On Striketober and the Great Resignation
Unity & Struggle holds seasonal meetings where we try to figure out ourselves and/or the world. In February, we looked back on “Striketober” in 2021 and at the ongoing Great Resignation.
interview with New River Workers Power on VA Target strike
The following is an interview with New River Workers Power based in Christiansburg, VA. NRWP has helped to organize a strike of Target workers in the New River Valley area with the demand to terminate an abusive supervisor and for recognition from the company. They have already won their first demand. The interview was conducted
A Houston Wob’s Reflection on the USW Strike
Unions’ power is in decay and lately have been resorting to more creative methods in order to remain relevant. We’ve seen the Democrats putting their money behind the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) Fight For $15 in Houston at the same time attempting to “turn Texas blue.” But this dependency of unions like SEIU and
Chicago’s SEIU Arrest and the Story of a Stock Photo
by JF The arrest of Jose “Zé” Garcia, May Day 2014. Details are still emerging from the apparently SEIU-assisted arrests on May Day in Chicago. According to IWW Chicago, marshals from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and staffers of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) “singled out and physically restrained two activists, leading
Book Review: Lines of Work
by JF In the introduction to Lines of Work (Black Cat Press 2014), Scott Nappalos places the volume of first-person workplace testimonials, many familiar to readers of Recomposition blog and some previously unpublished, in the tradition of the Johnson Forest Tendency and Stan Weir, whose mid-century accounts of American work located, rather triumphantly, the seeds
The Rise of the Fast Food Worker
The following post was written by U&S’s comrade, Will. The following piece is predicated on a series of discussions which have already occurred: 1. “Fast Food Workers Fight for $15 an Hour” – Vice 2. “Fast Food Workers Strike: What Is and What Isn’t the Fight for Fifteen Campaign” – Machete 408 3. “Fast Food Strikes to Massively Expand:
Building a Solidarity Network in Houston
*This post reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Southwest Defense Network as a whole* Last October, a handful of Unity & Struggle members living in Houston, TX, together with other Houston-based organizers, started a solidarity network, the Southwest Defense Network (SWDN). [1] Since then our work
Finding Our Footing on the Union Question
by HiFi & Mazin The current discussion on unions is welcomed, but has so far mostly focused on strategy and tactics around existing unions. Of course, these immediate issues are critical and necessary, including in our own work. However, we want to focus here on mapping out the shape of the terrain. There are a
The League of Revolutionary Black Workers for Militants Today
by Semaj and Tyler Zimmerman We’re reposting an essay written by a couple members of ¡ella pelea!, a group that organized against budget cuts, cuts to ethnic studies, and for open enrollment at UT-Austin from 2009-2011, on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. It fits in with the broader conversations happening now on the union
Our Friends With Benefits: On The Union Question
By Jocelyn Cohn of Unity and Struggle and James Frey Authors’ Note: This piece represents one perspective in Unity and Struggle, and is intended to be part of the ongoing discussion on unions, particularly in response to Advance the Struggle. The authors are concerned with the role of revolutionaries in unions. A second piece will be