#us labor movement

[alwaysalwaysalwaysthesea]

A Few Thoughts for "Independence Day", illustration by William Siegel in the July 1931 New Masses.

(source: marxists.org)

[queerism1969]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When parties fail, movements step up

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Does anyone like the American two party system? The parties are opaque, private organizations, weak institutions that are prone to capture and corruption, and gerrymandering's "safe seats" means that the real election often takes place in the party's smoke-filled rooms, when a sure-thing candidate is selected:

https://doctorow.medium.com/weak-institutions-a26a20927b27

But there doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. For one thing, the two parties are in charge of any reform, and they're in no hurry to put themselves out of business. It's effectively impossible for a third party to gain any serious power in the USA, and that's by design. After the leftist Populists party came within a spitting distance of power in the 1890s, the Dems and Repubs got together and cooked the system, banning fusion voting and erecting other structural barriers.

The Nader and Perot campaigns were doomed from the outset, in other words. Either candidate could have been far more popular than the D and R on the ballot, and they still would have lost. It's how the deck is stacked, and to unstack it, reformers would need to take charge of at least one – and probably both – of the parties.

But that's not cause for surrender – it's a call to action. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Thomas Frank (Listen, Liberal) sets out another locus of power, one with the potential to deliver control over the party to its base: social movements:

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/ordinary-people-by-the-millions

It's been done before. The parties are routinely transformed by power-shifts within their internal coalitions: since 1970, corporate Dems have consistently pushed the party to the right, making it the power of white-collar professionals and relying on working people showing up and marking their ballots with a D because they have "nowhere else to go."

Bill Clinton was the most successful of these corporate raiders, delivering the parts of the Reagan Revolution that Reagan himself could never have managed: dismantling tariffs and bank regulations, passing the crime bill and welfare "reform." He came within a whisper of (partially) privatizing Social Security.

This set in motion the forces that made Trumpism possible: when Dems told deindustrialized workers to "learn to code" and blamed them for the destruction of their communities, it opened a space for Make America Great Again, the (empty) workerist rhetoric of the GOP. The Dems' plan of putting "really smart people" in charge and letting them run things was a (predictable) disaster. "Really smart" isn't the same as "infallible" and really smart people can be spooked or bulled into doing the wrong thing – like Obama "foaming the runways" for the banks with the houses of mortgage holders, and leaving the bankers responsible for the Great Financial Crisis unscathed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

"Really smart people" can't get us out of this mess. Instead, we need the kind of muscular political action – the "whirlwind" – that characterized FDR's New Deal: "complete reformation of the banking industry.. just about every other industry as well. Regulation. Social Security. Public works. Antitrust. Soil conservation."

FDR got there by alienating his former classmates and refusing the go-slow entreaties of his cronies. He got there because there was a mass social movement that made him do it ("I want to do it, now make me do it"):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/i-agree-with-you-i-want-to-do-it-now-make-me-do-it/

Every time in US history where one of the political party duopoly listened to its base, it was because of a mass social movement: the farmers' movement (1890s), labor (1930s), civil rights and antiwar (1960s). As Frank says:

Social movements succeed. They build and they change the intellectual climate and then, when the crisis comes, they make possible things like agrarian reform or the New Deal or the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s.

Today, we see the seeds of those social movements: the new union movement. Black Lives Matter. Neobrandeisians with their "hipster antitrust." These are the movements that are creating "ideas lying around": ideas that, in time of crisis, can move from the fringe to the center in an eyeblink:

https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae

They are setting in motion another transformation of the Democratic Party, from its top-down, "really smart people" model to a bottom-up, people-powered one, kept in check by movements, not party bosses. As Frank says, "They require the mass participation of ordinary people. Without that, I am afraid that nothing is possible."

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/17/popular-front-of-judea/#speaking-frankly

[thoughtportal]

freedom of movement

[astriiformes]

Place your bets on if John Darnielle plays union songs again at the concert in Saint Paul tonight

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In his op-ed for The Guardian, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders propels the American labor conversation forward by arguing for a 20% cut in the standard 40-hour workweek, without any loss in pay.

He points to the 480% increase in worker productivity since 1940, asserting that such gains have mainly enriched corporations while leaving the working class in a perpetual state of struggle.

Sanders' rallying cry resonates with the ongoing initiatives by labor unions, especially the United Auto Workers (UAW), which recently initiated strikes against major automotive companies such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis. The UAW is also pushing for a four-day workweek while preserving the pay for a five-day week, a demand that Sanders supports. This is part of a long-running struggle by unions to balance productivity gains against working hours that has seen little progress over the years as real wages in the auto industry have declined by 17%.

Research backs the concept of a reduced workweek, with a study led by Boston College Professor Juliet Schor indicating that efficiency can increase without requiring workers to cram more tasks into fewer hours.

International examples provide practical confirmation. In France and Norway, shorter workweeks are either in place or under consideration. A U.K. pilot study involving 3,000 workers in over 60 companies demonstrated increased happiness and productivity with a four-day workweek, prompting 92% of the participating companies to adopt the new schedule permanently.

