Last Friday, July 14, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) launched a strike, representing over 150,000 workers. This is the first time that SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have been on strike at the same time since 1960. Both of these unions are up against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The AMPTP is an alliance of major studio capitalists, including the “Big Five” –  Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures (Sony), and Paramount Pictures – which currently dominate over 80% of the media market. The “Big Five” have a significant presence in Atlanta, a city that has seen its film industry rapidly grow into a multi-billion dollar sector in recent years, employing over ten thousand workers.

On Monday, SAG-AFTRA held a kickoff rally at the local IATSE 479 Hall in Atlanta to mark the launch of the nationwide strike. Hundreds of members and supporters gathered to hear from speakers regarding the upcoming fight and the unions’ demands, including increased pay, stable employment, and measures to address the increasing use of AI to replace human labor.

Just as with WGA, the era of streaming and inflation has caused a considerable financial hit for actors, and a significant decrease in compensation. Additionally, workers are asking for more reasonable timelines to avoid long periods of unemployment between filming. Media bosses benefit from keeping employees captive and precarious between shoots, as a way to protect their bottom line and maximizing profits.

Finally, as if in a dystopian science-fiction, some major companies are attempting to claim actors’ “likeness” as property for their own profit. Using advanced AI tools, producers can scan an actor’s image and incorporate it digitally into any media production. Studios can even edit actors’ dialogue or appearance in movies without the actor even showing up for production. SAG-AFTRA is pushing back on these developments, demanding protections for workers, informed consent, and more adequate compensation for the use of their likeness. 

The wealthy investors that the AMPTP represents are a powerful force which shapes public opinion, and political and social movements through its control of media production. But with both WGA and SAG-AFTRA on strike, the absence of new media is bound to expose who’s actually doing the work to create the film and television content which makes these studios so profitable. The recently announced SAG-AFTRA strike not only coincides with the WGA contract fight, but also falls just two weeks before the UPS Teamsters plan to launch the largest private-sector strike the country has seen in decades. With worker militancy on the rise, it’s clear that workers from logistics to the film industry are growing increasingly conscious of their position in society and ability to win transformative change through collective action. 

This historic moment demands not only cross-union solidarity, but backing from the entire working class, and DSA is ready to support workers every step of the way! While most SAG-AFTRA pickets are currently concentrated in LA and New York, keep your eyes peeled for updates on Metro-Atlanta pickets and actions at https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and get involved in DSA to join our labor solidarity work.

Photos by Brandon Mishawn

The post Labor Militancy on the Rise: SAG-AFTRA Strikes! appeared first on Red Clay Comrade.

UPS Teamsters are fighting for better pay, hours, and treatment on the job! If UPS doesn’t respond to workers’ demands before their contract expires on July 31, over 340,000 UPS workers are prepared to launch the largest strike in decades.

Show your support for UPS workers!

1. Do you know your UPS worker that brings packages to your work or to your home? Display this beautiful poster in your window to show your UPS worker and the community that you support their fight for a fair contract.

2. Join us next Friday, July 28 for our Strike Ready Fundraiser at the Gallatin Labor Temple! It will be an exciting night of live music to raise money for local UPS workers.

Featuring performances by:
STiLGONE
ART & FUNK COLLECTIVE
THREE PENNY RIOT

Suggested Donation $10

Donations will go to the DSA Labor Solidarity Fund, which is a national fund that supports local labor activity. Donations will support striking workers in Bozeman on this or future picket lines.

Representing around 1.1 million workers in the US and Canada in the fields of retail, grocery, healthcare, cannabis, and more, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)  is a major union with the potential to win big gains for workers. But some of its own members say the union is too top-down, lacks worker engagement and democracy, and isn't investing enough in organizing new workers in a time of increasing economic inequality and pressure on the working class. Tonight we're joined live by Enrique and Iris, two grocery worker-organizers and members of Essential Workers for Democracy, to discuss their efforts to reform their international union and "raise the floor" for workers everywhere.

 

Learn more about EW4D and get involved here: https://ew4d.org/

During its annual convention on July 8th, the Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (LVDSA) voted to censure LVDSA member and Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom for a bloated police budget as well as enabling routine police violence.

