Category Archives: labor

An Early Gig Economy: Pro Wrestling

Posted on November 2019 by Neil Parthun

By now, almost everybody knows that professional wrestling is a “worked” sport—requiring wrestlers to advance storylines, choreograph matches and implement predetermined outcomes set by the industry’s bookers and writers. Yet the in-ring entertainment provided by these men and women can … Continue reading →

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Strike Averted! Workers of SEIU Local 73 Ratify Contract with University Administration

Posted on September 2019 by Nick Goodell

From November of 2018 until August, 2019, the workers of Service Employees International Union Local 73 were negotiating a new contract with the UIUC administration. In July, members of the local overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. Formal notice of … Continue reading →

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May Day Rally 2019

Posted on June 2019 by Kristina Khan

This is the text of a speech given at the GEO May 1 rally on the UIUC Main Quad. Thanks to the GEO for having me. Not just because May Day is truly and historically a celebration of anarchist labor … Continue reading →

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It’s Not an Immigration Crisis, It’s a Global Labor Tragedy

Posted on May 2019 by Janice Jayes

An underclass of “undocumented” workers in the U.S., sweatshops in Asia, child miners in Africa, contract ironworkers in Dubai … we live in a world of globalized labor exploitation. This doesn’t just mean a world where workers in many countries … Continue reading →

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GEO Statement Against the Proposed ICE Detention Center in Dwight, Illinois

Posted on May 2019 by GEO

February 28, 2019 We, the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IFT/AFT Local 6300 AFL-CIO, strongly condemn the proposed construction of a private prison in Dwight, Illinois. The Dwight Planning Commission met on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 … Continue reading →

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The Labor Problem

Posted on May 2019 by Public i

by Eugene V. Debs – unsigned editorial in Locomotive Firemen’s Monthly Magazine, vol. 3, no. 5 (May 1879), p. 146. Whatever politicians may say to the contrary, however much they may attempt to lead the masses away from the truth, … Continue reading →

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No Time to Wait: Let’s Make a Green New Deal!

Posted on April 2019 by Patricia Simpson

As a series of intergovernmental panels and the March 15 global wave of student strikes remind us, the environmental crisis is no longer a thing of the future. It is our here and now, exacting a toll on the world’s … Continue reading →

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Women Workers on the March: UNITE HERE Hotel Workers Strike

Posted on March 2019 by Stephanie Fortado

Currently women workers are leading the march of labor in this country. Although it is lost amid the headlines of the #MeToo movement, this movement’s call for an end to sexual harassment and assault is at its core a demand … Continue reading →

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Illiberal America: A Report Card

Posted on March 2019 by David Prochaska

I never thought I would live to see the U.S. turn into the illiberal, authoritarian, populist, white-nationalist country it has already increasingly become in early 2019. Illiberalism Turns Liberal Democracy on its Head “Liberal democracy” is characterized in theory by … Continue reading →

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The Chancellor’s Massmail on Free Speech Who Is It Talking About?

Posted on June 2018 by Bruce Rosenstock

Returning from a meeting of the American Association of Universities (AAU), Chancellor Jones shared a joint statement that was crafted at the meeting in regard to free speech on campus. The statement starts out by saying that people whose views … Continue reading →

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