A2. Green Unionism

Valerie V. M. Jefferson is a dedicated labor and community advocate based in New Orleans. She made history as the first female President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1560 (2019–2022), representing more than 300 transit workers. During her tenure, she gained national recognition for her leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida, including a high-profile legal battle defending transit workers’ rights.

She currently serves as Southwest Regional Representative for the ATU International Black Caucus (as of May 2025). Beyond labor leadership, Jefferson is President of Women of Action of New Orleans, and holds executive board roles with the NAACP New Orleans Branch and the Independent Women’s Organization. She also hosts the radio show “Advocate for Justice” on WAMF 90.3FM LP and works as an outreach consultant.

Originally from Illinois and raised in Mississippi, Jefferson has deep roots in Louisiana. She studied at Alcorn State University, Southwest Mississippi Community College, and the University of New Orleans. After beginning her career as an educator and law enforcement dispatcher, she became a bus operator with the Regional Transit Authority in 1993, serving for 27 years.

Jefferson is an active member of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church and New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church. Her advocacy spans workers’ rights, women’s rights, voting access, and environmental justice, including the fight for clean air and water. She is married to John A. Jefferson and is the proud mother of one adult child.

The post March 2026 LNS Spotlight: Valerie V. M. Jefferson first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Throughout the week of February 2-8, the Labor Network for Sustainability joined partners across the country to celebrate Transit Equity Day under the theme Transit Moves Democracy. Together, workers, riders, unions, and community organizations uplifted public transit as essential climate infrastructure and as a public good worth protecting.

This year, many transit agencies and advocacy partners took to social media to celebrate the day, sharing stories, rider testimonials, and calls to action. Several agencies honored the legacy of Rosa Parks by symbolically saving a seat on buses in her memory, while others made fares free for the day.

Check out LNS’ Instagram to see the transit equity content we shared throughout the week!

Here are some examples of actions from across the country:

In Pittsburgh, Pittsburghers for Public Transit hosted a press conference celebrating two years of grassroots wins that brought new bus shelters and safer sidewalks to riders.

In Buffalo, the Buffalo Transit Riders Union organized a “Bowl for Better Buses” tournament, building community support for reliable and inclusive transit.

In Madison, Madison Area Bus Advocates partnered with their local library for a Transit Justice book display spotlighting equity and mobility.

At a time when privatization, union-busting, and service cuts threaten public transit systems nationwide, Transit Equity Day was a reminder: every bus line defended is a vote defended. Public goods are the foundation of democracy, and they must be funded and protected.

The post Transit Equity Day first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Ahead of the annual AFGE Legislative Conference, more than 1,000 workers and students braved frigid temperatures Feb. 7 to participate in the first-ever Young Worker March on Washington, organized by AFGE National Vice President Dr. Kendrick Roberson, AFGE’s, AFGE’s National Y.O.U.N.G. Committee, and AFGE’s Women’s and Fair Practices Department.

Participants marched to and from the Capitol before hearing from labor activists about the ability of collective action to effect meaningful reforms for current and future generations. The event was centered on a “Young Workers, Real Demands” platform to secure stability and dignity for the youth workforce.

A common thread repeated during the rally was a call for higher wages for high-value workers.

“Young workers are fed up with being told to work harder, and harder, and harder, meanwhile, we take home less and less and less,” Roberson said. “We will not quietly accept a destiny as a livestock workforce, such that this country can give us the minimum to survive, while milking us for our astonishingly high value.”

Another focus for these young workers was on affordable housing.

“In 2026, it feels like you need a lottery ticket — not a paycheck — just to afford a place to live,” AFGE Y.O.U.N.G. National Committee Chair Aaron Barker said.

The Young Worker March and rally showed immense solidarity across the labor movement and provided hope for the next generation of labor leaders.

Read more at AFGE.

