Tribunus Plebis Podcast

2023 was a banner year for organized labor - Teamsters got a record contract at UPS, the United Auto Workers got record breaking contracts at the Big 3. Starbucks has been organizing across the nation, SAG-AFTRA/WGA had victories. Vegas Hotel workers and healthcare workers across the country succeeded as well.

But what may this mean as we look forward into 2024 and beyond? Join us for a discussion!

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Police unions should not exist. Not only do they protect corrupt, violent, even murderous cops, but they are also staunch defenders of the status quo.

They use their power to grow in both size and power and to use their strength against the working class and poor.

They are the ultra-violent arm of the state which is dead set against the organizing of the proletariat.

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The National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, has ruled on the Cemex case, issued their "Final Rule", and Biden altered the calculation for prevailing wage on federal projects - All great wins for labor and the working class.

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The United Auto Workers look likely to strike in what would be one of the largest strikes ver in this country.

They are fighting for wages and benefits, yes, but also for basic humanity and dignity.

Join us as we dive into what got us here, why, and how it might be resolved!

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Yellow Freight, the 3rd largest LTL freight company in the country has closed its door and is ready to declare bankruptcy.

How did this once venerable, near 100 year old company, get to this point? Who is truly to blame for this turn of events?

It's certainly not the Teamsters.

Join us as we dig through some history, find the villain(s), and set the record straight.

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The US Supreme Court screw over organized labor with their terrible ruling in the Glacier v Teamsters case.

Glacier is just the tip of the iceberg in the attack on unions and collective worker actions.

Join Tribunus Plebis Media as we break this down.

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Most workers in the United States and Canada are barely aware of the holiday known as May Day or International Workers Day.

Please stop by for a moderate length, yet still incomplete origin story and learn where it came from, what it means, and why we don;t celebrate it in the US and Canada!

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Trump is indicted, arrested, and arraigned... and it changes nothing at all.

Brandon Johnson is elected Mayor of Chicago and Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court... and these two have the potential to actually change things in those cities and states.

Let's discuss bottom up power, what hope means in the political sense, and how we can win.

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We go over the lies and propaganda that lead to the illegal war crime that we call the Iraq War and watch and comment on the video Iraq 20 Years Later

The Warrior Met corporation and the state worked together to snuff out a righteous workers strike in Alabama and the media failed the workers just as badly, myself included.

Join me as we discuss why and how this happened.

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Let's talk about the rhetoric surrounding how we dehumanize and other the unhoused of this country and turn them from neighbors into existential enemies with our words.

"You cannot  truly help those that you do not Respect.

Pity is not respect, victimization is not respect. Criminalizing mere existence and co-existence is not even close to respect.

And without respect we cannot move forward.

And if we continue to do nothing then these bodies which we step over, they will be our legacy."

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(Ep. 61) [Book Talk] ECONOMISM - Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality, by James Kwak

In “Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality”, James Kwak makes a compelling case that an overly simplistic understanding of economics (‘Econ 101’) is exacerbating the economic, social, and political problems of both the United States and the world at large.

It’s extremely important to understand that these simple ideas are being used to mislead us, to lie to us, to cheat us. Kwak does an admirable job of making this clear. And it is equally as important to be alert and to recognize when this is happening so that you can better understand exactly what it is that people are trying to do.

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Today I want to talk about class, solidarity, and the labor struggle.

I’m going to argue that the way we use class in the united states is purposefully misleading, intentionally vague and, ultimately, destructive.

Class, when defined properly, is an incredibly important concept. But, as we will see, the way we talk about class in the united states borders on gibberish. Terms like the middle class and upper middle class are absolute nonsense.

The key to making real, lasting change in the country is the working class, the vast amounts of wage workers who truly make this country run and generate value all throughout the economy.

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Let’s talk about William “Big Bill” Dudley Haywood!

Standing at 6 feet tall and weighing well over 200 pounds, Big Bill was truly larger than life as he battled mining trusts, corporations, private armies, and government forces alike. He fought them with his agile mind, his calloused knuckles, and probably most importantly he damaged them with his words.

He, along with Mother Jones and Eugene Debs, dominated the labor movement of the late 19th to the mid 20th centuries in a way that is still felt even today.

Some activists may have been smarter in one way or another, some more well read in theory, and others more effective at maneuvering, but none left as indelible a mark on the country as these three.

And Big Bill? Well, he left a mark on the world unlike any other… 

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Billionaires give to destroy the country and they give to fill the gaps in society which they create along the way.

Philanthropy is being used to reify the ultra wealthy, sustain and support power and influence, and destroy democracy and choice.

