Black Work Talk
Steven Pitts
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Black Work Talk is an Organizing Upgrade podcast created by host Steven Pitts where we will take a look at efforts to build the collective power of Black workers. We will talk with union and worker center leaders, organizers, rank-and-file worker activists, and advocates about their
fight against the intertwined evils of racism and capitalism. We’ll bring fresh visions of a world free of exploitation, and reveal the strategies and tactics that can get us there.
Available episodes
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Jan 25, 2023
Episode 19: Bill Fletcher
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts speaks with Bill Fletcher, long-time racial justice and labor activist.
This is the last episode of this iteration of Black Work Talk, and we discuss many of the themes running through the two seasons of the podcast, including:
* Black worker organizing within a union context.
* The limitations of the just fights for greater representation.
* Neoliberalism and the challenges facing Black mayors.
* The complexities of fighting rightwing authoritarianism.
* The impact of the growing Black immigrant population in the United States on Black politics.
We closed with some thoughts and suggestions for folks struggling for justice today who came of age–politically–during the last 15 years.
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Dec 14, 2022
Episode 18: Carroll Fife
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host Lauren Jacobs talk with Carroll Fife. Carroll Fife is a Councilmember at the City of Oakland. Carroll was formerly director of the Oakland chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). Given Carroll’s previous position with ACCE, we started the episode discussing what it meant to bring a Movement perspective to an elected position. We continued to discuss the distinction between the power that Carroll and her colleagues have as policy makers and the power that certain elites have to dictate the terrain upon which policies are decided. We concluded by talking about what democratic governance looks like and the step Carroll is taking to ensure that voices that are not usual heard have an impact.
Here are links to Carroll Fife’s official city website and her campaign website.
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Oct 12, 2022
Episode 17: PowerSwitch Action
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Lauren Jacobs, talk with Kyra Greene and Branden Snyder. Kyra is Executive Director of the Center on Policy Initiatives, and is based in San Diego. Branden is Executive Director of Detroit Action. The Center on Policy Initiatives and Detroit Action are affiliates of PowerSwitch Action, a network of local organizations dedicated to building a multiracial feminist democracy and economies in cities and regions around the county. They had an expansive conversation on the challenges and opportunities facing their organizations; the use of mutual aid efforts as a strategy to address the immediate needs of poor communities and build long-term power; and the distinction between winning elections and actual governance.
To read more about these organizations, see these links:
* PowerSwitch Action
* Center on Policy Initiatives
* Detroit Action
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Sep 22, 2022
Episode 16: Linda Burnham
In this episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts launches the power-building mini-series with his co-host, Lauren Jacobs. Steven and Lauren talk with Linda Burnham – long-time social justice organizer, writer, and theoretician. Linda is co-editor of a phenomenal book entitled: Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections – a collection of essays and interviews about the on-the-ground efforts that mobilized voters in 2020 across the United States. Linda has a nuanced understanding of power, history, and the path forward to a better world and we talked about the complex path to building more power in this country. Linda stressed that elections are not the only arena where we build and contest for power, but it is an important one and she helped us understand how we can successfully build electoral majorities and build the thick relationships with working people that allow for successful action beyond elections.
To read more about the book Linda co-edited, see Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins .
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Sep 7, 2022
Episode 15: Stacy Davis Gates
In this episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). Stacy was one of the founding members of the caucus that formed in 2008 to revitalize the union and fight for a quality education for the youth of Chicago. After 2 years of organizing, caucus leaders won elective offices in the union and began to forge stronger ties with parent groups and other community organizations to battle school administrators and city politicians.
Several times, Stacy mentioned the notion of the CTU working hand-in-hand with parents and community organizers in order to use the power of the union to promote the needs and interests of community residents. This philosophy is captured by the concept of “bargaining for the common good”.
