On this day, 28 March 1915, Jewish anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman was arrested in the US for explaining birth control. She chose to spend 15 days in jail over a $100 fine.
We have produced some posters commemorating Goldman to help fund our work, including a poster of this mugshot from an earlier arrest. Check it out here: https://ift.tt/2Tz4Gk4 https://ift.tt/2V2fhSa
âPraised be doubt! I advise you to greet
Cheerfully and with respect the man
Who tests your word like a bad penny.
Iâd like you to be wise and not to give
Your word with too much assurance.
Read history and see
The headlong flight of invincible armies.
Wherever you look
Impregnable strongholds collapse and
Even if the Armada was innumerable as it left port
The returning ships
Could be numbered.
Thus one day a man stood on the unattainable summit
And a ship reached the end of
The endless sea.
O Beautiful the shaking of heads
Over the indisputable truth!
O brave the doctorâs cure
Of the incurable patient!
But the most beautiful of all doubts
Is when the downtrodden and despondent raise their heads
          and
Stop believing in the strength
Of their oppressors.
[âŠ]
There are the thoughtless who never doubt
Their digestion is splendid, their judgment is infallible.
They donât believe in the facts, they believe only in themselves.
When it comes to the point
The facts must go by the board
Their patience with themselves
Is boundless. To arguments
They listen with the ear of a police spy.Â
The thoughtless who never doubt
Meet the thoughtful who never act.
They doubt, not in order to come to a decision but
To avoid a decision. Their heads
They use only for shaking. With anxious faces
they warn the crews of sinking ships that water is dangerous.
Beneath the murdererâs axe
They ask themselves if he isnât human too.
Murmuring something
About the situation not yet being clarified, they go to bed.
Their only action is to vacillate.
Their favorite phrase is: not yet ripe for discussion.
Therefore, if you praise doubt
Do not praise
The doubt which is a form of despair.
What use is the ability to doubt to a man
Who canât make up his mind?
He who is content with too few reasons
May act wrongly
But he who needs too many
Remains inactive under danger.â
â Bertolt Brecht, âIn Praise of Doubtâ (1932), translated by Taylor Stoehr (2009)
â Today is an Internet-wide day of action for net neutrality â
Thereâs been a major development over the past 24 hours: another member of Congress just came out in support of the House Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn FCC Chairman Ajit Paiâs net neutrality repeal.
This is a big deal and could help push other lawmakers do the same, but we have to act fast because the deadline is just over a week away.
Today is a massive day of action to show lawmakers that people still care about net neutrality so weâre asking everyone to click here and tell Congress not to let their chance to save net neutrality slip away.
Weâve been fighting for months without seeing any movement in Congress, watching the clock ticking down to the deadline. But Rep Joe Morelle (NY-25) his support for the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution could change that.
If we act fast, we can leverage this new momentum to unleash a small landslide of other representatives coming out for net neutrality before the December 10th deadline, which will make a huge difference in the battles ahead.
Today weâre asking the entire Internet to sign this open letter to Congress telling them to do the right thing and support net neutrality before itâs too late.
Your voice matters. As part of todayâs Internet-wide day of action, thousands of others are speaking out, along with celebrities, musicians, and websites like Tumblr, Postmates and Etsy.
You can join them and show your support for net neutrality by submitting an âI support net neutralityâ photo. We will be flooding lawmakersâ social media feeds with pictures, so if they decide to vote against the open Internet we will make them look us in the eye as they do it.
Click here to sign our open letter and then submit your âI support net neutralityâ photo into our gallery:
We canât let this deadline come and go without making Congress remember that the whole Internet is watching. Weâre still fighting for net neutrality. And we wonât forget if they betray us.
Tell everyone you know to take action at DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com and spread the word any way you can. Click here to find ideas on how you can use your slice of the Internet â whether thatâs your Tumblr blog, a website you run, or any of your social media accounts â to help get the word out. Weâre counting on you!
