“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

Labor for Palestine was launched in April 2004 by New York City Labor Against the War and Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition to reclaim the legacy of working class solidarity with Palestine in the United States, as reflected in groundbreaking statements by the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in 1969, and wildcat strikes against the United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership’s support for Israel in 1973. In this episode, we spoke with Labor For Palestine organ

David Riemer is author of Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0. He is also the author of The Prisoners of Welfare: Liberating America's Poor from Unemployment and Low Wages. David is a Senior Fellow at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and Senior Advisor for Social Security Works. David’s service during the past four decades has ranged from preparing city and state budgets to advancing major reform in state and national employment, income

Chris Blackwood is co-founder of Grassroots Comedy DC (GCDC), which sits at the crossroads of comedy and advocacy, to make humans laugh while improving humanity, with the ultimate goal to use comedy to support local nonprofits in their mission to make DC (and the world) a better place for all. We discuss: How Chris first got interested in stand-up and sketch comedy and his biggest comedic influences; What is Grassroots Comedy DC; The role of a comedian in society; and Grassro

Ako Essan Emile is from Cote d’Ivoire and is currently based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a Senior Project Manager for Search For Common Ground. Ako was a 2019 Obama Foundation Leader for Africa. He was also a 2019 Institute for Economics and Peace Ambassador, and a 2015 Young African Leaders Initiative Washington Fellow. I met Ako around the 2015 elections in Cote d’Ivoire to document Ako’s work around a community radio station promoting peaceful messages ah

Brian Carome is Chief Executive Officer of Street Sense Media. Street Sense produces journalism, film, theater, photography, audio, illustration, and more, all for the purpose of providing economic opportunity for and elevating the voices of people experiencing homelessness. The mission of Street Sense is to end homelessness in the Washington, D.C. area by empowering people in need with the skills, tools, and confidence to succeed, using a range of media platforms to raise aw

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. He is an author of twelve books and his latest book is called The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy. He was a founder of the Economic Policy Institute and serves on its Board and Executive Committee. His previous positions have included national staff writer and columnist on The Washington Post, chief investigator of the U.S. Senate Bank

Dr. James C. Benton is the Director of the Race and Economic Empowerment Project at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We highlight a multi-day virtual conference open to the public scheduled starting this Wednesday, April 28 to Saturday, May 1st called Constructing a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Empowering the Post-Pandemic Working Class. Sign up here: https://lwp.georgetown.edu/virtual-gathering-constructing-a-new-so

Overview of Down on James Street James Street is alive with the sound of jazz! In 1930‘s Pittsburgh, Dorothy wants to dance the Lindy Hop. She finds the perfect partner in a young boy named George. They are having the time of their life…until the police storm the dance hall and shut it down for interracial dancing...with their bully clubs. Dorothy has faced racial prejudice all her life, and she’s not giving up on the dance, while George comes face to face with his own white

“The part both in the book and the movie that always meant the most to me is the part where he's whacking away at that typewriter,” says Sayles. “I actually had an electric typewriter; it was the first thing I ever bought with my own money from shoveling driveways in the winter and mowing lawns and things like that. I had a whole wall papered with rejection slips.” John Sayles - Author and Director Chris Garlock talks with director (Matewan, 8 Men Out) and novelist (Union Due

“Roosevelt came into office in 1933...unemployment is getting up in the direction of 25%...so you have basically every element of the united states economy is broken at this point and this global catastrophe has seen the rise of right-wing parties throughout the world and particularly in Europe and of course most notably in Germany where Adolf Hitler will become chancellor during this period between the election and inauguration.” Dr. Eric Rauchway is author of Why The New De

“The private equity model is inherently at odds with providing good quality patient care and providing good jobs.” Excerpt Welcome to the Harmony of Interest series where we explore ideas that positively shape our world. For this recording, we are focusing on Private Equity’s role in the U.S. healthcare system. Joining me from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project is Virginia Rodino, who is the Director Of Communications, and Eileen O'Grady, Director of Healthcare Research.

“The private sector will never be able to absorb every worker who wants a job, good times or bad times, it'll never happen. So my theory and the theory of my colleagues of the new deal descendants believe that the government has to be the employer of last resort and that's why the jobs programs are such an important part of Biden's administration.” Welcome to the Harmony of Interest series where we explore ideas that positively shape our world. Dr. June Hopkins is author of H

“I started doing some research and I learned about the gender pay gap and the fact that black women are paid significantly less money for the same work...estimates in the $900,000 range of black women losing over the course of a 35-year career.” Chandra Thomas Whitfield is host and producer of In The Gap podcast with episodes featuring everyday Black women and experts sharing their personal experiences on how the gender pay gap, pay discrimination and systemic inequality affe