The post Young Workers March first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Podcast on Youtube: Redneck Gone Green with Special Guest Joshua Dedmond

Our Executive Director, Joshua Dedmond, was a guest on the Redneck Gone Green podcast with David Cobb! Here’s a sneak peak of what he discussed:

Same Boss, Same Enemy: Why Workers and Environmentalists Win Together—or Not at All

For too long in the United States, environmentalists and organized labor have been told that they stand on opposite sides of an unbridgeable divide: jobs versus the planet, paychecks versus polar bears. That framing has always been a lie—one carefully cultivated by corporations that profit from both ecological destruction and worker exploitation. Building durable unity between labor and environmental movements is not a “nice idea” or a messaging tweak: It is a strategic necessity for anyone serious about democracy, economic justice, and ecological survival.

Watch/listen to the full podcast.

The post LNS ED on Redneck Gone Green Podcast first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Downtown Minneapolis demonstration January 23, 2026. Photo credit: Creator:Lorie Shaull, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

On the ground resistance by the people of Minneapolis to violent armed occupation by ICE has led the Trump administration to announce an end to its violent “surge” of attacks on immigrant workers and withdraw hundreds of its stormtroopers from the city. It has swung public opinion nationwide against ICE and to sympathy with immigrants. And it has led Democrats in Congress to temporarily halt funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Whether these achievements will persist currently hangs in the balance.

An interview with Kieran Knutson, the president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250 in Minneapolis, described the role of community self-organization, immigrants, and Minneapolis unions:

“In the neighborhood that my wife and I live in, for example, there are 700 people in the rapid response network. There are eight or so similar neighborhood networks across the Twin Cities.” These networks mobilized instantly through social media chat groups to converge on the location of ICE raids with whistles, cameras, and cell phones.

“The immigrant portions of the working class are an incredibly important part of the working class in the Twin Cities and have really strengthened it to be much more pro-union and more militant. Some unions are heavily immigrant, so what’s been going on can’t help but affect them.

“It’s an attack on oppressed sections of the working class, some of the poorest paid sections of the working class, and sections of the working class that have the least rights. I think that unions which want to be fighters for the working class have to be a part of this fight. This army that’s being constructed could just as easily be unleashed against workers who are organizing or on strike, or on social movements.”

The idea for the climactic Day of Truth and Freedom came out of the labor movement.

The unions built the coalition which includes a lot of faith groups and community organizations, ones that represent the Somali community, the Latino community, Native American groups. There’s this problem in U.S. labor law where almost every collective bargaining agreement has a [no-strike] clause. And while this action was not able to avoid that, what it did do was create a situation where tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of workers were absent from work, almost like a mass sick out.

For full interview:
https://inequality.org/article/labors-role-in-minnesotas-ice-resistance/

The post Minneapolis vs. ICE first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo Credit: Chad Davis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

More than 1400 Google workers have petitioned the company to halt its contracts with DHS, CBP, and ICE. Their petition said:

We are Google workers appalled by the violence inflicted by United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs & Border Protection (CBP). In cities across the country we have witnessed these agencies conducting paramilitary-style raids, kidnapping hundreds of civilians, and murdering protestors and legal observers. Just in the last month, Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti have been murdered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies ICE and CBP. ICE’s detention & deportation machine has killed at least 35 people in detention centers since July 2025.

They point out many specific ways that “Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression.”

“Through its ICE operations, DHS is violating civil and national law as well as civil and human rights. We must end our complicity in powering them. As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians. Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor.”

For text of the petition: https://www.googlers-against-ice.com

The post Google Workers Demand: Stop Powering ICE Violence first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Youtube video: Social Strikes

Znetwork has just released a series of seven short videos based on Jeremy Brecher’s LNS report “Social Strikes: Can General Strikes, Mass Strikes, and People Power Uprisings Provide a Last Defense Against MAGA Tyranny?” They include vivid footage of social strikes around the world.

To view “Social Strikes” videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzkWWI6eVu3_aM1tv8I8wv6OVHPSEmyFi

The post See It Now: Social Strikes first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo credit: Jens Buurgaard Nielsen, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A new study finds that just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024.

