Unions

The limits of progressive unionism

The politics of the Chicago Teachers Union's April 1, 2016 strike

May 3, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION (CTU)—American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 1 – conducted an unprecedented, bold, and possibly illegal one-day strike on Friday, April 1, 2016. The strike was initially called to protest threatened cuts in pay during contract negotiations and to send a message: “Continue like this and we will strike!” The CTU leaders changed that focus in the week preceding the strike; by strike day, it became a strike for increased state funding for education and all social services. [Read More]

Unionism, austerity, and the Left

May 6, 2011 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LAST NOVEMBER PLATYPUS organized a teach-in led by Sam Gindin of the Canadian Auto Workers on “Public Sector Unionism, Austerity and the Left” at York University in Toronto. An audio and video recording is available above. What follows is an edited version of the interview Andony Melathopoulos of Platypus conducted with Gindin as a follow up to the teach-in. Andony Melathopoulos: Clearly these are not very good times for public sector unions, not only in Canada but worldwide. [Read More]

Canada Canadian Auto Workers Sam Gindin Unions Austerity

Against the status quo

January 8, 2010 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Despite unrelenting state repression, there have been rumblings throughout the 2000s of renewed labor organizing inside the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). One result of this upsurge in labor organizing was the May 2005 re-founding of the Syndicate of Workers of the United Bus Company of Tehran and Suburbs, a union that has a long history, albeit one that was interrupted by the 1979 “Revolution,” after which the union was repressed. [Read More]

Iran Homayoun Pourzad Unions

Left behind

The working class in the crisis

July 1, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON APRIL 23, 2009, a panel discussion titled Left Behind: The Working Class In The Crisis was held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The panelists were Abraham Mwaura of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, who has worked as an organizer at the Republic Windows and Doors Factory; Aaron Hughes, representative at the International Labor Conference, Arbil, Iraq, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War; James Thindwa, Executive Director of Chicago Jobs with Justice; and Chuck Hendricks, an organizer for the labor union UNITE HERE. [Read More]

Exchanges History of the Left Labor Left Behind Unions Working class

The necessity of leadership

December 1, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

TO CHANGE THE WORLD, we need a movement. This movement must be made up of millions of people and thousands of organizations. These organizations must build and push the movement forward. How do we get to this point? We have to start with leadership. From 12 to 155 As a union organizer, I train workers to lead their shop floor and industry wide struggles. In the case of my union, we call the leaders in the shops “committee members. [Read More]

Activism Labor Labor movement Leadership Movement Organization Power Reflections Unions Workers

Yesterday, I was an anarchist

April 1, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view. —Mao Tse-Tung I JUST TURNED THIRTY. Fifteen years on the Left – that’s half my lifetime now and what it means to me has changed consistently over the years: from punk rock kid with a mohawk and tattoos on my ribs and shoulders to a union leader with a mortgage and kid and the responsibility of thousands of workers on my shoulders. [Read More]

Anarchism Labor Labor movement Leadership Movement Unions Workers Reflections

Ba'athism and the history of the Left in Iraq

Violence and politics

March 1, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

SINCE THE 1960s the saturation of brutality and violence in Iraq has caused considerable confusion among Leftists in regards to both its political meaning and causes. One cannot fully understand the character of Saddam Hussein’s Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party without taking into account that it achieved political power by systematically killing off the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and quelling other political dissent with acts of extreme cruelty. The eight year battle of attrition instigated by Hussein, known as the Iran-Iraq War, caused over half a million Iraqi deaths, and the ethnic cleansing campaigns directed against the Kurds resulted in countless more. [Read More]