#labour organizer

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"DROWNS MAKING TRIP TO ORGANIZE STRIKE," North Bay Nugget. May 9, 1934. Page 2. ---- Officer of Rouyn Lumber Union Dies When Canoe Overturns ---- Rouyn, May 9. - On their way to the camp of the International Paper Company to organize a strike among log drivers, Albert Deschenes, organizer for the Industrial Lumber Workers Union, was drowned and two companions narrowly escaped with their lives when their canoe capsized in rapids about a quarter of a mile from the junction of the Ottawa and Kenojevis Rivers.

Borrowing a canoe here the trio set out yesterday for the lumber camp. Swollen by spring floods the waters, twenty-feet higher than normal, were particularly dangerous at the rapids where the fatality occurred. When the canoe capsized, a short distance from their starting point, Deschenes struck out for shore. He had almost reached it when he disappeared below the surface. His two companions clung to the boat and an hour later were picked up by a party of Indians.

Owing to the height of the water it was impossible to make any attempt to recover the body.

[devsgames]

Me: "hey game developers, especially AAA ones, are getting laid off en-mass and it's awful for our industry" Gamer: "well I only play INDIE games and the problem with AAA games is they are creatively bankrupt"

Me, slamming my fists on the table like a baby: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS IS ABOUT A BUSINESS PROBLEM PERPETUATED BY CAPITALISM NOT A STATEMENT ON CREATIVE DECISION MAKING"

[tamamita]

Founding father of the settler colonial state seemed like a nice guy

[vaguely-concerned]

lucanis mildly protesting being called a murderer (on the grounds that murderers are hobbyists) is. everything to me

[sturionic]

Your post "Activism is Not Cold-Calling" came across my dash. The point about building community to persuade makes a lot of sense to me.

You mentioned several trainings you've taken and taught as a volunteer labor organizer that discusses the specific nuts and bolts of it. I am wondering if there are resources you'd recommend for someone wanting to add tools to the toolbox. I'm not organizing labor; I'm a parent interested in improving equity in the local schools. But I think at least some of the strategies should transfer well, and I'd like to learn more.

Thanks.

Hi there! Your instinct is very, very correct: a lot of the organizing principles used in union drives transfer well to different forms of organizing. Things like structured organizing conversations and workplace mapping are incredibly useful skills.

Personally, I think the best comprehensive top-down view of effective organizing for a beginner is Jane McAlevey's works. Jane passed away this past summer. We really lost a true titan, an absolute force of nature; but she's left behind a wealth of invaluable materials - books, articles & other writings, interviews, speeches. The first few pages of No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age rewired my brain and made me think about organizing in a whole new way, and I've read that book practically to death, it's barely hanging on lol. You can find McAlevey's works here: https://janemcalevey.com/

Of course, McAlevey's oeuvre is very union-focused and goes deep. If you're just looking for some quicker concepts, Labor Notes has tons of study guides, handouts, and other bite-sized materials that explain organizing concepts. You can buy them on the site (support them if you can!), but they're mostly also pretty easy to find online, or modified versions other people have made. Labor Notes also runs regular online trainings which are excellent.

Lastly, I know you said you're not specifically doing union stuff, but on the off chance anyone reading this is interested in unionizing their workplace: check out Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee. You can contact EWOC directly and they will help you organize your workplace, and they also have their own excellent resources and run regular trainings. You can also get involved by becoming a trained organizer (like me!) and volunteering for them. (EWOC is, of course, American; if any other Canadians are reading this and interested in organizing, feel free to DM me and I can put you in touch with people.) EDIT: I'm seeing people in the notes of my post recommending IWW's materials, and they are so right! Look up "IWW Organizing Manual" and "IWW Organizing Basics." They are great & digestible reads, and IWW has many more resources on their site and archives. (If anyone else has resources to recommend, have at 'er!)

[handweavers]

no matter how many educationals i attend on the subject of marxist political economy i still can't discern whether i'm lumpenprole or a petit bourgeois artisan because i'm both and sometimes flip flop between the two. trying to proletarianize myself but can't because i'm in the reserve army of labour and the only way i can figure out how to make any income outside of disability support is to do the petit bourgeois artisan thing really badly because the market refuses to allow me to join the proletariat. economics is fascinating

[majorbaby]

we lost Jane McAlevey last week to cancer. she was a force in the study and practice of community organizing. if you're burning the candle at both ends organizing around any social cause and finding corruption at every turn, even within your own movement, i can't recommend her book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age enough.

it's great that there's a small union renaissance happening right now online. but winning the right to unionize is just the first step - you have to fight tooth and nail to keep your union. power corrupts and it's not untrue that often union brass are out of touch with their rank and file members.