âRatchet is a racialized term. So is ghetto. So is thug. So is welfare queen. Someone does not have to EXPLICITLY say the word âblackâ in order for something to be racist against black people. Speaking in flagrantly racist terms is one of the least sophisticated manifestations of racism today.â
â TemperedFury on Philip DeFrancoâs, creator of the YouTube channel Philly D, use of racialized language. (via knowledgeequalsblackpower)
Today is the first ever Art Action Day. Weâre partnering with a group called The Federation to encourage artists and activists to speak out with their art.
We gave you this prompt:
When they write the headlines and history books what do you want them to say? And #WhatWillYouDo to make it happen?
Now we want to share our own commitments for making 2018 the best it can possibly be.
We want 2018 to be a year of Black voices.
To make it happen, weâre going to use Tumblr to double the number of people who see this year's #Blackouts and help create sustainable online spaces of positivity for Black people all around the world. Weâll also be working with Color of Change to increase the number of Black writers and showrunners in Hollywood. Look for some of that next month during our Black History Month celebration.
We want 2018 to be a turning point for gender equality.
During Womenâs History Month (and all year long) weâll be working with NARAL Pro-Choice America end pregnancy discrimination, advance paid family leave, and strengthen the economic security of women and families. And weâll elevate the stories of sexual assault and harassment from the #MeToo movement, rooted in the idea that bodily autonomy is a basic human right.
We want 2018 to see record voter turnout among young people.
Weâre planning four voter registration drives with DoSomething.org to make sure everyone whoâs eligible can vote and make their voices heard in the midterm elections.
We want 2018 to guarantee equal rights for everyone.
Weâre partnering with Freedom for All Americans to protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination, and It Gets Better to elevate LGBTQ+ voices. And weâre throwing everything we can behind the passage of the DREAM Act.
We want 2018 to be the year mental illness loses its stigma.
Weâll be walking for mental health with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to get 10,000 people to sign the Stigma Free pledge.
#WhatWillYouDo in 2018?
If you havenât made your own commitment for 2018, thereâs still time. Draw, make a GIF, write a song or a poemâanything you want! Just tag it #ArtActionDay and #WhatWillYouDo to inspire other people to make their own commitments.
This year's Notable Government Documents reflect what's on everyone's minds: climate change and how to preserve the data.
With the status of government documents as reliable sources being eroded, the work of the government document specialist may become exponentially more complicated in the next few years. As one can imagine, the issue of climate change is an important theme among the Notable Government Documents of 2016, along with such topics of interest as military history, international and domestic policy, and national resources.
#Precarity Dispatches turned 4 today! How to celebrate? I have some ideas -- one or more new pages on this Tumblr about precarity and working in the gig economy. For now though, letâs just look pictures -- any one of which would make a post just by itself...more here and here.
Considering informal employees on International Workers Day
Bulawayo24 News (press release) (blog) - âApr 21, 201â7. On the 1st of May every year, Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in celebrating International Workers' Day. International Workers Day originated in the late 19th century when several United States of America labour movements went on strike, demanding
A Practical Agenda for Revolutionary Times
Project Syndicate - âApr 21, 201â7. The report's argument in favor of free trade is not new, nor is its recommendation that âactive labor -market policiesâ be used to cushion the blow of lost jobs and livelihoods.
Producing inequality: Creative economies in Cairo
Mada Masr - âApr 20, 2017. The arts and reasons for financially supporting them are described by English-speaking cultural policy makers globally through labor terminology such as industry, economy, strengthening capacities, sustainable and integrative growth, efficiency and
What Color Is Southern Europe's Parachute?
STRATFOR - âApr 17, 2017â. But many workers in the "grey economy," which lacks basic labor rights and protections, are in an even worse position than their formally employed peers.
