Category: Power Building
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How organizers are addressing sexual violence in movement spaces
Within movements, there is sub-movement to address sexual harm in organizing spaces. Many people who have done this work, including Peters-Golden, say a culture of putting the cause above oneself, or not wanting to make the movement look bad, results in movements becoming spaces rife with abuse.
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What’s it going to take to get to mass strikes?
A strike led by activists can look energetic and inspiring, but it will rarely be durable. A strike led by leaders is slower to launch, harder to coordinate, and far more powerful because it rests on deeper relationships and trusts.
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Police States Are Terrifying, But They Are Brittle. I Witnessed This in Tunisia.
Before the fall of President Ben Ali, people in Tunisia faced a situation even more difficult than the conditions that have descended on the U.S. today. For this reason, engaging with the history of the uprising that occurred 15 years ago in Tunisia can be a beckoning whisper in U.S. ears conveying how quickly things…
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How civil service workers are fighting Newsom’s return to office order
As many employers have forced workers back into offices since declaring the COVID-19 pandemic over, California’s unionized public servants successfully bucked the trend, at least for now.
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Vietnam, Algeria, Palestine: Passing on the torch of the anti-colonial struggle
It is essential that we rediscover the revolutionary heritage of the Arab world, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Global South, as recorded in the deeds and words of great minds like George Habash, Mahdi Amel, Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Walter Rodney, Ghassan Kanafani, Samir Amin, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and Mao…
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Giving a voice to the Venezuelan people
Admin’s note: This article is from 2019, nearly 7 years ago. The situation has changed in many ways, but much also remains the same, hence the republication. María Corina Machado now heads the US-backed neoliberal opposition, although she is far from the most popular opposition figure in Venezuela, even on the right. The stance of…
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On Contesting Populism
Cultural similarities such as nationality, dress, composure, vocabulary, and music override income, employment, health, education, and physical safety as the basis for coming together. Populist movements are therefore always cross-class endeavors. On the radical left, our small-scale populism has us hemmed in with little to no presence beyond university campuses and subcultural radical scenes (punk,…
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18 Tips from a Veteran Union Organizer
Workers need bread, but they need roses too. Labor unions generally focus on negotiating wages, benefits, fair work rules, and safety. That’s all very essential. But one thing we often fail to do is acknowledge workers’ need for recognition. People have dreams and values, along with a desire to be respected and to connect to…
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See something, say something? The science of speaking out
Tattling, whistleblowing, snitching, call it what you will: Patrick Bergemann has spent the past 15 years studying the many ways that people tell on one another, examining everything from Afghan villagers’ reports of illegal Taliban activity to informers’ charges of treason in 17th century Russia. In a recent article in the Annual Review of Sociology,…
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Rising Tenant-Led Movement Aims to Bring Down Corporate Landlords
Here in the South, there are literally no short-term solutions. You’re not going to get help from code inspection or local government. There’s no one coming to save you. If tenants have maintenance issues or mold in their apartment, organizing collectively and building a union is the only solution.
MASSolidarity.org 