McAlevey constantly stressed the importance of the one-on-one conversation and listening to people in your immediate community - really, grassroots organizing. if you feel like the only place you can meet like-minded people is online, then that means there's work for us to do offline, in our communities.

[dukeofankh]

God, you know what feels amazing? Organizing your workplace. Going employee to employee and saying "hey, for union negotiations this summer, we can push for more than a 3 percent raise, right? We can push for 15 percent. None of us are doing well financially in one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. Let's fix that."

I've gone from being a depressed wreck over Christmas to being determined and hopeful, even knowing just how hard this fight is going to be. We're probably going to have to strike, but it's that or leave the industry anyway. Might as well do my damnedest first.

[sparklehoard]

elf, star!!!!

Elf: what kind of witch are you?

No idea. Future fortune telling? Dreams? It's whatever. I have enough rocks and candles to multiclass.

Star: currently manifesting anything?

My 2024 visionboard/ bucketlist.

Travel!! Money!!! Getting smarter!!! Working on myself!!!! And having some new fun experiences this year after 11 years of being limited away from opportunities to do things like these list items!

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"It was the IWW [Industrial Workers of the World or Wobblies] and the Finns that initially took the lead in supporting the Russian Revolution, which had profoundly influenced political developments in Finland.

...

According to A.T. Hill, local Wobblies “hailed the Russian Bolshevic [sic] revolution as something that had followed the IWW economic blueprint.” Mass meetings to protest the continued involvement of Canadian armed forces in Russia were organized. A “Friends of Russia” committee, composed of workers representing a number of organizations and trade unions in Port Arthur and Fort William, was also established. And, as Hill remembered, within the columns of the newly created Vapaus newspaper, members of the Finnish community could engage with recent events in Russia and forge closer bonds with fellow Finns working in other lumber camps. Many Wobblies viewed the Russian Revolution in much the same way as other socialist organizations in North America. Its success was seen as an indication that the end of capitalism was at hand and that workers in North America should take heart from the events in Russia. Despite becoming largely inactive in the region during the second half of the First World War, the IWW remained vigorous across the border in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Most notably, the Superior District Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500 continued to agitate and to lead strikes. It was among the lumber workers in Wisconsin and Minnesota and in classes taken at the Work People’s College in Duluth, Minnesota, that Hill spent much of the war.

Drawn to the growing unrest at the Lakehead, Hill moved to Port Arthur in 1917 and dedicated himself to the activities of local Finnish socialists. On behalf of the IWW LWIU [Lumber Workers International Union], Hill and those he recruited toured much of Northwestern Ontario in an attempt to organize workers and drum up subscriptions for Vapaus. Much of the IWW’s attention was focused on the Russell and Newaygo Timber Company and its operations within the district of Thunder Bay. Despite high hopes, in the end Hill was fired (both for his agitation and for conflicts with Lutheran Finnish workers). There now existed within the camps [thanks to the Russian Revolution] a rift between non-socialists and socialists, and debates over the various interpretations of Marxism.

The IWW appealed greatly to immigrant workers in Northwestern Ontario. As Holmer Borg, a Swedish lumber worker and IWW organizer, recalled in 1972:

The IWW organized through its members. Every member was expected to organize, not necessarily by having well organized meetings, [but] simply by talking among workers.

The IWW also tended to focus on the immediate issues that faced workers where they organized. In addition, many recent immigrants were drawn to unions whose organizers actually spoke their language. Most of the other established trade unions tended to send English-speaking organizers who had little or no actual experience in the regions they were visiting or with the workers they were trying to organize.

...

One report by the Dominion Police referred to the Finns in Port Arthur as “anarchists pure and simple.”"

- Michel S. Beaulieu, Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism, and Politics, 1900-35. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011. p. 53-55.

[sanctiphera]

Rewarding terrorism is how Starmer plans to resolve the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians?

By recognising Palestine, he will be legitimising their Hamas leadership. How utterly naive can one be?

Does he have any concern for Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas terrorists? Or is he more concerned about the loss of Labour constituencies to the Muslim vote? It is odd how he dismisses one minority in Israel and backs trans minorities in Britain at the expense of women and children in the UK.

What does he expect with this meaningless gesture to achieve?

Does he have any idea what a Palestinian state would be like? The last thing the Middle East needs is another failed state.

The area loosely known as Palestine and prior to that Judea amongst other names (and part of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries) covers all of what is now Israel along with the Gaza Strip and the so-called West Bank as well as large parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

So, which of those Arab countries is going to surrender some of its territory to a newly formed Palestinian State?