Stacy is on the Advisory Committee of Bargaining for the Common Good – a network of labor and community organizations around the country who believe that when union and community groups work together their joint power can enhance the possibilities of what can be achieved at the negotiating table and in the streets.
To read more about Stacy’s work, see the Chicago Teachers Union website.
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Aug 3, 2022
Episode 14: Labor Notes Conference Panel Part 2
This episode of Black Work Talk is the second of two covering the discussion held at the Labor Notes conference on June 17, 2022 titled “Black Labor Struggles Over Time: An Intergenerational Panel.” The panel moderators were Toussaint Losier of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bianca Cunningham of the Action Center on Race and the Economy.
Panelists included Jerome Scott, a long time organizer in the struggle for Black freedom and worker rights; Susan DeCarava of the NewsGuild of New York; Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union; and Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union.
This episode focuses on the second question for the panelists: What does it mean to support Black worker organizing at this moment in time?
In addition, the episode covers the Q & A with the audience.
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Jul 20, 2022
Episode 13: Labor Notes Conference Panel Part 1
This episode of Black Work Talk is the first of two covering the discussion held at the Labor Notes conference on June 17, 2022 titled “Black Labor Struggles Over Time: An Intergenerational Panel.” The panel moderators were Toussaint Losier of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bianca Cunningham of the Action Center on Race and the Economy.
Panelists included Jerome Scott, a long time organizer in the struggle for Black freedom and worker rights; Susan DeCarava of the NewsGuild of New York; Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union; and Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union.
This episode focuses on the opening question for the panelists: What are the key challenges facing Black workers today and what should we do about it?
The second episode will feature the Q & A with the audience and cover the question: What does it mean to support Black worker organizing at this moment in time?
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Jul 7, 2022
Episode 12: Erica Iheme
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Erica Iheme, the Deputy Director for Jobs to Move America, an organization dedicated to ensuring that government uses the power of public funds to create a just, clean, and worker-centered economy. The conversation focuses on Erica’s critique of traditional organizing models and the need to shift to organizing practices that sustain organizers and facilitate a stronger relationship with communities.
To read more about Erica Iheme’s work, see:
Jobs to Move America
Alabama Coalition for Community Benefits
During the episode, Sheri Davis mentioned her post at the Crunk Feminist Collective’s blog. You can access that post (and others) at:
The Crunk Feminist Collective new blog - The Remix
In his introduction to this episode, Steven Pitts mentioned an article about the success of Latin American activists in turning the region into a region that supports a woman’s right to choose. Here is the link to that article:
Foreign Affairs - "Latin America's Lessons for a Post-Roe United States
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May 18, 2022
Episode 11: Danielle Phillips-Cunningham
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Texas Woman’s University. Danielle has been at the forefront of recent scholarship highlighting the efforts of Black working-class women to control their lives. Her book, “Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic Workers,” builds upon the work of Tera W. Hunter ("To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War") to tell the story of the organizing efforts of Black domestic workers. Her newest research focuses on the activities of Nannie Helen Burroughs through organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and the National Association of Wage Earners. Her work has important implications for today’s organizing as well. We spoke about this work on the show.
For further information, see:
Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic Workers
The Washington Post - On Labor Day, we remember the Black women who helped win labor rights
The Washington Post - The long history of Black women organizing in Georgia might decide Senate control
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Apr 21, 2022
Episode 10: Beverly Guy-Sheftall
This episode launches Black Work Talk’s mini-series on Black feminism. Steven Pitts’ co-host for this mini-series is Sheri Davis, Associate Director, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University. We talk with Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Professor of Women's Studies and English at Spelman College. Beverly has been at the center of most developments of Black feminist thought since the mid-1970s and her anthology, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, is a foundational collection. During this episode, the three of us discussed the interconnection of oppressions (around race, gender, class, sexual identity) which is at the core of Black feminism. We also talked about the power of Black feminist approach to increase the quality of worker organizing.
