[wilwheaton]

These 10 billionaires are destroying my industry with their greed.

[thequibblingking13]

Forgetting something.

Redo of some pretty old keykid art i did back when i was first sorting out Vivian's character, now featuring more lore and keykids from the homies @thatalien404 and @zonerz!

[pedal-broad]

Some really sick pics of me hanging out with my bff scabby!!!!!

[taishaunas]

THE BOYS | 3.08 “The Instant White-Hot Wild”

[thesorrowoflizards]

listen the mastermind job has flaws but i kind of. love it?

[willtheweirdrat]

just learned that my dad is a union member??? that's why he was borrowing my laptop all the time lately. he was voting in the union's elections in online meetings.