Starmer's lack of self-awareness and political astuteness is breathtaking. He should be asking Egypt and Jordan if they want a terrorist state next to them. The Hamas controlled Gaza is a model for the future, based on corruption and subjugation of its citizens. It’s own people are continually used as human shields after Hamas launched its barbaric attack against the festival goers.

Western leaders are delusional if they think giving statehood to Palestine will solve anything. Palestine don’t want to be an independent state whilst Israel exists. They could have agreed to that decades ago.

The offers in the past have been very generous, but the difficulty lies in the fact that the Palestinians want the land of Israel too.

And let’s not forget the spider in the middle of the web is Iran, led by the malevolent Ayatollahs. They are funding the terrorists groups big time.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil and ILO sign a new agreement to promote labour rights and decent work

The agreement was signed during the XI Annual Evaluation Meeting of the Brazil-ILO Trilateral South-South Cooperation Programme

The Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE), and the International Labour Organization (ILO) signed the South-South Cooperation project "Decent Work and Social Justice" on Monday 14 October 2024, aimed at promoting decent work, social justice, social dialogue, and labour rights in developing countries of the Global South.

The new project with the MTE and ILO will be implemented under the Brazil-ILO South-South Cooperation Programme: Social Justice for the Global South, signed in 2023 by ABC and the ILO to support the promotion of decent work and social justice in Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The programme focuses on eradicating child labour and forced labour, strengthening occupational safety and health (OSH) and labour inspection, promoting gender, racial, and generational equity, fostering equality in the workplace, and advancing social protection.

The new agreement was signed during the 11th Brazil-ILO South-South and Trilateral Cooperation Meeting, held at the Itamaraty Palace, in Brasília. The high-level meeting aimed to discuss the future of the Brazil-ILO South-South Cooperation (SSC) Programme, the main results from 15 years of partnership, and new cooperation prospects. Topics such as wage equality, the care economy, combating child labour, and modern slavery were also debated.

Acting Minister of Labour and Employment, Francisco Macena, ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ana Virgínia Moreira Gomes, Director of the ILO Office for Brazil, Vinícius Pinheiro, and ABC’s Head of Trilateral South-South Cooperation with International Organizations, Cecília Malaguti, opened the event, reinforcing Brazil and the ILO's commitment to promoting decent work and social justice—essential priorities for addressing pressing challenges in the world of work.

Continue reading.

[sigelfire]

Diego Luna supporting the ILO’s Red Card to Child Labour campaign (2013)

[howinkonvenient]

time and time again I'm reminded that so many misinterpret spinel in future (and in general really) and it makes me terribly sad

that girl is critically low on empathy, emotional maturity/regulation, and people skills. she doesn't know how to relate to people and she's often too self centered to really be able to see things from others perspectives. this doesn't make her a bad person but absolutely makes it difficult to be the friend she was made to be

and that never got magically fixed by the time future rolls around! she is still the same person she has always been, changed by her trauma absolutely, but I see so many confuse that change for a certain kind of emotional maturity that she just lacks

she has grown by the time future happens! she's way happier with the diamonds who treat her with the love and respect she so sorely needed that she never really got with pink! because the diamonds are also growing and changing past the people they were before! but she's not at the point where she's ready to process everything that's happened. she's fine and better now (through her own emphasis) despite the fact that that clearly isn't the case

like, I know it gets played for comedy, but what she did to steven and the earth does still eat at her to the point she's willing to blame steven turning into a monster completely on herself (even denying that white had anything to do with it because she feels that bad about it)

and she doesn't give steven any actually helpful advice cause she's just a terrible person for that! and that's fine!! her going through her character arc of choosing to move forward despite feeling like all you can be is a terrible villain because of the pain you've suffered, doesn't magically equip her with the skills to be a good friend lmao. she's still terrible at it actually! and this also isn't a bad thing, she just needs more time and support to develop those skills (things she hasn't acquired in the short time between the movie and future!)

I think the people making these claims often forget that this isn't spinel's story also, it's steven's. steven is far past the point where he wants to spend more time with people he doesn't like for the chance of them doing better (in this case the diamonds and spinel). that isnt to say that they're fixed in the slightest! quite the opposite really! but steven isn't dwelling on them so we don't get to see past the hints here and there in the background

but to say that spinel is fixed? that she's a totally different character and way lamer compared to when she was having a catastrophic meltdown? y'all just weren't paying attention to her

[monstromax]

Happy May Day! (The original labour day)

May this May Day, the international workers day, inspire us more than ever to continue the struggle for the liberty of workers everywhere, especially for the abolition of colonialism, imperialism and systems of exploitation that harm the working class around the world.