After Economic Crisis, Low Birthrates Challenge Southern Europe
New York Times - âApr 17, 2017â. Grandparents have traditionally been the primary source of child care in the south, but Greek austerity policies have reduced pensions so much that the family safety net is unraveling, said Dimitrios Karellas, the general secretary of the Labor
If Germany's Got a Jobs Miracle, Not Everyone's a Believer
Bloomberg - âApr 13, 2017. That's because according to his view, even with the lowest unemployment rate since reunification 27 years ago, Germany's job market is hiding a growing class of low-wage earners, yawning income inequality and precarious conditions for older workers
Qatar's Struggle to Reform Labor Laws
The Cairo Review of Global Affairs (blog) - âApr 12, 2017â. Since the beginning of the year, Qatar has taken major steps to overhaul its kafala system, the legal framework governing migrant labor, and improve labor laws that currently place Qatar fifth in the Global Slavery Index. However, the essential
The Stories About Abu Dhabi That Are Rarely Told
The New Yorker - âApr 13, 2017. And, yes, the country's work force was made up largely of non-citizens, too many of them working in precarious, exploitative situations far from their home countries.
Workers cheated as federal contractors prosper
NMPolitics.net - âApr 13, 2017. The Labor Department tried to address the problem in 2016 with a rule that would have required federal contractors to disclose wage and safety violations and come into compliance with the law if they wanted to keep doing business with the government
Catarina Martins, the Woman Shaking up Portugal's Political Scene
News Deeply - âApr 13, 2017. Our focus is on combating precarious working conditions. And while combating ... doesn't happen. So we want to have very specific labor legislation on parenthood to ensure the equal division of leave when it comes to taking care of family
The Socialist Surrealist Oikospiel Has a Wild Vision for the Future of Videogame Labor
Paste Magazine - âApr 11, 2017â. Layoffs and shutdownsâeven of seemingly successful large studios like THQ and Irrationalâ put developers in precarious situations, struggling to support families and moving across the country (or the globe) to follow the work.
These Burmese palm oil workers say they're trapped on plantations ...
PRI - âApr 11, 2017â. Workers migrated to Myanmar's young palm oil plantations. They were promised reliable jobs in a growing industry. Instead, they found themselves caught in ...
Student-workers must be appropriately compensated
Daily Californian - âApr 11, 2017â. In turn, the university exploits students' financial insecurities by structuring loans and work-study into their financial aid packages to directly employ cheap, precarious student labor to run campus facilities in positions of hyper-flexibility and
GEO to vote on walkout authorization after final scheduled contract negotiation
The Michigan Daily - âApr 7, 2017â. The bargaining has taken on heightened significance in Michigan's precarious labor environment, as this is the first contract GEO has negotiated under right-to-work laws.
Precarity unlimited | BusinessMirror
Business Mirror - âApr 5, 2017â. NONREGULAR, insecure, unprotected and disposable. This is how angry trade unionists describe âcontractualâ jobs, such as those held by the endo, or 5-5-5, ...
Automation will degrade more jobs that it will eliminate - Frontpage ...
E-Flux - âMar 31, 2017â. [image] In the just-released April issue of Brooklyn Rail, Jason E. Smith dismantles much of the conventional wisdom about impending automation.
from the archives, 2013 podcast: Itâs More Than #Poverty: Employment #Precarity Increasing in Greater Toronto | the #city)
Precarious employment is increasing in the Hamilton and Greater Toronto Area and its harmful effects on individuals, families, and community life are documented in a recently released research report. On the podcast, The City hears from labour economist Wayne Lewchuk and lead author of a research study that explores poverty, employment precarity, Â household well-being, and community involvement in southern Ontario. The report seeks to broaden the public discussion around poverty, and implicate deteriorating work conditions as a major aspect of poverty and social wellbeing.
The report is a collaboration between McMaster University, United Way of Toronto, and the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario. Itâs More Than Poverty: Employment Precarity and Household Wellbeing examines the dramatic changes in precarious employment over the last few decades, revealing that only sixty percent of all workers in the Hamilton and Greater Toronto region have stable, secure jobs. In addition to looking at the impact of precarious employment on individuals, the report also looks at its harmful effect on families and communities.
