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This interdisciplinary page’s main focus is trade unions, although not entirely. Other forms of worker organization and the strategies, tactics, and skills required to advance it, both current and historical, are also relevant here.
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Bill Fletcher, Jr and Stephen Lerner on Bill Moyers
Current Unionism in Crisis
Can unions rebound and once again act strongly in the interest of ordinary workers? Bill Moyers talks to two people who can best answer the question: Stephen Lerner and Bill Fletcher, Jr. The architect of the SEIU’s Justice for Janitors movement, Lerner directed SEIU’s private equity project, which worked to expose a Wall Street feeding frenzy that left the working class in a state of catastrophe. Fletcher took his Harvard degree to the Massachusetts shipyards and worked as a welder before becoming a labor activist. He served as Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO and is the author of the recent book ‘They’re Bankrupting Us!’ and 20 Other Myths about Unions.
We see the rising number of strikes today as a sign that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift.
The Wobblies – A Full Documentary
America’s Home-Grown Anarcho-Syndicalism
The Wobblies provides an overview of the rise and fall of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), complete with archival footage, loads of interviews, Wobbly art and songs. The film was made in 1979. This 1979 documentary established a new, primary-research modus for historical nonfiction—no narrator, no authorial perspective, just original documents and witnesses—but its subject matter was, and still is its most radical characteristic. By the ’70s, American culture had been made to forget that the Industrial Workers of the World had ever existed, just as in the century’s first decades, the segregated union utopia was condemned, brutalized, legislated against, campaigned against, and demonized. Today, things haven’t changed much—Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird’s film stands among a scant handful of books detailing the labor movement’s astonishing power and growth, its newspapers and songs and sheer membership, as well as the sickening history of suppression, murder, and criminal injustice that was brought to bear upon it..
How to Form or Join a Union
Resource Blog of the AFL-CIO
Working people from all walks of life join together in unions to obtain a voice at work. Union members have a say about pay, benefits, working conditions, and how their jobs get done. If you do not have a union at your job, find out more about how to form one. Today, more people are forming unions on the job than at any time in recent history. You can be one of them! Includes steps to get you started and how to contact a union organizer.
Labor Union History Series: 6 videos
From the Early Guilds to PATCO, and the Present Day. This video series documents labor unions’ history in the United States.
Salt of the Earth The blacklisted classic film of labor history and much more
Salt of the Earth (1954) is an American drama film written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico. The Hollywood establishment had blacklisted all of them due to their alleged involvement in communist politics. The film is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view. Its plot centers on a long and difficult strike, based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico. In the film, the company is identified as “Delaware Zinc,” and the setting is “Zinctown, New Mexico.” The film shows how the miners, the company, and the police react during the strike. In the neorealist style, the producers and director used actual miners and their families as actors in the film…Note by Matt Berkelhammer, 1.5 hours.
Building On-The-Job Organizing Councils and Networks
CCDS’s Paul Krehbiel conducted a workshop at the 2012 Labor Notes Conference in Detroit. The account is accessed by clicking the title above. Krehbiel draws heavily from his own experience as a union organizer. For a longer series of connected articles on Shop Steward councils, go HERE.
Global Studies
Global Studies is a fast-growing cross-disciplinary field. It’s brought into being by the radical and rapid growth of global capital, global markets and a worldwide division of labor and production that in turn has an impact on politics, society and culture
Dialectics of Globalization
A one-hour video lecture at the Brecht forum in NYC by Jerry Harris, DeVry University, on the rise of the transnational capitalist class, and the conflicts it causes
What Is Globalization?
A Brief Introduction
An 8-minute video from Wissenwerte that serves as an excellent introduction to a class discussion
The Future of Globalization: Neo-Fascism or the Green New Deal
A one-hour lecture by Jerry Harris, which takes a deep look at how the climate crisis is cause change in global elites.
Access Here
Why is the Far-Right Rising Globally? Walden Bello, author of “Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far-Right,” argues that the far-right is in ascendancy at the moment not only in reaction to the failures of neoliberalism, but also because of the failures of liberal democracy. Two 20 minutes videos.
Paul Krugman: Reflections on Globalization
An 80-minute lecture by the nobel-prize-winning Keynesian economist comparing today’s global markets and tradem with those of the past
Edward Said on Orientalism
Edward Said’s book ORIENTALISM has been profoundly influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this engaging (and lavishly illustrated) interview he talks about the context within which the book was conceived, its main themes and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of “the Orient.” Said argues that the Western (especially American) understanding of the Middle East as a place full of villains and terrorists ruled by Islamic fundamentalism produces a deeply distorted image of the diversity and complexity of millions of Arab peoples. 40 minute video. Director: Sut Jhally, 1998.
The Maidan Uprising and Civil War in the Ukraine
Volodymyr Ishchenko, a sociologist and leftist commentator, presents his perspective on the Ukrainian Maidan and the ongoing civil war. This video talk raises questions of revolution, nationalism, fascism, imperialism and the strategy which has been raised in political and academic discussions in and around the Ukraine. 55 Minutes. ACCESS HERE
Inside Job: Documentary on Global Finance
Narrated by Matt Damon, this 1:45 hour film gives a comprehensive overview for financialization and the wreckage it left in countries around the world.
