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A revolutionary socialist organizing project

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Videos and panels

Tempest Mag

Tempest is a revolutionary socialist organizing project in the U.S.

Over the last several years, the labor struggle has dramatically increased. Strikes at Starbucks and the University of California garnered national news. Public approval for unions is at a historic high despite the low rate of unionization. New campaigns to organize have emerged in workplaces from Amazon to Trader Joe’s. Formations like UAWD have emerged to topple old failed leaders and attempt to pursue more militant strategies and tactics.

But the politicians and bosses remain intransigent. The Biden Administration intervened to block the railways’ strike at the end of last year. Bosses are unwilling to concede pay increases that keep pace with inflation. And a possible recession and increased unemployment threaten to undermine workers’ bargaining power.

This situation poses strategic and political questions for the labor movement. How can existing unions defend themselves against an unrelenting bosses’ offensive? How can new unions organize for better wages, working conditions, and social justice in the workplace? How can the labor movement break free of the business unionist strategy of labor/management cooperation and political reliance on the Democrats?

Join us for this panel of leading labor militants to debate and discuss which way forward for the labor movement.

Speakers:

Sheila Kulkarni (2:06), graduate student, United Auto Workers Local 2865, University of California striker
Sarah Beth Ryther (14:20), grocery store worker, employee organizer with Trader Joe’s United, the independent union formed for and by Trader Joe’s employees
Matt Weaver (22:22), carpenter, BMWED-IBT, Ohio Legislative Director, Railroad Workers United (RWU) Steering Committee
Elizabeth Lalasz (29:18), registered nurse, union steward, National Nurses United, Tempest Collective
(Organizations listed for identification purposes only.)

Facilitated by Hakan Yilmaz

Chapters:

Introductions (0:00)
Sheila Kulkarni (2:06)
Sarah Beth Ryther (14:20)
Matt Weaver (22:22)
Elizabeth Lalasz (29:18)

This event took place on February 12, 2023.

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The Adams administration—following a tradition of neoliberal governance going back to the ‘70s—is spearheading two major assaults on the living standards of city workers and retirees: A scheme to privatize healthcare for retirees, and ongoing contract fights involving virtually all the city’s public-sector unions. Successfully fighting back will mean rebuilding a strong militant minority of rank-and-file union activists: one capable of leading large numbers of coworkers in direct action against the city, and one that can relate to the city’s broader working class. To help figure out how we get there, Tempest is hosting a discussion between leading rank-and-file activists from DC37, the UFT, NYSNA, and the cross-union retiree organizing committee.

University struggles have recently entered national attention again. November saw higher education workers walk out on strike at the University of California and the New School demanding higher wages and improvements on job security, healthcare and other conditions. The university under neoliberalism showers huge sums upon the administration while the majority of the staff is forced to live close to or beneath the poverty line.

Yet, there has been some progress at certain institutions through the efforts of relentless union organizing. This panel seeks to draw out common themes and lessons from university struggles, and to situate these struggles in the broader political moment.

Speakers:

Sam Salour (UC Santa Barbara) (2:47)
Ye Eun Jeong (Columbia) (34:36)
Gerry Martini (CUNY) (12:29)
Dianca London Potts (The New School) (44:02)
Monica Panzarino (NYU) (22:42)

Chapters:

Introduction (0:00)
Sam Salour (2:47)
Gerry Martini (12:29)
Monica Panzarino (22:42)
Ye Eun Jeong (34:36)
Dianca London Potts (44:02)
Discussion (56:21)

This event took place on December 8, 2022.

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The death in September of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Armini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman killed while in the custody of Iran’s “morality police” for failing to cover her hair as required by Iranian law, has sparked the most sustained wave of anti-government protests since the 1979 Iranian revolution. The government crackdown has been brutal: More than 300 protesters have so far been killed by the police.

What are the main social forces currently engaged in this struggle? What prospects do the protesters have of forcing the authoritarian theocratic regime to grant serious change? Join a discussion led by three speakers with distinctive insights into the current situation in Iran.

The event is on Sunday, December 11, 2022, at 2 pm ET.

Cosponsored by New Politics.