LVDSA is committed to uplifting the struggle of the working-class in social, economic, and political revolution, fighting to win a world organized and governed by and for the vast majority.

We observe Commissioner Segerblom, an elected representative and chapter member, consistently voting in favor of increased police and corrections funding year after year, including a 9.6%, $69M increase FY 2023-2024.

The Commissioner suggests, if not actively coordinates, increased policing in his district, specifically as a solution to the utterly American phenomenon of thousands of people without shelter in the wealthiest county in the history of the planet. The County and Commissioner Segerblom are cruel to deny unhoused people access to the same public spaces other human beings enjoy, in the near absence of any meaningful political will to solve what is a purely political housing crisis.

Officials increased LVMPD’s budget 37% since 2017 despite a 22% increase in use of force during the same period. 43% of LVMPD’s use of force targeted Black residents who are only 12.6% of the county, obviously indicating a consistent, historical pattern of racist policing. The Commissioner’s Ward E includes neighborhoods where there is a high concentration and largely disproportionate rate of imprisonment of Clark County residents.

DSA’s national platform affirms “incarceration, detention and policing are active instruments of class war which guarantee domination and reproduce racial inequalities” as well as poverty and mass violence. Police violence is a public health crisis, the American Public Health Association advocates the abolition of policing and prisons as we know it. The summer of rebellion of 2020 in response to police brutality and the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Tayler–among so many more–was the largest social movement in the history of the United States. Increased police/corrections funding directly contradicts the principles and platform of DSA and LVDSA, undermining a more just and equitable society.

Excessive funding solely allocated to policing perpetuates a system that diverts resources from other services and reduces the quality of life for many. Our chapter, as a grassroots democratic organization, has a responsibility to practice accountability among elected and non-elected members alike, to promote our collective platform and liberation.

LVDSA hereby censures Commissioner Segerblom for routinely voting for increased funding, enabling police violence and undermining our values as a chapter. LVDSA expresses its deep disappointment and disapproval of the failure to zealously defend the well-being of those in his district, specifically the most vulnerable who are unhoused or experiencing debilitating mental health.

LVDSA will inform and invite the community into reparative action, including the Commissioner, through statements, forums, and collaboration with organizations/collectives advocating for decarceration, decriminalization, and community-led public safety alternatives.

LVDSA members, elected or not, should promote the abolition of punitive, carceral public policy, and uphold our commitment to a different society based on mutual reciprocity, where crime is prevented by meeting basic needs, ameliorating misery, and promoting the inherent dignity of caring for one another.

Contact lasvegasdsa@gmail.com for any inquiries.

Happy red hot summer!

UPS Teamsters have voted to go on strike August 1 if the bosses do not agree to a fair contract. Join us Sunday, July 9, 2:00-3:30 PM at the Gallatin Labor Temple (422 E Mendenhall) for a discussion about why workers go on strike and how to support UPS workers.

Suggested materials to review:

• The Chicago Teachers Strike Is a Fight for the Common Good (Article)
• Create Havoc Around our System (CHAOS) method (Video)
• Teamsters Deliver The Goods 2  (Podcast)

Other upcoming dates:

• Thursday July 13, 6:30 PM, Housing Working Group (1820 W Lincoln)
• Sunday July 16, 2:00 PM, Labor Working Group (422 E Mendenhall)
• Thursday July 20, 6:30 PM, Housing Working Group (1820 W Lincoln)
• Sunday July 23, 2:00 PM, Labor Working Group (422 E Mendenhall)
• Friday, July 28, Strike Ready Fundraiser at the Gallatin Labor Temple to raise money for a strike fund to support UPS workers if they need to strike
• Sunday, August 13, 2:00 PM, New DSA Member Orientation

Solidarity Forever

Syracuse DSA condemns the recent Supreme Court ruling that threatens protection of marginalized and colonized communities in America and dramatically limits access to the current education system. Already coming off one year since the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the curtailing of EPA powers to regulate air quality and carbon emissions, we already see the results of allowing hard won civil rights to remain issues of litigation as opposed to legislation. 