Philanthropic giving is about power and the arrogant assumptions that the wealthy know better what to do with your stolen wealth than you would if they’d let you keep it.

Join us as we explore the corrupting influence of philanthropy to our government and society.

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Donald Trump gets raided, and the fallout from the Breonna Taylor murder continues.

What do these two events have in common? They can help us understand how systemically corrupt, violent, and lazy the justice system truly is and this understanding can provide insight into the crumbling of the 4th amendment, especially as it relates to class disparities.

The reactions to these two events exposes how power, and connections to power, can lead to fascistic responses, both materially and rhetorically, while doing nothing to help the oppressed and reinforcing class and power hierarchies which are sustained through the use of state violence and terror under the guise of community policing.

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Stochastic Terrorism

noun

1. The public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.

Join me for a discussion of rhetoric, demagogues, power wielders, and the probable but unpredictable terror which they are able to unleash on the world at large through their very loud, very frequent demonization of minorities and the oppressed.

The cowardice of the police in Uvalde was shameful enough, but since that horrific event those same police have shown cowardice in a myriad of other ways. Everything from their initial lies about what happened, wrongfully blaming innocent people, lying about the events and trying to gaslight everybody, and even right down to harassing the woman who defied the cops cowardice and saved her own child. 

Plus, anti-lgbtq legislation passes in Ohio and Texas and the results harm the members of those communities.

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and opens the door to return to the dark days of no federal protection for same-sex marriage, anti-sodomy laws, loss of contraceptive care, and possibly even interracial marriage.

Also: Cops get even more immunity, immigrants lose yet another basic right, and more chuds will be armed in the streets.

To sum it up:

Right to abortion, gone.

Ability of cops to violate your rights with no punishment, granted.

Indefinite detention? Hells yeah, this is america!

Guns under very jacket? Fuck yeah, brother!

Less freedom, less safe, less liberty.

I’m fucking disgusted frankly.

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Just me yelling about cowardly, quailing, perpetually shook police and how their lack of action killed children in the Uvalde, TX school shooting.

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A white supremacist murdered multiple people in Buffalo, NY, driven to murder by, at least in part, the so-called Great Replacement conspiracy theory which is extremely popular amongst racists, nazis, white supremacists all across the globe, and the alt-right in the United States.

This racist theory has been trumpeted all across the media, but nowhere more loudly than FOX News, and its most popular host, Tucker Carlson.

Join me as we suss out how, why, and where these theories are spread and how they connect to the idea of othering and white supremacy.

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The Supreme Court is about to officially overturn Roe v. Wade and Florida passes homophobic law.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised, but we should definitely be angry about these things.

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Such was the power of El Pulpo, the United Fruit Company octopus, whose arms stretched across the Caribbean and throughout Central and South America.

They ran countries, monopolized shipping lanes, hoarded land, corrupted militaries and governments, used the United State military as knuckle breakers and as their own personal military force, and broke the backs and spirits of peasants and presidents alike.

And they did it all for bananas, the most popular fruit in the United states.

This story, as wild as it is, is just one aspect of the power and the horrors of United Fruit and the terror, oppression, and raw, naked brutality with which it bludgeoned vulnerable populaces until they broke under the beatings.

The company destroyed so many lives, so many countries, so many eco-systems, and so many spirits over the 20th century that most of them have yet to fully recover from their status as banana republics.

Policy ghouls are telling us, in a sort of passive voice sort of way, that if we just impose sanctions on this other country then they’ll be nicer.

That’s what they tell us.

What they actually do is begin to starve, debase, degrade, torture, and murder poor people in a bid to create internal resentment.

Sanctions are cruelty. Sanctions do not work.

Sanctions are murder.

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Welcome to the inaugural "Book Talk" episode on Tribunus Plebis!

We will discuss the book "Austerity - The History of a Dangerous Idea" by Mark Blyth, as well as austerity in a broader, more general discussion!

Austerity is, basically, the idea that regressively taxing citizens while also drastically reducing government spending on basic services is a good way to alleviate the debt burden of a country.

In other words it is, as a theory, both immoral and built of utter hogwash.

Austerity is, in reality, a brutal attack on innocent people’s health, happiness, and livelihoods. It’s cruelty lies in how it punishes the 99% while rewarding multi-national megabanks, central banks, and countries for their risky loans made to already heavily indebted governments of all levels.

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The one thing that has been consistent in hyper capitalist america over the past… well, forever… is that companies and capital owners will absolutely, positively, without doubt and without hesitation put employees lives on the line to make an extra buck and nobody but the workers themselves have ever been able to put a stop to it.