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Apr 7, 2022
Episode 9: Mariame Kaba
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Mariame Kaba. Mariame is one of this country’s leading abolitionist thinkers and practitioners. She has founded several projects organizing around abolitionist principles including Project NIA. Many of her writings on abolition are collected in a recent book, “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us”. We talk about Mariame’s definition of abolition and what might account for the increased interest in abolition. Later, we move to talk about various abolition campaigns from around the country and close by examining political strategies needed to build a world without various forms of organized state violence.
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Mar 24, 2022
Episode 8: NTanya Lee
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier talk with NTanya Lee, National Secretary of LeftRoots, a national organization of social movement organizers and activists. We began by reviewing the landscape of the Black Left today and continued by discussing the distinctions between the Black Left and Black Lives Matter activism. We later talked about the need for a liberatory strategy so as to better support current activists and better achieve gains that allow us to improve the Black working class lives today AND build power for tomorrow. We closed by discussing how LeftRoots sees itself in the broader Black movement organizational ecosystem and some of its current work.
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Mar 7, 2022
Episode 7: Bianca Cunningham
In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Bianca Cunningham, Campaign Director at the Action Center on Race and the Economy and a co-founder of the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America.
The three of us began the episode by exploring different dimensions of the war in Ukraine. We continued with Bianca elaborating on why she thought socialism was the way to best address the issue of structural racism. Later, she spoke about the need to re-imagine community safety and provided examples of how strong relationships among community members could solve “safety” issues without resorting to the use of the police. Finally, she detailed the efforts of DSA members who are state legislators in New York, who employ a two-prong approach to building power: operating as a socialist caucus in the New York State Legislature and delivering constituent services in New York City in ways that actual…
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Feb 23, 2022
Episode 6: Lester Spence
In this sixth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Lester Spence, Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University. We began the episode by defining the Black Left and power. We spoke about the changes in Black politics because of the advent of neoliberalism. We also had a long conversation about policing and we used that issue as a way to explore the complicated issues of power-building, the value of cross-class Black alliances, and the value of cross-race class alliances. We closed by examining the role of the Black Left in this time period.
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Feb 15, 2022
Episode 5: Toussaint Losier
In this fifth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts talks with Toussaint Losier, his co-host for the second mini-series of Black Work Talk on the Black Left. Toussaint is professor in the African American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During this episode, we previewed the mini-series by presenting our definitions of the Black Left; discussing the importance of organizations and institutions to expanding the power and influence of the Black Left; and outlining some of the key challenges facing the Black Left.
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Feb 8, 2022
Episode 4: Will Jones
In this fourth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, co-hosts Steven Pitts and Bill Fletcher talk with Will Jones. Will is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. His particular emphasis is understanding the relationship between race and class in the United States during the 20th Century. His 2013 book, “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights,” examined the role of Black labor leaders in the 1963 March on Washington and was the basis for our conversation. Beyond understanding how Black unionists were a key to the mobilization of 250,000 marchers to DC, Will discussed how this success was a function of the power of their union and their relationship with a variety of organizations in the Black community. We talked about the relevance of this insight for organizing and mobilizing today and winning durable victories.
Here is a link to the publisher webpage about Will’s book:
https://wwnorton.com/books/the-march-on-washi…
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Jan 25, 2022
Episode 3: Bert Bayou
In this third episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, co-hosts Steven Pitts and Bill Fletcher talk with Bert Bayou. Bert is DC Chapter Director of African Communities Together (ACT) and Vice President of UNITE HERE Local 23. ACT is an organization of African immigrants with chapters in Washington DC and New York. ACT provides services and organizes for power. Local 23 represents airport workers in 10 cities across the United States.