As socialists, we cannot sit idly by as an unelected, reactionary judicial body influenced by right-wing billionaires slowly strips the rights away from working-class people. It is up to us to organize a movement that can build the kind of world we need. A world that can meaningfully address the systemic racism woven within its structure. A world where free, high-quality education is accessible from cradle to grave.

The Supreme Court rulings show us that the ruling-class will always oppose even the most basic interests of oppressed and working-class people. Dozens of cases, ranging from Dred Scott v. Sanford, Korematsu v. United States, to Plessy v. Ferguson have upheld the right to discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The most recent decisions should not be viewed as an extremist anomaly, but as a continuation of a trend—one that abets capitalist hegemony and white supremacy.

The Supreme Court, unlike every other court in the United States, has failed to adopt an ethics code that compels justices to recuse themselves from cases where there are clear conflicts of interests. Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in particular, have accepted lavish trips and gifts from right-wing billionaires with business before the court. 

This makes a mockery out of a major branch of American government, instead turning it into a transparent example of the two-tiered system conservative justices might deny exists—one designed for the wealthy, and one for everyone else.

We must not let empty promises by centrist Democrats derail and thwart demands for accountability that arise organically, products of the increasingly apparent contradictions of the capitalist system. Those demands for accountability and a truly just world cannot be paralyzed by election promises, freedoms to perhaps be realized in future election cycles. People are tired of their rights being used for fundraising pitches with no intention to actualize or advocate for them—they want a society that provides for their needs and defends their humanity in the here and now.

It is up to us to wield our collective power and make a better world, one built from the ashes of the old, and inspire our neighbors and comrades to make it with us.

July 3rd, 2023

At 12:01am May 2nd, the Writers’ Guild of America launched their first nationwide strike since 2007, grinding production to a halt across the entertainment industry. The WGA represents over 11,500 writers in TV, film, radio, and online media production, and for 56 days and counting, its members have held the picket line from coast to coast, demanding fair compensation for their time and labor, greater job security, as well as firm protections against studio efforts to replace their profession with artificial intelligence. Tonight, we hear from Jono Matt, a screenwriter based in Los Angeles and a strike captain for the WGA, on their fight for a fair contract and why this public display of labor power by the writers is so critical in this incendiary moment for the working class of this country.

Seattle voters passed Initiative 135 in February, creating the only radically democratic, tenant-led, publicly-owned social housing developer in the country. I sat down with Tiffani McCoy, Co-Chair of House Our Neighbors, the coalition who led the fight. Then I interviewed two leaders of Seattle DSA, Sydney Province and Ramy Khalil, to get their perspective on the fight ahead to fully fund social housing in Seattle. Both interviews were excellent, but went long, so we split this into a two-parter. Thanks to Luke Wigren for help recording this episode and to Jason Corey for editing it. Subscribe to get an alert when future episodes drop.

Although New York just became the 13th state to pass a bill designating this a sanctuary state for trans and nonbinary people and protecting gender-affirming care patients and providers, the attacks on trans youth and adults are only escalating nationwide. Media establishments like the New York Times are covering "debates" around access to gender-affirming care using bad science and faulty logic and without respecting the direct experience and analysis of trans people themselves. What are the social and political forces that are seeking to legitimize transphobia in the public sphere and restrict access to healthcare for gender non-conforming people? Join us for a panel discussion with Alex, a researcher and journalist, Quinnehtukqut, a social psychologist, and Jess, a therapist, on gender-affirming care and how Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) have partnered with the far-right to advance bigotry and restrict trans people's human rights. 

Hamilton College Young Democratic Socialists of American (HC-YDSA) officially became a branch of Syracuse DSA at our Sunday, June 18th General Meeting. HC-YDSA applied to become a branch earlier in May. Our Steering Committee unanimously recommended that general membership vote to accept their application. Our membership then approved their application at the June General Meeting

We are extremely excited to partner with HC-YDSA as we fight to bring socialism to The Hill and the rest of the Central New York.

Below you can find photos from HC-YDSA events below.