Working Mass Podcast

We interview Eric Blanc on his new book We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. The book is full of stories, statistics, and worker-led wins! The book is coming out in February and you can get a 50% discount on the book if you sign up for this reading group which includes a launch event on Monday, March 3rd:https://actionnetwork.org/events/we-are-the-union-reading-group-launch-with-e-blanc-k-kelly-m-mills   The reading group is sponsored by DSA, EWOC (Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee), and Organizing for Power. Speakers include author Kim Kelly, Moe Mills of Starbucks Workers United, and Blanc himself.   Order the book here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/we-are-the-union/paper Follow Eric Blanc on his Substack: https://substack.com/@laborpolitics Follow Eli Gerzon on Twitter: twitter.com/eligerzon

Host Eli Gerzon speaks with Estefania Galvis, the MA field director for the One Fair Wage campaign to de-mystify Ballot Question 5, which failed in November. Tefa talks about who would have benefited the most from the ballot question, and how they got left behind in the discourse about the initiative.

We're joined by Russ Weiss-Irwin, a teacher with BTU, to talk about Q2, which was approved by voters. It will remove the high stakes test, MCAS, as a graduation requirement for high schoolers in MA. Russ talks about how the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the MA chapter of the American Federation of Teachers lead this campaign, and how these types of standardized tests can be an impediment to educating children. This win is another sign of growing union power that helps not just students, but all working people in MA.

Our first episode! We speak with students Maya, Patricio and Vivian about their time at the Northeastern encampment for Palestine. They talk about the beautiful community they created and successfully defended from police for two days. Then, we'll get into how it ended, a very specific false accusation of antisemitism that Working Mass helped disprove, and the way Mayor Wu handled this and other encampments in Boston. Hosted by Eli Gerzon and Vanessa Bartlett.