Mother Jones is one of my heroes.

“Apartheid used racial discrimination as an instrument to maintain the cheap labor system. So the core of apartheid was a cheap labor system, based on black exploitation.” Jay Naidoo is a South African anti-apartheid activist, trade unionist, and author. Jay served as the first general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions from 1985 to 1993. Following South Africa's transition to democracy in the early 1990s, Jay served as a cabinet minister under the late P

Excerpt from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps You're all pretty much fucked. They got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credit: CMO, CDOs, SIVs, ABS… So Mr. Banker starts leveraging his interest 50 to 1, with your money because he could. 40% of all American corporate profits came from financial services, not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public. The mother of all evil is speculation, leveraged debt, borrowing to the hilt

“A distillation of my 30 years mentoring and editing authors of all kinds, this little book will show you how to tell your story in tight, addictive prose.” Veteran nurse Timothy Sheard is a writer, publisher, mentor to writers and union organizer with the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1-9-8-1. Timothy has written 9 mystery novels featuring hospital custodian-shop steward Lenny Moss, 2 stand alone crime novels, and he is the founder of Hard Ball Press to help working clas

"You can rally around those people and say, 'No more killing of people through the slow crucifixions of low wage work, union busting, and lack of healthcare.'” Matt Bernico recently published an article in Sojourners Magazine titled RECENT UNION WINS MEAN IT’S TIME FOR MORE ORGANIZED RELIGION. On this Easter Weekend, I needed to learn more. We discuss how Jesus belongs to a particular class of people in history called the crucified people; The powers and principalities using

We continue to explore ways in which if advocates and workers themselves are part of the design and control of platforms...

In The Future We Need, Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta bring a novel perspective to building worker power and what labor organizing could look like in the future, suggesting ways to evolve collective bargaining to match the needs of modern people—not only changing their wages and working conditions, but being able to govern over more aspects of their lives. Weaving together stories of real working people, Smiley and Gupta position the struggle to build collective bargaining pow

"When I arrived in Thailand, I was an illegal migrant worker. But even though I work in a factory, I read the news every day. I read about the minimum wage. I read about eight hour working hours and how much workers should get paid for overtime." Aung Kyaw, Co-Founder of Thailand's Migrant Worker Rights Network Aung Kyaw is one of the founders and longtime lead organizers of the Migrant Worker Rights Network, a membership-based organization for migrant workers from Myanmar re

An ethical businessperson helps us understand alternatives to the exploitative gig model. We ask: if we keep humans in the loop, can tech in the domestic and care sector be an opportunity rather than a curse? Guests: Aaron Seyedian, Well-Paid Maids; Sayem, domestic worker About The Gig is about the women and men who work in the so-called 'gig economy' worldwide. They find work through online platforms, and will tell us why we all need to be concerned about the real future o

We go to India and Thailand to talk about intimate personal care services that take place in people's homes. Advocates and researchers explain how technology is affecting personal care workers who are already low wage, precarious and exploited. Clients expect 'emotional labor' from these women but there are big risks of gender-based violence that platforms may exacerbate. Guests: Kriangsak Teerawitkajorn, Just Economy and Labour Institute (JELI); Khawla Zainab, IT for Change

We fast forward from past to future, speaking with two technologists, one based in New York and the other in Barcelona, Spain about how new

Full Interview Evan Papp discusses the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War with the American System Network. This was recorded in September 2021, shortly after Evan produced a series on the Battle of Blair Mountain for the 100 year anniversary. You can hear the original recording at American System here. Union Solidarity Forever! Additional Content About the Battle of Blair Mountain Voices from the Centennial March to Blair Mountain - Organized by the U

"Full employment is the foundation of a just economy.The most urgent priority for domestic economic policy is the creation of new jobs with adequate pay and decent working conditions." In Episode 5, we discuss Economic Justice for All, which is the pastoral letter promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1986. The letter addresses the precarity of Americans living within the U.S. economy and is framed by the values of Catholic social teaching and thu

“So why did we want to recreate this March? Because we are bound and determined that the history of our forefathers will not be taken away from us by any rich person or any government.” Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) One hundred years ago, in a rural mountainous stretch in middle America, a violent labor uprising took place, a battle of good versus evil, rebellion against wage slavery, a fight for freedom against tyranny -- yet this hist

“There is another America. Remember it. Those miners died for you. You should at least know who they were. And then let's all follow in their footsteps. Long live the multiracial uprising in the hills of Appalachia in 1921. Long live the Battle of Blair Mountain.” David Rovics U.S. Labor Day weekend 2021 marks the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was part of the West Virginia Mine Wars. The battle was the largest armed insurrection in the U.S.

“So the idea was to recruit basically a third black miners, a third immigrant, and a third native white and cramp them all together and they'll fight amongst each other and that way they'll be less likely to unionize. "And it didn't work and the reason it didn't work, the miners themselves were able to actually overcome those barriers...and that helped foster an attitude in which people were able to put aside their differences...to at least overcome their prejudices enough to

“The world works better when you try to understand first and then be understood. What I found throughout this book was that if I reduced it to language and I reduced it to the the thing that exists between us...I think that the empathy component of this was very instrumental. And I think if everyone just tried to be someone else and to see them as someone who's having a problem the world would be a much better place.” —Dylan James Brock “Roosevelt, Michigan is a beautifully h

Emmet Penney is a writer, editor, and educator and is co-host of Ex.haust Podcast that plumbs the depths of history, culture, and philosophy to understand why it is that despite calamities and rapid change nothing feels possible anymore. We center the conversation around Emmet’s article Nuclear Power Plants: Our Industrial Cathedrals, which was recently published in the American Conservative. In this conversation, we discuss: Emmet’s path to embracing nuclear energy; His arti

Mother Jones, a north star for us all. Mary G. Harris was born August 1st, 1837 in Cork, Ireland. In 1847, the Irish faced starvation from a potato blight caused by a British feudal economic policy of monocropping. Her family immigrated to North America as part of one of the greatest mass exoduses from a single island in history. Upon arriving in Toronto, the Harris family faced discrimination due to their immigrant status as well as their Catholic faith and Irish heritage. A

Jake Burdett is a progressive activist and is the former Columbia Democratic Club President in Maryland. He is also a former Amazon warehouse worker. In this conversation, we discuss: How he made headlines as a student at Salisbury University, when U.S. House of Representative Andy Harris supported jailing Jake for up to 10 years for live-streaming a protest at Harris’ office; His time working in an Amazon warehouse outside Baltimore; and How he became politically active in M