DeepSummary
The episode features Sydney Ghazarian and Ashik Siddique from the Democratic Socialists of America's Ecosocialist Working Group discussing their campaigns for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Green New Deal. They explain how the PRO Act would fundamentally change labor laws in the United States, legalizing practices like secondary strikes and extending protections to undocumented workers.
Ghazarian and Siddique provide historical context on the decline of unions and labor rights in the U.S. since the New Deal era, and how the PRO Act aims to reverse this trend. They highlight the emerging coalition between unions and the socialist left in pushing for the bill's passage.
The guests also discuss how the PRO Act ties into their vision for a Green New Deal, emphasizing the need to empower workers and expand labor rights in order to address the climate crisis. They outline concrete ways the bill would impact efforts like the Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is a proposed legislation that aims to fundamentally transform U.S. labor laws and strengthen workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain.
- The PRO Act is being championed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and labor unions as part of a broader vision for a Green New Deal that addresses the climate crisis while empowering workers.
- Key provisions of the PRO Act include legalizing practices like secondary strikes and boycotts, extending protections to undocumented workers, and increasing penalties for employers who violate labor laws.
- The legislation aims to reverse the decades-long decline of unions and labor rights in the U.S. since the New Deal era, when anti-labor laws like the Taft-Hartley Act began chipping away at worker protections.
- The PRO Act has the potential to significantly impact efforts like the Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama, by preventing tactics such as captive audience meetings and making it illegal to replace striking workers with temporary staff.
- The DSA's campaigns involve phone banking efforts across multiple states to pressure senators to support the bill, contributing to class consciousness and engagement with the labor movement among non-union members as well.
- The guests emphasize the need for a united front between the labor movement and climate activists, arguing that empowering workers is essential to achieving the goals of a Green New Deal and addressing the climate crisis.
- While acknowledging the limitations of any single piece of legislation, the guests view the PRO Act as a crucial step in rebuilding worker power and laying the groundwork for more radical change.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “As far as examples of that, I think we can call it revolutionary determination. Go. Palestine continues to shine very brightly indeed.“ by Kumars Salahi
- “I just want to qualify all this by saying I'm by no means a labor historian or any kind of historian, so I'm sure a lot of people could speak to this much more. But a lot of what we are very interested in doing right now is just drawing on that history.“ by Ashik Siddiq
- “We think that this has just been really good for the process of class formation. We think in a lot of these areas, and especially for our own membership, where a lot of people who, I think something like three fourths of the thousands of people that we've engaged as phone bankers are not union members. So people have just been super excited to be contributing in some way to the labor movement, even if they're not in unions themselves.“ by Ashik Siddiq
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Episode Information
Delete Your Account Podcast
Delete Your Account
5/20/21
This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Sydney Ghazarian and first timer Ashik Siddique, both climate organizers with the Democratic Socialists of America’s Ecosocialist Working Group and coordinators for DSA’s Green New Deal and PRO Act campaigns. Syd is the Los Angeles-based founder of the Ecosocialist Working Group and previously came on the show to tackle everything from racism in the environmentalist movement to what we can learn from indigenous-led pipeline blockades, as well as her article in In These Times outlining an agenda for escalating climate organizing through labor tactics. Ashik serves on the steering committee of the Ecosocialist Working Group and is a research analyst with the National Priorities Project, an initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
After Ashik shares a bit about his personal path to organizing and the left, the gang jumps into the history of US labor law and breaks down how the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the House of Representatives in 2020 and again on March 9, 2021, would fundamentally alter it, from legalizing secondary strikes to extending labor protections to undocumented immigrants. Syd and Ashik discuss the emerging coalition between unions and the socialist left, as well as the concrete ways the PRO Act would have impacted the unionization efforts of Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama.
Visit proact.dsausa.org to sign up for phone banking in states whose senators do not yet support the bill.
Follow Ashik on Twitter @ahSHEEK and Syd @SydneyAzari. You can also follow the DSA Ecosocialist Working Group @DSAecosocialism and find out more about how to get involved in this campaign as well as their future efforts here.
To keep up with what is happening in Palestine and to learn more about ways you can help, visit the Electronic Intifada and Decolonize Palestine.
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