Source: Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows | Fossil fuels | The Guardian

For full report: Carbon Majors

The post In Case You Haven’t Heard… first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

A Primer on Carbon Capture and Storage Pipelines

Slide courtesy of Andrew Boswell

By Ellen Robottom and Tahir Latif

The first of a two-part blog on the government’s controversial plans to invest over £21Bn in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)1, focusing on the dangers and hazards to local communities of the proposed UK pipeline implementations.

The GJA Steering Group meeting in February was given a presentation by Andrew Boswell, a leading technical and legal expert on matter relating to CCS, on the potential dangers of CO2 pipelines2.  The image above, taken from that presentation, shows the complexity of the arrangements and the plant required to take CO2 from capture to storage.  The full slide set of Andrew’s presentation needs to be seen by as many people as possible to grasp the full range of issues and can be found here.

Click to view presentation

The key point taken from the presentation is that while there will arguably be a need in the future for technology that removes and stores already-existing carbon3, that place does NOT include green-lighting the indefinitely continued use of fossil fuels, i.e. it does not provide a free pass for the fossil fuel companies to continue business as usual extractivism or negate the urgency of a rapid switch to renewables.  Where it is needed, it is to solve a problem, not to allow that problem to continue and become worse.

However, CCS is a key component of the government’s climate change strategy as outlined in the report Unlocking the benefits of the clean energy economy, published in October 2025. Where in the UK the proposed CCS facilities are to be sited can be clearly seen in Slide 13 of Andrew’s presentation, including all areas of the North Sea. 

One of then proposed sites is the ‘Peak Cluster’, aimed at carbon removal from cement and lime production4, in the East Irish Sea just off the coast near Liverpool, currently in its pre-planning consultation stage5.  This has prompted a Letter to Ed Miliband via local MP Matthew Patrick, sent by Mike Vaughn, Managing Director of Red Rocks Nursing Home but effectively on behalf of the whole community around the Wirral.

The letter notes that ‘CCS applied to cement and lime production is widely recognised as one of the highest cost abatement pathways per tonne of CO2 avoided’ and that ‘while the probability of [pipeline] rupture may be low, the consequences are potentially severe’.  This is underlined by the case studies shown in Andrew Boswell’s slide set, with Slide 3 graphically depicting what such consequences actually look like.

Mike’s letter also highlights the dangers of situating such projects in Labour’s preferred PFI/PPP nexus – government money to ‘catalyse’ private investment – which ‘ultimately socialises the long-term risk’ and ‘is difficult to reconcile with intergenerational equity.’

Unfortunately, Reform are jumping on this in certain locations (e.g. the Wirral) in the context of their ‘net stupid’ fake narrative.  This makes it very important that we frame our critique firmly in an understanding that we are in a really dire situation with accelerating climate change and that this is not going to be the solution we need.  More than that, the real solutions are things (good jobs in the renewables and other sectors) that help with cost of living rather than placing all the burden on already stretched households.

Part 2 of this blog will deal in more detail with then issue of jobs, with reference to a forthcoming article co-authored by GJA’s Ellen Robottom and Aled Dilwyn Fisher from Oil Change International titled ‘Jobswashing and Greenwashing: The dubious claims of Labour’s carbon capture gamble’ and to a survey of MPs that has been carried out by our friends at Platform on the role of CCS in the energy system and in employment strategy.

The introductory paragraph to the article states: ‘Beware government and corporate claims of a new industrial revolution and thousands of jobs being created by Labour’s carbon capture projects. It doesn’t take much to see that this jobswashing of a failed, extremely expensive technology favoured by the oil and gas industry is just as misleading as the greenwashing that comes with it.’  This is the essence of the false narrative around CCS, and we will return to the jobs aspects of the debate in the second blog.