We talked about Bert’s work in both organizations and it appeared that in DC, there was a great deal of overlap between the two organizations. African immigrants (mainly Ethiopian immigrants) are a large portion of the workforce at National and Dulles Airports and prior to significant worker engagement, organizers went to great length to understand the conditions of the workers in their communities. This community-orientation was important as voter engagement work was done in the 2020 Presidential Election and runoff race in Georgia. Bert also s…
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Jan 12, 2022
Episode 2: April Verrett
In this second episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, co-hosts Steven Pitts and Bill Fletcher talk with April Verrett. April is president of SEIU 2015, a union of 400,000 long-term caregivers in California. April talked about the importance of Democracy Schools the union operated to engage members in basic political governance activities at the local level. These schools were an important campaign that activates members regardless of their political identifications. One key outcome of these schools was building bridges across partisan divides. April also spoke of the importance of combining a sharp analysis of corporate power with an understanding of how race impacts everything.
For more information on SEIU 2015, see:
SEIU 2015
April mentioned SEIU Racial Justice Center; here is the link to this information:
SEIU's Racial Justice Center
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Nov 17, 2021
Season 2 Premiere: Rob Baril
In this first episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, co-hosts Steven Pitts and Bill Fletcher talk with Rob Baril. Rob is the president of SEIU 1199NE, a union of health care workers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Rob talked about how members of SEIU 1199NE have been fighting state officials in Connecticut for better working conditions during the pandemic. He indicated this fight not only won concrete victories but also strengthened the union for future battles. In addition, the various union campaigns allowed the union to build additional power and wield this power around a several issues facing members in the community include policing issues.
For more information on SEIU 1199NE, see
SEIU 1199NE
Rob mentioned the Bargaining of the Common Good framework; here is the link to the network’s website
Bargaining for the Common Good
Bill mentioned the St Louis Teamsters’ Community Steward Program in the 60s. Bob Bussel of the Labor Education and Research Center at the Uni…
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Nov 10, 2021
Season 2: Trailer
In preparation for the Season Two of Black Work Talk, podcast host Steven Pitts got together with the four co-hosts of the new season: Bill Fletcher; Lauren Jacobs; Sheri Davis; and Toussaint Losier. In this trailer, they discussed the challenges facing the Left in 2022.
Season Two launches Wednesday, November 17.
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Oct 27, 2021
Season 2: Preview
Season Two of Black Work Talk will launch on November 17. In this Preview Episode, host Steven Pitts reviews Season One highlighting the reality that Black workers are impacted by race and class and debates within the movement over the primacy of one over the other are not just fruitless, but counter-productive. His review concludes by discuss the need for more power on the part of the Left in order to reduce the probability of an Insurrection 2.0 and maximize the probability of achieving the agenda of progressives in Congress.
Pitts also previews Season Two which will be organized around four mini-series: Black labor, the Black Left, Black feminism, and power-building. The overarching question animating the entire season is: why is there a gap between the power of Black activists and "real existing" power.
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Jul 14, 2021
Episode 18: Bill Fletcher
In this eighteenth episode of Black Work Talk, we end Season One as we began it with Bill Fletcher, long-time racial justice and labor activist. We reviewed the events over the past 8 months: the insurrection; the determined GOP efforts to promote the Big Lie about the election and insist the adherence to the Big Lie would be a litmus test for GOP elected officials; and the effort of the Biden Administration to govern in this context of the recovery from COVID and the recession; the heightened awareness to fight structural racism; and the inside/outside strategy of the GOP to undermine democracy.
You can read more of Bill’s views about this moment at:
https://www.organizingupgrade.com/the-white-republic-response-by-bill-fletcher-jr/
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Jun 30, 2021
Episode 17: Dawn Gearhart
In this seventeenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest today is Dawn Gearhart. Dawn is the Director of Gig Economy Organizing for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Dawn is leading efforts to organize workers who utilize an app to connect with potential clients desiring domestic work services. Prior to joining NDWA, Dawn organized taxi drivers and gig workers in Seattle. NDWA have just entered into an agreement with the Handy Company to launch a pilot program to improve the quality of work for domestic workers who find work online. Given the rising importance of apps in connecting workers and clients and attempts of many firms that control the apps to resist efforts to build worker power, this effort of NDWA (and other NDWA efforts) is extremely important.