Wayne Lewchuk also discusses how the  economic and labour landscape in Hamilton and the Toronto region has drastically changed over the last 30 years. While the Fordist era was characterized by mass employment (for white men, that is), mass consumption, and an interventionist state, the post-Fordist era is notable for labour market deregulation, income/wage polarization, and the subsumption of full employment as a policy goal in favour of labour flexibility and the perceived demands of business and corporate interests.
While this report focuses on the Greater Toronto region, it raises broader questions about employment security, social inequality, and community wellbeing for cities across Canada and beyond.
Wayne Lewchuk is professor of labour studies and economics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Trackwomen, 1943. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company
Series: Women Working In Industry, 1940 - 1945. Record Group 86: Records of the Womenâs Bureau, 1892 - 1995
March is Womenâs History Month! Women have shaped this countryâs history in more ways than we can count. Long before Rosie the Riveter joined the war effort in the 1940s, women earned wages to support themselves and their families. This series of posts celebrates the diversity of womenâs labor, ranging from industry to agriculture to folklore and beyond.Â
This archival series (Women Working In Industry, 1940 - 1945) contains images depicting women and their contributions to the war effort during World War II. The photographs show women for the first time on a mass scale and from every social and economical background preforming jobs that have been traditionally considered as menâs work. In addition to the clerical and secretarial fields, women are seen working in the aircraft industry, the metal industry, ordnance, the railroad, the shipyards, as well as the military services. There are approximately 94 different occupations shown in this series where women were performing the work.
This monthâs Womenâs History series comes via Nora Sutton, one of our interns from the Department of Stateâs Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) program. Nora is finishing her Masterâs in Public History at West Virginia University this semester.
âŠ#precarity is not just about #adjuncts & itâs global. This issue, aggregated but manually edited from Google News alerts, is longer than usual, partly becaus I started it last week saved it to drafts, intending to publish later that same day, Oops. Forgot. Remembering this morning and checking for updates, lo and behold, I saw more than just a few more storie and added them. The post is twice as long now but still does not cover the entire month of March. Mostly though, thatâs because global precarity is on the rise
From Pink Collars to Pink Hats: Working-Class Feminism and the Resistance
The American Prospect - âMar 29, 2017. There, they joined a new generation of labor activists: teachers, nurses, government workers, restaurant servers, home health-care aides, communications workers, and thousands of other working-class women and men who turned out to protest Donald Trump
Workers Hold the Keys
Jacobin magazine - âMar 23, 2017â. The reason the welfare state arose in the West in the time that it did was because of enormous and violent class struggle, in which labor unions managed to extract these kinds of concessions from employers in a way that had not been possible previously.
'The Collapse of the White Working Class'
The Atlantic - âMar 24, 2017.  âThe labor market has very much turned against them.â (Conversely ... The study spotlights just how precarious the lives of less-educated, white, middle-age Americans have become in recent decadesâand how precarious they must perceive their lives to be.
Chile: end of the copper strike and mass mobilization against private pensions system
In Defense of Marxism - âMar 29, 2017. "Confirming that the aim of the bosses in these negotiations has been, from the beginning to make workers' conditions more precarious , and faced with the intransigent employer's position, which if introduced would be an ominous precedent, not just for
Brazil moves to allow outsourcing in labor law modernization
Reuters - âMar 22, 2017â. Unions say it will make employment ore precarious and increase the ranks of the 12 million unemployed in Latin America's largest economy.
International support grows for petition to free framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers
World Socialist Web Site - âMar 20. 3-17. Workers and young people around the world have signed the online petition to demand the freedom of 13 Maruti Suzuki workers in India who have been ...
Analyst: If Elected, Guillermo Lasso Will Destabilize Ecuador
teleSUR English - âMar 29, 2017. By outsourcing can generate more jobs, reducing wages, reducing the basic wage, reducing worker levels for labor rights can quickly generate more employment,â Reyes said, pointing to the promises to loosen regulations.