Notes

1. Thus far, £9bn has already been given to specific projects, but the government announced in autumn 2024 that it was committing £21.7bn to CCS. However, a search of the various subsidy schemes suggests that in fact around £50bn of subsidies is being committed to CCS-related schemes.  The Climate Change Committee’s 7th carbon budget advice suggests CCS schemes would require public and private investment of £350bn – £408bn by 2050, with up to £136bn for power stations burning gas, and £128bn for burning biomass with CCS (BECCS).
2. CO2 pipelines are only one aspect of the problem. The key issue for climate is the huge upstream emissions from any application based on using gas, meaning that in effect only one third of the total emissions are available for capture – even if the capture and storage technology worked efficiently, which it never has before and is unlikely to now.
3. The focus needs to be on slashing the emissions now by a combination of avoiding anything that uses fossil fuels, and deep demand reduction measures (which we already largely have the technology to accomplish through electrification and structural changes reducing consumption) but that there will probably still be a need after that to remove residual excess CO2 from the atmosphere using direct capture methods, which will be more advanced by then anyway. Global storage capacity is likely to be quite limited, so we should not waste any of it on storing CO2 from unnecessary fossil fuel burning.
4. Cement and lime produce CO2 as inherent process emissions, the majority of which comes from the chemical reaction involved in production rather than the fuel burning to create the high temperatures needed. It is therefore the industry most cited by the government as needing CCS; however, many argue that alternative technologies are in development – alternative building materials, and methods of recycling cement from concrete, which is where the bulk of it is used – and that demand limitation must also be a key approach. It can be argued that retrofitting with carbon capture, building a major pipeline and storage facilities, locks in an inefficient technology and effectively prevents the move to cleaner technologies that could be accomplished within a similar timescale or less.
5. The Peak Cluster is in the High Peak area which spans parts of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire, but the pipeline extends from there along the Wirral, where the main protests are occurring.

Further information

Document of background links provided by Andrew Boswell HERE. 

MP Watch | Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Article, Climate Briefing by A Boswell and S Oldridge, June 2025

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The post A Primer on Carbon Capture and Storage Pipelines first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

Cuba fights US sanctions with sunshine, and grit

Photo by Juan Luis Ozaez on Unsplash

The tightened siege on Cuba by the US is an attack on one of the world’s most sustainable societies by one of the least, and one that is trying to lead a charge towards climate catastrophe because, as Marco Rubio put it in his address to the Munich Security Conference, “we are not afraid of climate change”; as if we could deal with the consequences of climate breakdown by being macho about it.

• Cuba has a population of 10.9 million people, less than a thirtieth of that of the United States. 
• It has a per capita carbon footprint of 2.23 tonnes, less than half of the global average of 4.7 tonnes and a sixth that of the United States; not simply because it has a lower per capita income, but because its society is more organised around sustainability. Which is also why, in 2025, with a per capita income an eighth that of the US, life expectancy, at 79.49, was almost half a year longer. 
• It is spending $129 million on its military this year, an 8 thousandth of the 2026 US military budget. 

Yet Donald Trump poses it as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States. This is, as so many Trump statements are, an inversion of reality. The US has been an unusual and extraordinary threat to Cuba and its people since the first sanctions were imposed by President Eisenhower in 1960. This is not an aberration for the Global South. The Lancet estimated last year that the deaths caused by sanctions imposed around the world by the US and EU have killed 38 million people since 1970 – about half a million a year. But it is peculiarly long term: 65 years of relentless pressure, punctuated by military adventures like the Bay of Pigs, assassination plots and ruthless misinformation campaigns.

The current intensification of this siege, primarily focused on energy sources, having cut off 75% of its oil supplies in the last month, has had to be met by emergency measures. It is striking how many of these consolidate and accelerate Cuba’s path to sustainability; while seeking to protect the population as far as possible from the worst impacts and mobilise them to resist. 

Countries around the world that want to avoid a similar vulnerability to a US energy siege in future will be drawing the conclusion that the faster they move to renewable energy, the safer they will be.