Samir Amin: Global Shifts over Six DecadesThree once-hour video lectures. Professor Samir Amin, who died in 2018, reviews the Deployment of Bandung, Neoliberalism vs Bandung, and the current Second Wave Rise of the Global South. Professor Samir Amin is one of the most prominent theorists of the political economy of development and global accumulation as well as one of the best-known analysts of Arab and African economies. ANOTHER LECTURE. ‘The Coming War on Capitalism’ Electoral representative democracy has surrendered its credibility. Oligarchies are everywhere and neo-Fascist parties are on the rise once again. Wealth continues to accumulate only to the wealthiest. How do we escape the quandary the world now finds itself in? GO HERE
Access Here
Globalism, the Nation-State and Democracy
Open University of the Left, November 19, 2011, Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Jerry Harris, 90 minute lecture with Q&A; on the Relationship between Nation-States and Democracy
The End of Poverty?
Activist filmmaker Philippe Diaz examines the history and impact of economic inequality in the third world in the prize-winning documentary ‘The End of Poverty?’ Diaz traces the growth of global poverty back to colonization in the 15th century, and features interviews with a number of economists, sociologists, and historians who explain how poverty is the clear consequence of free-market economic policies that allow powerful nations to exploit poorer countries for their assets and keep money in the hands of the wealthy rather than distributing it more equally. 105 minutes.
The Voices of China’s Workers?
In the ongoing debate about globalization, what’s been missing is the voices of workers — the millions of people who migrate to factories in China and other emerging countries to make goods sold all over the world. Reporter Leslie T. Chang sought out women who work in one of China’s booming megacities, and tells their stories. 15 minutes. Great discussion starter
Understanding the Rise of China
Understanding the Rise of China: Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of “When China Rules the World,” he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become
[/remix]
Global Studies
Global Studies is a fast-growing cross-disciplinary field. It’s brought into being by the radical and rapid growth of global capital, global markets and a worldwide division of labor and production that in turn has an impact on politics, society and culture
Dialectics of Globalization
A one-hour video lecture at the Brecht forum in NYC by Jerry Harris, DeVry University, on the rise of the transnational capitalist class, and the conflicts it causes
What Is Globalization?
A Brief Introduction
An 8-minute video from Wissenwerte that serves as an excellent introduction to a class discussion
The Future of Globalization: Neo-Fascism or the Green New Deal
A one-hour lecture by Jerry Harris, which takes a deep look at how the climate crisis is cause change in global elites.
Access HereWhy is the Far-Right Rising Globally? Walden Bello, author of “Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far-Right,” argues that the far-right is in ascendancy at the moment not only in reaction to the failures of neoliberalism, but also because of the failures of liberal democracy. Two 20 minutes videos.
Paul Krugman: Reflections on Globalization
An 80-minute lecture by the nobel-prize-winning Keynesian economist comparing today’s global markets and tradem with those of the past
Edward Said on Orientalism
Edward Said’s book ORIENTALISM has been profoundly influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this engaging (and lavishly illustrated) interview he talks about the context within which the book was conceived, its main themes and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of “the Orient.” Said argues that the Western (especially American) understanding of the Middle East as a place full of villains and terrorists ruled by Islamic fundamentalism produces a deeply distorted image of the diversity and complexity of millions of Arab peoples. 40 minute video. Director: Sut Jhally, 1998.
The Maidan Uprising and Civil War in the Ukraine
Volodymyr Ishchenko, a sociologist and leftist commentator, presents his perspective on the Ukrainian Maidan and the ongoing civil war. This video talk raises questions of revolution, nationalism, fascism, imperialism and the strategy which has been raised in political and academic discussions in and around the Ukraine. 55 Minutes. ACCESS HERE
Inside Job: Documentary on Global Finance
Narrated by Matt Damon, this 1:45 hour film gives a comprehensive overview for financialization and the wreckage it left in countries around the world.
Samir Amin: Global Shifts over Six DecadesThree once-hour video lectures. Professor Samir Amin, who died in 2018, reviews the Deployment of Bandung, Neoliberalism vs Bandung, and the current Second Wave Rise of the Global South. Professor Samir Amin is one of the most prominent theorists of the political economy of development and global accumulation as well as one of the best-known analysts of Arab and African economies. ANOTHER LECTURE. ‘The Coming War on Capitalism’ Electoral representative democracy has surrendered its credibility. Oligarchies are everywhere and neo-Fascist parties are on the rise once again. Wealth continues to accumulate only to the wealthiest. How do we escape the quandary the world now finds itself in? GO HERE
Access Here
Globalism, the Nation-State and Democracy
Open University of the Left, November 19, 2011, Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Jerry Harris, 90 minute lecture with Q&A; on the Relationship between Nation-States and Democracy
The End of Poverty?
Activist filmmaker Philippe Diaz examines the history and impact of economic inequality in the third world in the prize-winning documentary ‘The End of Poverty?’ Diaz traces the growth of global poverty back to colonization in the 15th century, and features interviews with a number of economists, sociologists, and historians who explain how poverty is the clear consequence of free-market economic policies that allow powerful nations to exploit poorer countries for their assets and keep money in the hands of the wealthy rather than distributing it more equally. 105 minutes.
The Voices of China’s Workers?
In the ongoing debate about globalization, what’s been missing is the voices of workers — the millions of people who migrate to factories in China and other emerging countries to make goods sold all over the world. Reporter Leslie T. Chang sought out women who work in one of China’s booming megacities, and tells their stories. 15 minutes. Great discussion starter
Understanding the Rise of China
Understanding the Rise of China: Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of “When China Rules the World,” he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become
[/remix]