It was true in 1911, it was true even on 9/11 when multiple companies actually told their employees that they did not have permission to leave the second tower before it got hit even as the first tower burned, and it is true right now, all across the country.

The only cure for this situation is workers banding together to move as one unit and refuse to work in unsafe conditions, for low wages, and even through natural disasters. The power differential has to be addressed.

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I recently made use of a safety net program to get food into our home and had some thoughts about using welfare and the phenomena of Karen's and Ken's trying to shame struggling people and families.

I also touch on the Rittenhouse debacle and the Arbery trial and it's verdict. No, he isn't a hero, yes, they were racist scumbags. 

And, no, the Arbery decision does not let the locals or this nation off the hook.

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Members of  The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union, representing workers at various Kellogg's plants just voted down a proposed contract and continue their strike! Solidarity!

Kellogg's is set to hire 'replacement workers', aka SCABS.

This episode is for those thinking about crossing the picket lines and stealing jobs from their union siblings.

Scabs are a loathsome bunch.

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The citizenry of the United States is on the ropes.

We are fed up, broke, unhealthy, unlikely to succeed, and dying sooner than we should be. And all that through no fault of our own.

A revolution still seems far-fetched for some, but I don’t agree. A revolution is far closer than most of us would like to admit.

There is still time, but things must be done, actions must be taken.

The systemic failures must be addressed, inequality must be lessened, the wealthy must begin to bear their proper burden both via taxation and fair wages to those they employ. g must be greater than r. Rentiering has to be curtailed.

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As I was pondering the impact of #Striketober and the surge of union strikes and general labor activity in 2021, my mind drifted back to the strikes of 2018 and 2019 and what they mean for the current movement.

We look back to those pre-2020 labor actions and even dip our toes into labor related legislative and cultural issues which both fed the rise of unions in the mid 20th century and then starved them in the 1980's.

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Company towns harm workers, they do nothing to combat inequality - in fact they only exacerbate inequality, and they DEFINITELY do not promote anything we can even remotely call ‘freedom’

Company towns are nothing less than base feudalism.

They always have been, they are right now, and they always will be.

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Of course we had to pull out of Afghanistan.

Let's explore why.

Should we? Can we? Will we?

Please join me as we discuss prison abolition - The what, when, and how.

This isn't about making better cages. This is about no more cages

The goal, in fact, is not just to disappear prisons, but to actually make them unnecessary.

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It is OK to demand change, at all levels, from local to systemic, even if we aren't quite sure HOW to make those changes.

Also, the past is clear to see, and the future is predictable, or at least we think it is.

These perspectives are the easiest for us to take. 

The most difficult is to deal with what we are actually doing RIGHT NOW.

Right now is the tyranny which we must deal with, and we don't deal with right now very well.

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Mike Gravel was the rare person who attained power and maintained his morals and ethics.

He is most famous for reading the Pentagon Papers into the public record via Senate sub-committee and for screaming truth into the face of power.

Mike Gravel was a real one.

Rest In Power.

Zach and bread_theory invited me on their stream to help break down and contextualize chapter 12 from the seminal anarchist work "The Conquest of Bread" by Peter Kropotkin.

The chapter was a bit longer than others so we broke it into two seperate streams. The first half was previosuly released as Episode 32 of this podcast. 

For more from bread_theory, please check these links out:

Eugene V. Debs - Labor organizer, socialist, warrior for the working class.

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

Today we are going to talk about a man who is something of a folk hero in the labor movements of the united states but who often lacks a following outside of that particular circle.

He’s a man who unselfishly gave absolutely everything to help the poor and the working people of this country…

I hope that this episode will help flesh out this incredible life for anyone who knows the name but not much of the story and I also hope that this episode will introduce this man to a few more people who might feel inspired by that same story and his struggle.

Bread_theory invited me on their stream to help break down and contextualize chatper 12 from the seminal anarchist work The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin

The chapter was a bit longer than others so we broke it into two seperate streams. Part two should release about a week after part 1!

You've all heard the complaints and excuses... 

"These lazy bums just need to get back to work!" or "We can't find anyone to fill these jobs!"

Tune in to learn why, and how, these statements are bullshit.

Fight for good pay.

A nation-state attacking an open air refugee prison.

When you get right down to it, it really isn't that complex.

A big reason why most of us can't see how uncomplicated it really is, is the media and how they drive the narrative and bend our minds to see things a certain way, through a certain lens.

The charities I mentioned:

Kyrsten Sinema just tells you the truth, for once.

Then we talk about free speech in this country. No, not the Social Media stuff, but real freedom of speech issues.

Issues like the government making speech and assembly illegal. Criminalizing protest. Legalizing murder.

You know, all the fun stuff.

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