Solidarity especially to the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, and to those in the West mobilizing against Israeli bombardment and occupation. As I write this, students at Columbia University have been violently forced off campus after non-violent organized protesting, but organizing continues both in that community and on other university campuses. Stay strong and hold the line!

An injury to one is an injury to all. Keep organizing, in the workplace and in the streets.

[agentmmayy]

march + april rotation

it’s gonna be...... may finally posting the march + april rotation playlist. combining these two months since most of the music i listened to in march was off the previous rotation list!

flowers in my hair - calista garcia: sweet, slow, and syrupy. i love this song and how it feels like a breath of fresh air. it’s achingly romantic and has got me singing along and twirling my hair and kicking my feet. though, at the same time it’s so intimate i feel like i’m intruding 

back for more - nia hendricks: the usual type of slow groove beat i adore that makes me want to dance around with the love of my life. it’s just as sweet as the previous one but it feels... lonely. mournful. i’d be dancing but with a ghost

bodybag - charlotte lawrence: this song is so *clenches fist* i am obsessed with how the body bag fills in for the other person in the relationship and holds her when they can’t or refuse to! the relationship is already dead! she’s holding on! in that liminal space between resurrection and burial! also the vocals in this are insane. my favorite part is ‘she’s at the bowery bar, showed you her paper heart’ and then ‘help me hurt and then i’ll come back’ YEOW

gasp of air - lisa curtis: THIS SONG MAKES ME WANT TO SING AND SCREAM ALONG AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!!!!!!!!! and then the lyrics slapped me across the face. ‘but i’ll stay and such ‘cause i think it’s love enough’ ‘i’m yours enough that i come back’ ‘some water if i’m lucky but i would never ask that much’ ‘what kind of person needs to breathe A HEALTHY ONE I’M SURE BUT THAT’S NOT ME’?????????? 

nothing left to give - BAILEN: ‘i wanna live i’m sick of just trying to survive’ *looks into the camera* anyway. obsessed with this band and how weird this song sounds 

kilimanjaro - dolores forever: this song and the next have me asking how songs can be this good. like. is it crack? is that what they put in these?? the music and the vocals are EVERYTHING it’s unlike anything i’ve heard recently and i’m digging it. then the harmonies?? and the lyrics???? ‘a thousand shards of glass from your silver tongue got me like a shot gun’ the way ‘i was young. you were pure ice and snow’ IS SUNG?????? WTF

labour - paris paloma: this has been my hype song for the past few weeks. the intensity of it still continues to blow my mind. it’s unapologetic and awful. it’s incredible. i felt every lyric in my gut. i don’t want to over explain it since i can’t do the song justice but it’s so brutally honest in describing and dismantling traditional roles placed upon women and girls. the entirety of it is like poking at a wound that never closes, a wound that’s been gaping and bleeding for centuries and it makes me so angry. the visceral reaction i had to the lyric ‘if we had a daughter’ girl i- ouuuuugh. i got sick to my stomach. i was screaming crying throwing up etc etc. anyway this song is a masterpiece. still haven’t recovered from it. also it’s a fucking bop. 

bad blood - trousdale: another banger for the books!! trousdale always delivers these perfect harmonies and this time it’s a fantastic, bitter song but that’s not the only element! there’s indifference and confusion and acceptance! there’s healing! and the repetition of anyway *patcha holding earbuds meme* perfection

all the love - katie gregson-macleod: katie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how am i supposed to live laugh love in these conditions!!!!!!!! this one is SO SAD. i ache each time i listen to it. it doesn’t apply to romantic love but all other types of love and what happens when you lose it and how you deal with that loss. the grief is so thick it’s almost suffocating but as always the way she sings is enough for it to not be overwhelming. every lyric hits but the combination of her voice with ‘but i’d rather do that in bed alone’ is my favorite  

BONUS: here are a few stray songs that didn’t quite fit in the narrative but i wanted to share them anyway :)

far and wide - WILDES: doesn’t quite fit the narrative, but it’s a good follow up to all the love. it’s toned down more and easier to get lost in, but still woven with the running strand of grief that makes it sorrowful. once again, back at it with the yearning 

ava - famy: this song had me by the throat the first time i heard it in teen wolf and it still does. chewing glass over the switch between ‘this world is primal’ + ‘this world is rabid’ to ‘this world is pure’ + ‘this world is learning’  and ‘my conscious burning, my beastly flaw’