A Glimpse Into Moscow's Little Kyrgyzstan
The Diplomat - âMar 24, 2017â, As Bermet remarks, âthis doesn't happen only in Russia but globally; it is a neoliberal economic trend, whereby a precarious labor force is exploited and all conditions are created [to have] illegal workers. [They] haven't got labor contracts, so they....
Letter: The Graduate Employee Organization wants to empower those who are marginalized
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian - âMar 29, 2017. We know that students of color, particularly international grads, experience daily harassment and racism at their work and in their community; that they cannot afford to live in Amherst and that without summer funding they find themselves routinely in
What Exists is Good: On âThe Architecture of Neoliberalismâ
lareviewofbooks - âMar 25, 2017â, The Central Building, then, as Spencer writes, is âan architecture able to establish a spatial framework for maximizing the productivity of precarious labour while, at the same time, providing an image of socially oriented collectivity.â
The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death
The New Yorker - âMar 22, 2017â. Perhaps, as Lyft suggests, Mary kept accepting riders while experiencing contractions because âshe was still a week away from her due date,â or âshe didn't believe she was going into labor yet.â Or maybe Mary kept accepting riders because the gig economy...
Platform Companies Are Becoming More Powerful â But What Exactly Do They Want?
New York Times - Mar 21, 2017. For now, the tensions that platforms can breed have been obscured - or at least ignored - in large part because platformized labor has arrived first in sectors where employment was already widely precarious and contract-based, like taxi driving.Â
Free the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers!
World Socialist Web Site - âMar 19, 2017â. Manesar Maruti Suzuki workers to intimidate workers across India and demonstrate to big business that they will act with utter ruthlessness to stamp out worker resistance to low wages, precarious contract-labor employment and brutal working conditions.
A third of Argentina's population live in poverty, according to the Catholic Church
MercoPress - âMar 13, 2017â. Argentina urban poverty rate rose to 32.9% in the third quarter of 2016, which means 13 million people due to a precarious labor market and lack of long-term development policies, according to a report presented last week by the Social Debt Observatory....âWe never promised we would turn poverty overnightâ, said Macri who recalled that he admits the numbers, contrary to previous governments
Gov. Jerry Brown in Washington: 'Wherever we are going to find common ground, we are going to do it'
Los Angeles Times - âMar 20, 2017. Even after President Trump has put himself on a path of confrontation with California on so many issues - threatening the state's sanctuary cities, its landmark fuel mileage standards and its precarious budget - Brown says he's not going to be
Rajoy's Neglect of Spanish Working Poor Risks Backlash
Bloomberg - âMar 14, 2017â. The precarious nature of the labor market and persistently low productivity are two of the main dangers facing Spain, it said.
India. The subhuman exploitation of child labor does not cease
Liberian Dialogue - âMar 19, 2017â. In Guatemala there are about one million children working in a precarious situation. The authorities have launched a campaign against child labor under the slogan âDo not wash your hands. Work is not childish. â This spot has been awarded at the Cannes ...
The End of the US Empire Can Be a New Beginning for Our Democracy
The Nation. - âMarch 21, 2017. The groundwork was laid for the World Trade Organization, whose protections Reagan rightly called a âCorporate Bill of Rights,â insulating global capital from financial, environmental, labor, and public-health regulations. Unions ... Clinton also
Labor Market Still Not Accelerating
Minyanville.com - âMar 14, 2017â. The release of the Fed's very own LMCI for January 2017 continues to indicate the same precarious shape of the labor market rather than how it is so often described. It may be qualified as "strengthening" but only in comparison to what were clearly
How unaccompanied youth become exploited workers in the US
UPI.com - âMar 14, 2017â. Research shows that unaccompanied migrant youth face labor exploitation and suggests that President Donald Trump's orders exacerbate the precarious work conditions of unaccompanied immigrant youth workers in the United States. Photo by Kevin ...