For more information on NDWA’s pilot project with Handy, see
* https://www.gigworkeradvocates.org/handy
* https://onlabor.org/ndwa-handy-pilot-major-gains-for-workers-long-excluded-from-labor-laws-protecti…
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Jun 16, 2021
Episode 16: Michael Dawson
In this sixteenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest is Michael Dawson. Michael is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he has written extensively about the intertwined nature of Black politics and Left politics. Currently, he co-leads the Race and Capitalism Project that seeks to understand how the racial and capitalist systems of domination interact. And all of this work is grounded in his years of labor and community activism.
We had a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of topics including:
* The nature of our current neoliberal racial order
* The differences between Black liberals and Black leftists
* The changes in Black civil society over the past 60 years
For more background on Michael Dawson and his work, here are links:
* The Race and Capitalism Project (https://www.raceandcapitalism.com/)
* The New Dawn podcast
* A couple of articles:
* http://bostonreview.net/forum/future-black-politics-dawson
* “Black Politic…
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Jun 2, 2021
Episode 15: Lauren Jacobs
In this fifteenth episode of Black Work Talk, our guest is Lauren Jacobs. Lauren is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Working Families – a national network of regional power-building organizations. Lauren and I have been friends for over 15 years…I remember when she was a union organizer in Boston. I have always loved the way Lauren combines things: race and class…theory and practice. That nuanced and rooted way of engaging the world is key at building real power to transform the world.
We had a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of topics including:
* Working with unreliable partners in the united front against authoritarianism
* The importance of working with everyday people to building the capacity to see themselves as social change agents
* The intertwined nature of race and class
For more background on Lauren Jacobs and her work, here are links:
https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/
https://forgeorganizing.org/article/building-united-front-ag…
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May 19, 2021
Episode 14: Sheri Davis
In this fourteenth episode of Black Work Talk, today’s Sheri Davis. Sheri is the Associate Director of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University and the Senior Program Director – WILL Empower at CIWO. The purpose of WILL Empower is to develop the next generation of women in the labor movement - unions and worker centers. Sheri fuses her desire to promote deep worker organizing with her Black feminist sensibility. Sheri also sees the need to move beyond a narrow focus on individual workers and explore how to transform their organizations – unions and worker centers – into weapon to be wielded in order to improve the conditions of workers both in and out of the workplace.
We had a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of topics including:
* Her assessment of the challenges facing movement building today
* The value of Black feminism and Critical Race Theory to building stronger worker organizations
* Community practice at WILL…
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May 5, 2021
Episode 13: Maurice Mitchell
In this thirteenth episode of Black Work Talk, Today’s guest is Maurice Mitchell. Maurice is the National Director of the Working Families Party. Since its inception, the Working Families Party has done a good job of navigating the complicated waters of combining Left political perspectives with building bases among working class people and maintaining effectiveness in the electoral arena. Maurice became national director about two years and we had a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of topics including:
* Policing and the issue of police accountability
* The need for social movements to claim their victories as we strive for greater victories
* The need for political education as we build durable progressive movements
* The importance of bringing a class analysis to an understanding of racial oppression.