Public opinion in the United States is also aligning with this idea. A Morning Consult survey showed that 87% of employed adults in the U.S. are interested in a four-day workweek, and 82% believe it could work on a broader scale. Likewise, a study by 4 Day Week Global revealed that none of the companies participating in four-day workweek experiments in North America have plans to revert to a traditional five-day week.

Despite these positive indicators, Sanders acknowledges the uphill battle to win these changes. Any benefits for the working class won't be "easily handed over by the corporate elite," he said.

Yet, as automation and technological progress, like the anticipated efficiencies in electric vehicle manufacturing, continue to threaten traditional work structures, they also underscore the feasibility of a reduced workweek.

The synergy between the voice of labor unions, the American working class, international examples and influential policymakers like Sanders makes the vision of a four-day workweek not merely a pipe dream but a realistic, achievable objective that could reshape labor norms for future generations.

[smerzbeliever]

imagine hearing someone say im gonna stop consuming animal products bc i don't think it's my place as a human to be eating stuff dependent on animal labor/suffering and being like thats the most dastardly and evil thing ive ever heard

[academiaipromise]

here’s something i think we all need to get through our heads: as long as the system exists as it does, good tv/film can (and often will) be produced under unethical labor standards. 

there’s this idea i see floating around here a lot that goes something like “look around at all the bad content nowadays! can’t you tell how labor standards have gone downhill?” and i get where that’s coming from. i do. 

but the problem is hollywood as a whole. not enough people still are acknowledging the report that came out last week (jun 23, 2023) that claimed that the animation production behind across the spiderverse was unsustainable and left animators overworked for over two years. spiderverse is a great franchise and means a lot to a lot of different people; we still need to listen to workers who are risking their jobs to expose toxic workplace practices. 

i, like many people, am also absolutely reeling from the announcement of the other two’s cancellation today, specifically that it came out amid an hr investigation into the showrunners based on complaints made by writers and crew. the other two specifically was not only one of the most consistently funny tv comedies, it was also an industry favorite for being an insightful and damning satire of the entertainment industry. so, yes; even the show that clearly knows the problems in the industry was apparently perpetuating issues against its writers and crew. 

and this sucks. i get it. but it’s not just the shows you hate; it’s not just the mcu. it’s the overall system which protects abusers and endorses unethical levels of production, which means more often than not, it affects your favorite content, too. 

[koshercosplay]

labor rights are jewish values

[surgeratesfucko]

i keep seeing various posts arguing basically for anti-anti-americanism, claiming that all negative sentiment towards americans in general (particularly for their economic privileged) is inherently classist, because poor americans exist. first of all, don't you think that the reason why some people hate america is because they just spent the past 30 years getting bombed by american planes, or perhaps because their labor is hyperexpolited because their only option for a job is some american company that pays them pennies to make cheap garbage products that the company sells for cheap to americans (who themselves probably can't afford anything better). and they're probably extremely frustrated by the utter failure of the white american labor movement, which was rendered ineffective because the white american proletariat would rather ally themselves with capital for the material benefits it grants (or granted, things are changing pretty quick in the usa rn hopefully increasing poverty and lowering economic stability will finally foster class consciousness, hopefully!) than ally themselves with indigenous and other non-white labor movements. Anyway, my point is just that people are justified to hate americans. the internet is so americanized that hyperbolic hatred of americans online is an understandable reaction, especially given how little americans seem to understand about their position as part of the labor aristocracy. All I'm asking for is americans to just shut up when people complain about them online, like chill maybe

[gwyoi]

I really don’t want to be catastrophizing but I do feel like history is rhyming. migrants at the boarder are already being treated horribly - Biden asking trump for help is a political play and trump will decline, but it speaks to how similar their approach to the boarder will be. Texas AG asked for the names and health records of people being represented by PFLAG, abortion rights are gone federally and embryos are recognized as “people” . Idaho is already overrun with nazi homesteaders. The war machine doesn’t stop and Biden lied about a ceasefire in Palestine.

[millionmovieproject]

In this episode, Jared & I cover the rapidly-developing news about the growing divest/cease-fire protest movement, the need for union growth & expansion past labor, and the wildly-unpopular rogue moves by the US gov to create conflict around the world & ban TikTok.

[echofromtheabyss]

Pet peeve: Every franchise going into "What If" now

"What Ifs" are a big source of inspiration and NEW material. It's the jumping off point for a person to break out of franchise.

Now franchises have you from cradle to grave.

[nyctarian]

The Teamsters have come to a tentative agreement for a new UPS contract which if the union members vote in its favor will prevent a strike.

As labor journalist Kim Kelly says, it will be interesting to hear what the rank and file members of the union think about the contract, but the tentative contract does include some big wins on some of the issues the union has been most concerned about including air conditioning in vehicles.

Another labor journalist Alex Press notes that the minimum wage for part time workers is four dollars less than what they had been pushing for.

[thoughtportal]

Corporate takeover of the US

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

"It was the labor movement that brought you the holiday weekend." - Sen. Bernie Sanders