Urban Poverty in Argentina Rose to 32.9% in 3rd Quarter of 2016
Latin American Herald Tribune - âMar 9, 2017â. BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's urban poverty rate rose to 32.9 percent in the third quarter of 2016 affecting 13 million people due to the precarious labor market and lack of long-term development policies, according to a report presented Thursday by the ...
USA: The Ruling Class Takes Aim: Labor Must Unite and Fight!
In Defense of Marxism - âMar 16, 2017â, But all of this is an impossible dream for millions of workers who must endure low wages, no benefits, unsafe conditions, precarious employment, irregular scheduling, split shifts, and arbitrary dismissals. Unfortunately, the current crop of labor
What we can learn from the Irish on mass migration and economies
The Hill (blog) - âMar 16, 2017â. For centuries, the Irish experience has been synonymous with out-migration. One of the earliest studies of the Irish diaspora came from socialist Friedrich Engels who, in his 1848 work, The Condition of the Working Class in England, gave a thorough accounting of Irish migration into newly industrialised England....one of the first field-studies on Marx's idea of the âreserve army of labor â or the âsurplusâ population of would-be workers that could be tapped anytime by Big Business in order to control labor and labor costs.
No coincidence that "Sharing Economy" rises across New Mexico during hard times
KRWG - âMar 15, 2017â. With so many people in precarious economic circumstances, the interest in renting out one's living room or selling car rides is understandable, but you have to wonder how many realize they are creating wealth for others with their own assets and labor
1M graduates face bleak future
Inquirer.net - âMar 13, 2017â. One million students graduating from college this year are facing a bleak future, according to the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).
Equipping our kids for the new labour market
Policy Options (registration) - âMar 13, 2017â. Youth unemployment has stagnated, and precarious employment has been rising since the late 1980s. The transition to adulthood is increasingly delayed and the stability adulthood once promised can no longer be relied upon.
No coincidence 'sharing economy' rises in hard times
Las Cruces Sun-News - âMar 10, 2017â. With so many people in precarious economic circumstances, the interest in renting out one's living room or selling car rides is understandable, but you have to wonder how many realize they are creating wealth for others with their own assets and labor
At Labor's Crossroads
The Nation. - âMar 8, 2017. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the most important union in the country and one of the largest, is a pretty big deal, but it would be an even bigger deal if the American labor movement were not itself in such a tenuous state.
Our new critical workbook âTraining For Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Educationâ is now available internationally and as a free download through: http://joaap.org/press/trainingforexploitation.htm
This 96-pages workbook is a critical resource pack for educators teaching employability, âprofessional practiceâ and work-based learning.
It provides a pedagogical framework that assists students and others in deconstructing dominant narratives around work, employability and careers, and explores alternative ways of engaging with work and the economy. Training for Exploitation? includes tools for critically examining the relationship between education, work and the cultural economy. It provides useful statistics and workshop exercises on topics such as precarity, employment rights, cooperation and solidarity, as well as examples of alternative educational and organising practices. Training for Exploitation? shows how we can both critique and organise against a system that is at the heart of the contemporary crises of work, student debt and precarity.
'For many years the members of Precarious Workers Brigade have been developing insightful analyses, tools and actions questioning wageless and other exploitative forms of labour in the arts and education sectors. âTraining for Exploitation?â is no exception. As an educator I support the effort the book makes to provide the analysis and the tools needed to challenge the conversation, now predominant in the classroom, concerning âemployabilityâ. As a feminist I recognise many of these tools from past and contemporary practices of consciousness raising. They are effective and I encourage readers to use themâ. - Silvia Federici
Written by PWB, Foreword by Silvia Federici
Published by Journal of Aesthetics & Protest (JOAAP)
Designed by Evening Class, Printed by Calverts
96 pages, black and white with color cover
The book is an open invitation to both educators and students to use and build on. Weâd love to hear what you make of it!
Precarity Dispatches @precaritydispatches - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
gracieabrams
areudirty
2087
kianamaiart
amandla
vaporwave