This event was facilitated by Shireen Akram-Boshar (0:00)

Speakers:

Frieda Afary (1:58) is an Iranian American librarian, translator, and writer. She is the author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach (Pluto Press, 2022). She also produces Iranian Progressives in Translation and Socialistfeminism.org.

Fred (16:52) is an Iranian writer living in the United States.

Danny Postel (29:40) is the author of Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future. He is a member of Internationalism from Below and Politics Editor of New Lines Magazine. His recent article “The Other Regional Counter-Revolution: Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape of the MIiddle East,” dismantles the fiction of the Islamic Republic as a “revolutionary” state in the vanguard of a region called “Axis of Resistance.”

Chapters:

Introduction with Shireen Akram-Boshar (0:00)
Frieda Afary (1:58)
Fred (16:52)
Danny Postel (29:40)

Fred's article in Tempest: https://www.tempestmag.org/2022/11/when-iran-is-free/

This event took place on December 11, 2022.

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An eyewitness report by socialist and union activist Ian Allinson on the current political situation in the UK, where there is an ongoing strike wave by rail, postal, bus and tube workers, nurses, and others and mass protest against the Tory government, inflation, racist attacks, the climate crisis, and more.

Ian Allinson is a member of rs21 and of UNISON (the largest union in the UK), and the author of Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organizing at Work, just out from Pluto Press.

This event took place on November 20, 2022.

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This panel aims to bring together activists from across the city to discuss strategy and tactics as Chicago heads into its own election season. Co-sponsored by 33rd Ward Working Families, Chicago DSA Anti-Fascist Working Group, Rampant Magazine, and Chicago Solidarity (list in formation) and endorsed by Chicago DSA Defund Working Group.

Speakers:
Yuchabel Harris is part of the Chicago DSA citywide Defund working group and has been involved in abolitionist organizing for many years. Before living in Chicago, Yuchabel organized with Black and Indigenous youth in Florida against racism.

Nora Flanagan is a veteran high school English teacher in Chicago and has researched and organized against racism for decades. Efforts have included speaking to government agencies, teachers unions, faculties and administrations, community organizations, faith groups, and media outlets about the intersection of bigotry and youth culture. She recently co-authored Confronting White Nationalism in Schools, a toolkit designed to help schools thoughtfully and effectively respond to incidents of racial hostility and proactively strengthen school communities.

Mary Bowman is an abortion and trans healthcare provider who lives in Chicago, land involuntarily ceded by the Council of the Three Fires. They hate your boss and love your outfit.

Moderated by Dennis Kosuth, Tempest member and member of CTU.

Tempest hosted a special fundraiser event, a drag extravaganza on Sunday, October 23.

Featuring performances by Lady Karley Marx and Mildred the Lunch Lady as well as a Q & A session with Afsaneh Moradian, author of Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About Peoples’ Pronouns.

Recent attacks on drag queen story hour events are another front in the Right’s reactionary war on LGBTQ people. Historically, drag performance spaces have organized and sustained queer life. These are not only spaces of community and camaraderie, but also platforms for social and political critique.

Join the Tempest Collective in a virtual bash to bash back against the political Right and its reactionary war on queer people.
In celebration and solidarity!

Lady Karley Marx is an American drag performer, painter, and pop artist. They are originally from Michigan but based in Chicago, Illinois. Marx’s drag persona and name are a play off of Karl Marx, Marxist/Communist pop art aesthetics, and the intersections of critical theory, queer theory, and queer liberation theology.

Afsaneh Moradian is a longtime activist, writer, homeschooling coach, and LGBTQIA+ advocate. Afsaneh is the author of the Jamie is Jamie series and also writes about education and current events. The Jamie and Bubbie series has been featured at drag queen story hour events.

Mildred the Lunch Lady is an 84-year-old lunch lady who works at Blue Moon Bar every Monday 4pm-10pm.

Hosted by Hector Rivera, a queer, Mexican-American socialist educator living in Los Angeles.

This event took place on October 23, 2022.

Read Afsaneh's work https://www.afsanehmoradian.com/
Mildred: Tips at $mildredthelunch
ladyKarleys page: Check out the work of Lady Karley Marx https://www.ladymarx.com/

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