Eric Blanc is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. He blogs at the Substack Labor Politics and is the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big.
The Rochester, New York labor council recently resolved to “prepare for and enact a general strike of all working people” if Trump tries to steal the election. The rest of the labor movement needs to pay attention — labor can help stop an authoritarian power grab if unions start making plans right now.
In 2018, the “Red for Ed” teachers’ strike wave exploded, first in West Virginia, then in Oklahoma, Arizona, and beyond. It shook the foundations of public education and teacher unionism in America — and may play a key role in fighting COVID-19–induced education austerity in the near future.
Trump has shown his cards. He’s determined to cling to office regardless of the election result — with no sign from leading Democrats that they’re willing to put up a fight. That means it’s up to us to defend democracy. And we have to start now.
In response to Mayor Bill de Blasio pushing a public schools reopening despite the serious dangers it would pose, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers is considering their first strike in almost half a century. We talked to union activist and Brooklyn teacher Jia Lee about why a school reopening isn’t safe and what teachers are willing to do to stop it.
Earlier this week, four labor leaders voted against including Medicare for All in the Democratic Party platform — a slap in the face to millions of Americans struggling through an unprecedented pandemic. We need a union movement that fights for all workers, both organized and unorganized.
Business interests are eager to reopen schools so they can get the economy running again and turn a profit. But teachers across the country are insisting that schools should only be reopened when it can be done safely — and they might just go on strike to fight back against the billionaires.
Longshore workers on the East and West Coast are stopping work today to demand an end to racist police murders. We spoke with one of the protest organizers about the action — and why labor must take the lead in the fight against police violence.
Being a socialist won’t stop being hard anytime soon. But if we want to start winning, socialists need to study the recent defeats of Syriza in Greece, Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, and Bernie Sanders in the US, along with the failures of twentieth-century social democracy and the declining relevance of Leninism.
The big story of the Bernie Sanders campaign is not that he lost the race, but that he came so close to winning — and that we fundamentally transformed US politics in the process.
Because self-isolation hurts corporate profits, billionaires are calling to end the too-limited public health measures taken so far by the US government. Unless we take action, Trump might heed their advice — and enormous numbers of people could die as a result.
We deserve a presidential candidate who will eradicate high-stakes testing, champion teachers and public schools, and help free students from the shackles of student debt. Joe Biden is not that candidate.
Andrew Yang ran a principled anti-establishment campaign that highlighted the deep crises afflicting US society. The best way for Yang’s supporters to uphold the campaign’s fighting spirit in 2020 is to elect Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders introduced a new Disability Rights platform this past week that, together with his Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, offers a path to provide all students with a high-quality education, regardless of their background or zip code.
Jonathan Chait says “running Bernie Sanders against Trump would be an act of insanity.” But sticking with the Democratic establishment’s orientation to affluent moderates will spell disaster in 2020, just like it did in 2016 when 4.4 million Obama voters stayed home.
The Rochester, New York, school board is set to lay off 200 educators midway through the school year. We interviewed three students organizing mass walkouts to stop the cuts.
So far in the Democratic primary, unions have been riding the fence. But they could play the decisive factor in Bernie Sanders’s efforts to defeat the Democratic Party establishment, oust Donald Trump, and win transformative social change.
Last night, immigrant rights activists asked Joe Biden to repudiate Obama’s immigration record. Biden said no and then told them to “vote for Trump.” Carlos Rojas, one of the activists, talks to Jacobin about why he spoke out — and why we need an immediate moratorium on deportations.
Los Angeles educators voted last week to endorse Bernie Sanders for president. Arlene Inouye of United Teachers Los Angeles speaks to us about the significance of their endorsement and why Sanders is the best candidate for the working class.
Teachers and support staff are walking out today in Little Rock, Arkansas. It’s yet another show of worker militancy in a deeply red state, focused on the most basic questions of racial justice and school resegregation, teachers’ rights to organize, and democratic control over the school district.
Numerous factors contributed to the recent teachers’ strikes. But it is factually accurate, and strategically important, to acknowledge that Bernie Sanders was one of them.