Blog
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The monster is back …
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters. Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, loose translation by Slavoj Zizek Post-electoral thoughts: The Republicans didn’t get the Senate, but they came out strong in the lower house. I would have thought that the triumph of DeSantis in…
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West Side Community Organization Shows Us What Organizing Can Do
Report Back from WSCO’s Annual Meeting and Reflections on Community Organizing and Direct Democracy West Side Community Organization (WSCO), the neighborhood organization of St. Paul’s West Side and the Planning Council for St. Paul’s 3rd planning district, is unique among district councils in St. Paul. WSCO actually represents and organizes its community. At the annual…
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Looking Forward to 2023 Elections in Minneapolis & Saint Paul
A quirk in redistricting laws has the Minneapolis election season kicking off just eleven months after the City Council was sworn in. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) incumbents Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley launched their re-election campaigns earlier in November. Both kickoffs emphasized the role of DSA elected officials in supporting working class movements across…
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Hard Travelin’ and Lightening the Load
A Book Review of “Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life” by Gustavus Stadler Woody Guthrie knew hard traveling. He traveled on fast, rattling box cars and hitchhiked across the USA in the midst of the Depression. He organized farm workers in Hooverville shanty-towns and sang for miners and factory workers on the picket lines. He always…
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The Dangers Ahead
Driven by voters who wanted to defend the right to abortion and those who understood that Republican victories on Election Day would lead to a curtailment of democratic rights, the Democratic Party dodged a bullet. With young voters leading the way, a Red Tide was stopped. This was despite the Democratic Party’s absolute refusal to…
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YDSA and the Teamsters Fight at the University of Minnesota
YDSA played purely a support role for the Teamsters Local 320. Being a studentorganization, our primary aim was to educate students about the working conditions at theuniversity, and to build up support for the union among the student body. With this goal in mind,we went about tabling outside of dorm cafeterias, lit-dropping pro-Teamsters literature inuniversity…
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Starbucks Workers Face Down A Hostile Company
Starbucks management is turning up the heat. Faced with an expanding national movement by Starbucks workers to unionize (256 stores have won to date), Starbucks has been hitting back with firings, suspensions, constantly changing hours, store closures and safety infractions. On Wednesday, October 26 the first bargaining session for 6 Minnesota unionized stores was supposed…
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Labor Notes Twin Cities Troublemakers School: Quick Thoughts
Saturday was a very, very good day for the working class of Minnesota. Three hundred plus nurses, Amazon workers, janitors, educators, school bus drivers and working class activists from every sector gathered for Labor Notes Troublemakers School at Metro State University for an all day conference. Dozens of union locals were represented. TCDSA was right…
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Labor Rebellion
The outlines and depth of a labor uprising are becoming clearer with everyday. The rail workers group, Rail Workers United (RWU), issued a statement in support of striking Minnesota Nurses explaining that rail workers face the same conditions and problems as nurses; speed up, lack of staffing, more dangerous conditions and an attempt by bosses,…
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A Better World is Possible, Comrades
(This post has been adapted from the convention speech given by outgoing co-chair Ian R.) Given that this is my last meeting as co-chair, I wanted to share a few parting thoughts as we transition to a new steering committee and a new page in the life of our chapter. The past several years have…
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Labor Day, Anti-Racism, and the New Labor Movement
By Cynthia S. How should anti-racists celebrate Labor Day? Or rather, how is the labor movement related to the work we do in fighting for racial justice? Scholar and activist, Ruthie Wilson Gilmore (whose forthcoming book on racial capitalism is worth pre-ordering) reminds us that from the beginning “capitalism require[d] inequality, and racism enshrine[d] it.” How? By…
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Why You Should Care About Logistics
Over the course of the next 12 months the potential for mighty class battles will be mounting in logistics across the United States. One of these will be at UPS, where more than 340,000 workers will be faced with the expiration of their contract on August 1, 2023. Sean O’Brien, the newly elected president of…
2023 Elections Aisha Chughtai Anti-imperialism Association of Flight Attendants Book review Ceasefire in Gaza Delta Delta Air Lines Democratic Party/DFL East Phillips Neighborhood Institute/EPNI East Phillips Urban Farm Electoral Committee Endorsements Environmental racism General Strike Three International Association of Machinists International Brotherhood of Teamsters Jason Chavez Labor MFT/ESP MFT59 Minneapolis Minneapolis Police Department Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) MN Governor Tim Walz Mutual aid Nelsie Yang Omar Fateh Political education Rent control Rent Stabilization Ordinance Robin Wonsley Roof Depot Soren Stevenson St. Paul Starbucks Starbucks Workers United TCDSA Teamsters UFCW 663 Ukraine invasion 2022 Union Organizing United Auto Workers (UAW) Unite HERE Local 17 YDSA