Study Group: Fast Food Workers, Recent Strikes, and "Alternative" Labor
Photo: Jenny Brown Originally posted on Labor Notes
Saturday September 21st: 6-8 PM
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston Street, Boston, MA (Copley Square)
This Summer, fast food workers across the country have launched strikes and pushed for unions and better jobs. SEIU has played a large role in this movement, utilizing a "new" or "alternative" labor model, supporting smaller, independent workers' initiatives, organizing symbolic strikes, and pushing for a higher national minimum wage. Locally, workers at Insomnia Cookies recently launched a strike and joined the Industrial Workers of the World.
Saturday, May 18th
6:00PM
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St, Boston, MA
Topic this month: The Politics of Women and Health: how gender inequality serves capital and state control. We'll be reading several articles describing the lack of access to healthcare, mistreatment by medical institutions, and forced treatment (psychiatric and reproductive) that affect women, paying attention to the similar and different forms of oppression experienced by women who are from the dominant culture and those who are from minority communities or developing countries. Drawing upon insights from previous readings, such as Caliban and the Witch, we'll speculate on how such maltreatment benefits capital and the state.
Thanks to all who came out to talk about The Housing Monster with us last month! There's a ton going on in the Boston area this month. Here's a few actions and events you could find Common Struggle at in November.
Submitted by redzarathustra on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 06:18
Anarchism is often portrayed as an isolated group of angsty teens smashing a Starbucks window. However, Anarchism historically has been a vibrant movement active in nearly every corner of the world. In this reading group we will discover the movement that is Anarchism, its history and culture, as a force for total liberation. This is a great opportunity to explore your curiosity about a widely misunderstood ideology and to learn its fundamental beliefs. For this reading group we'll be reading Black Flam e: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism by Michael Schmidt and Lucien Van Der Walt.
1. Sacco and Vanzetti March - August 26th
2. Common Struggle Reading Group - The Housing Monster, September 15th and October 6th
3. Ongoing Boston Fare Strike meetings and actions.
-Anti-Austerity Thursday, May 24th.
Join Common Struggle members as we stand up against measures that put the cost of the recession on the shoulders of the working class. Make the rich pay for their own crisis!
-Monday, April 16: Platypus Forum - Reform, Resistance, or Revolution?
6:30 pm
Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, Chinatown, Boston, MA
Common Struggle member Gayge to speak at a panel hosted by Platypus. Speakers:
Jeff Booth (Socialist Alternative)
Gayge (Common Struggle Libertarian Communist Federation)
Joe Ramsey (Kasama Project)
Laura Lee Schmidt (Platypus)
J. Phil Thompson (MIT)
This event concerns the forms of anticapitalist politics available today: reform or resistance or revolution or a combination of the three.
We are so inspired to be part of this new movement of people, struggling on behalf of the 99% against a system that allows corporations to run the world. We are thrilled about the wide use of direct democracy and popular assemblies, the participation of unions and community groups, and the honest efforts to include the voices of the most oppressed. We consider these the basic building blocks of a healthy society based on freedom and equality – which is what we're fighting for.