For more background on Maurice Mitchell and the Working Families Party, here are links to some articles:
https://forgeorganizing.org/article/one-two-punch-…
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Apr 21, 2021
Episode 12: Barbara Ransby
In this twelfth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Barbara Ransby, professor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Barbara has written extensively on the Black Freedom Movement on topics ranging from Ella Baker and Eslanda Robeson to the current Black Lives Matter movement. Our conversation took place soon after the release of the videos of the Chicago police’s killing of 13-year old Adam Toledo and we began our talk examining the battle for justice in the face of police brutality. We moved on to look at the relationship between policing and political economy. During the episode other topics included:
* The nature of racial capitalism
* The Portal Project which Barbara initiated to bring together social justice activists and scholars
* Her views on Black freedom and movement building
Here are links to two articles mentioned during this episode:
Ransby - The Class Politics of Black Lives Matter
Ransby - The White Left Needs to Embrace Bl…
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Apr 7, 2021
Episode 11: Robin D.G. Kelley
This eleventh episode of Black Work Talk was a joint effort with Dissent Magazine’s podcast, Belabored. Belabored’s co-hosts, Michelle Chen and Sarah Jaffe, and Black Work Talk’s host, Steven Pitts were joined by historian Robin D.G. Kelley. Robin’s book, Hammer and Hoe, details the organizing work in the Birmingham metropolitan area during the 1930s where key Black workers were Communist and worked with the Communist Party to improve the living conditions in Jim Crow Alabama. Because of Robin’s knowledge of the region’s history, he was an excellent guest to have on the show given the worker organizing at the Amazon warehouse outside of Birmingham. Topics discussed included:
* the current organizing at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, AL
* the relationship between Blacks and the Communist Party in the 1930s
* the nature of racial capitalism
* strategies to build stronger ties between the Black community and the labor movement.
Below is a link to an arti…
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Mar 24, 2021
Episode 10: Maurice BP-Weeks
In this tenth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Maurice BP-Weeks, co-founder of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE). ACRE sits at the nexus of the struggles for racial and economic justice. As such, they provide campaign assistance to local organizations and engage in national campaigns against corporate elites. Equally important, ACRE shapes the national narrative around role of the corporate elites in the exploitation of communities of color. Last year, Maurice wrote a key article stating that Amazon was a key symbol of racial capitalism. Given the efforts of workers in Bessmer Alabama to form a union, Maurice’s voice is an important one to hear on Black Work Talk. Here are links to ACRE and some of Maurice’s thoughts:
https://acrecampaigns.org/
Weeks - Looking for the Symbol of Racial Capitalism? Look No Further than Amazon
Money, Power, Respect - Interview with Maurice BP-Weeks
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Mar 10, 2021
Episode 9: Jesse Hagopian
In this ninth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Jesse Hagopian, an Ethnic Studies teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. The public schools in the United States have been near Ground Zero during this confluence of COVID, the recession, and the fight for racial justice and because of this, education has become a flashpoint for political struggle. Jesse has been active trying to ensure that any school re-opening takes places on a timeline and fulfills key conditions that best serves the interests of students and staff, not the needs of outside political actors with their agendas. Prior to the pandemic, Jesse worked with others from around the country developing a liberation pedagogy and working with his union (and others) to build a social justice unionism that has the power to transform education. Recently, Jesse has edited two books collecting essays on making teacher unions a force for racial and economic justice:
* Teacher Unions and Soci…
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Feb 24, 2021
Episode 8: Michelle Crentsil
In this eighth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Michelle Crentsil, political director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). The members of NYSNA have been through hell this past year dealing with the extreme conditions caused by COVID and federal government ineptitude. We talked about these struggles and the reality that the pandemic has forged greater solidarity among nurses and led them to advocate for structural changes in the health care system based on their experiences this past year. As the conversation moved toward Black workers, Michelle talked about the need to see how Black workers are impacted by race and class and the inability to see both of these intertwined factors will result in organizations being largely irrelevant to the Black community.
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Feb 10, 2021
Episode 7: Erica Smiley
In this seventh episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Erica Smiley, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice. Smiley has been with Jobs with Justice for over 15 years. Prior to joining the organization, she worked at a number of unions and community-based organizations. During the episode, we spoke about a variety of topics including the need to go beyond the red state/blue state view of today’s politics and gain a better appreciation of the nuances within all of the states. In addition, Smiley advocated analyzing organizing prospects through the lens of what has been a state’s (or region’s) history with democracy and collective bargaining infrastructure. She closed by talking about the importance of developing a vibrant vision for democracy in order to building social movements with broader political horizons.
For background on some of the topics discussed go to:
-An interview Smiley conducted with National Public Radio on September 6, 2020 https://www.npr.org/…
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Jan 27, 2021
Episode 6: Bill Lucy
In this sixth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes William A. Lucy. Bill retired in 2010 after over 50 years in the leadership of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Union (AFSCME). Bill talked about his beginnings in the labor movement organizing government workers in Contra Costa County (CA). He later represented the national staff of AFSCME during the campaign of the Memphis sanitation workers and Bill discussed some of those lessons. As a co-founder of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Bill provided insights on the relationship between Black unionists, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the labor movement during the 60s and 70s. We closed by discussing what suggestions he would rely to young Black unionists today.
During the episode, Bill referenced these films:
Webpage for the classic film on the Memphis Sanitation Strike, “At the River I Stand” http://newsreel.org/video/at-the-river-i-stand
Link to a 10-minute film o…
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Jan 13, 2021
Episode 5: April Sims
In the fifth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes April Sims, Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council. April told us a bit about her background, in particular, how the experiences of her mother led April to understand the importance of unions to working people’s lives. She also talked about the work of the State Labor Council in developing and rolling out an anti-racism training for unions and their members. (April mentioned a document that resulted from the initial work: “Race to Labor: Can Organized Labor Be an Agent of Social and Economic Justice?” It can be downloaded at Race to Labor. Later she talked about the importance of developing networks among unionists of color by way of the example of the informal grouping she has organized.
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Dec 23, 2020
Episode 4: Greg Kelley
In the fourth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Greg Kelley, President of SEIU Health Care Illinois. Greg gave us a sense of how he got into labor organizing. We moved to get a sense of how COVID has impacted union members and their resolve to use the power of their union to protect their quality of life on the job. Greg relayed stories of how efforts to build racial solidarity within the union going back to the murder of Michael Brown in 2014 bore fruits this year as the union fought the impacts of COVID and fought for racial justice. Greg concluded by sharing his vision for 2021 linking the work of the union with the mission of Black freedom.
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Dec 9, 2020
Episode 3: Tanya Wallace Gobern
In this third episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Tanya Wallace Gobern, Executive Director of the National Black Worker Center. Tanya spoke of how growing up in Chicago shaped her passion for social justice and worker organizing. She continued to share lessons from her years of organizing Black workers especially to need to build a “joyous militancy”. We talked about the recent work of the National Black Worker Center and concluded with a discussion of Tanya’s vision for Black freedom.
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Nov 25, 2020
Episode 2: Dorian Warren
In this second episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Dorian Warren, President of Community Change. Dorian talks about the organizational weakness of the Democratic Party and the subsequent growth of grass-roots groups at the local and state level to fill this void. We also talk about the need for a Third Reconstruction and the nature of democracy and freedom during this Third Reconstruction from the perspective of Black workers.
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Nov 11, 2020
Episode 1: Bill Fletcher
In this first episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Bill Fletcher, long-time racial justice and labor activist. Bill talks about key takeaways from the 2020 Election and steps needed to build a progressive governing majority. Also, we discuss why it is important to build Black worker power and how to go about doing this.
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Oct 30, 2020
Interview Sneak Peek: Bill Fletcher
Guest Bill Fletcher sits down with Steven and previews for us the big questions he will address in our first real episode, dropping November 11th, one week after the election. Bill tells us what he thinks Black workers and organizers should be paying attention to as election day approaches. This is an important glimpse into the most important challenges and opportunities facing all of us in this critical moment.
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Oct 13, 2020
Introducing Black Work Talk: A Trailer
Welcome to Black Work Talk, an Organizing Upgrade podcast by Steven Pitts launching on Wednesday, November 11th. We'll look at struggles to build the collective power of Black workers and challenge racial capitalism.
Come be a part of our community of supporters on Patreon today!
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