In Energy Generation

• The program of installing large photovoltaic solar parks across the country to move towards a situation in which electricity supply can be guaranteed without fuel imports will be maintained. Until last year 83% of electricity was being generated by aging and unreliable oil fired power stations, supplied largely with oil from Venezuela and Mexico that the US has now shut off. Cuba itself only produces about a third of its needs and increases in local production can’t be qualitatively increased, while imports now allowed from the private sector will be important but relatively small scale. Cuba is nevertheless in the first stages of the rapid turn to solar energy that is also gaining momentum across the whole Global South. Last year 55 solar farms capable of generating 1200 MW were built with Chinese assistance. So far their peak generation has been 900MW, about 40% of peak demand. A further 37 solar farms are due to be completed by the end of 2028 to close the gap further. On a smaller scale, 22 wind turbines are being refurbished to generate another 30MW. This will dent the impact of the sanctions, but the sooner more can be built the better.
• At the same time progress is being made towards the installation of 20,000 off grid distributed solar housing systems, including panels and storage batteries including sales to health and education workers of 10,000 of these.
• The delivery and assembly of these systems will be streamlined to “give energy sustainability to 10,000 family centers in the country” and install 5,000 modules in remote communities. These are the last homes that are not connected to the grid; thereby achieving 100% electrification across Cuba.
• During this year another 5,000 systems will be delivered covering centres where the population receives social care, like nursing homes, children’ s homes and community centres.
• New incentives for renewable sources have been introduced so that people who generate electricity can sell it directly to third parties – another consumer, a company, an industry – not just the Electric Union.

Saving fuel 

• There will be a four day week from Monday to Thursday.
• Fuel sales will be monitored to ensure equitable supply.
• Street lights have had to be dimmed.
• Industry will focus on the manufacture, processing and supply of vital chemicals, like those needed to ensure water, oxygen and chlorine quality for the health system and some industrial processes.
• The tourist industry, essential to earning desperately needed foreign exchange, is being concentrated in hubs to save fuel.
• Cultural programming is being adjusted to encourage more local cultural activities in communities and the movement of amateur artists, and measures have been applied to reduce fuel expenditure to allow the National Baseball series, which is currently at the semi final stage, to conclude.
• Fuel will be prioritised to allow the operation of ports and airports to allow in food, fuels, and medical supplies. The transport of disconnected supplies are being grouped together and then moved to optimise fuel use.

Food production 

• Growing more food locally is crucial. There are plans to grow an additional 200,000 hectares of rice and some of these are already planted. Fuel allocation will be prioritised to make this possible.
• Planting a greater variety of crops is being encouraged as is urban and family farming. 
• Renewable energy sources will be used for irrigation and animal traction will be increased.
• Public transport is being reduced to bare essentials- connections between Havana and main provincial centres twice a day and routes in towns restructured.
• Some of the gaps are being filled by electric cycle rickshaws in all areas, which will be regulated by local authorities, as will prices charged by private carriers.

The impact of this siege is grim. With no fuel for rubbish collection, waste is piling up in the streets. The knock on effects of health, even with Cuba’s immensely impressive public health care system, can’t help but be severe. The US is also pressuring other countries to commit self harm by ending their agreements to employ Cuban doctors in their health care system. This earns Cuba foreign exchange but is also a massive contribution to the health and wellbeing of the countries concerned. 

The defiant words of the Deputy Prime Minister, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga: “We are not going to collapse because the Cuban people do not collapse and have demonstrated it throughout our history”  is a call for solidarity from friendly countries, trade unions and movements around the world, from anyone who does not want to see our world thrown backwards into a last frenzy of white racist fossil fuel imperialism of the sort so nakedly expressed by Marco Rubio in Munich. If you haven’t read this speech please do. It’s an eye opener. The climate movement should have no reservations about whose side it is on. 

Contact the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to see what you can do to help.

Paul Atkin

A lot of the information in this blog comes from an article from Cuba Debate, reporting on a round table discussing the measures being taken to resist US sanctions, which you can read in full here.

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The post Cuba fights US sanctions with sunshine, and grit first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

As a Ship Security Officer (SSO), it is crucial to understand and implement security protocols in order to maintain the safety and security of the ship, its crew, and passengers. In this guide, we will discuss the various security protocols that SSOs should be familiar with.

For those ready to take it on, a ship security officer course provides the essential grounding. But the daily work rests on a handful of clear protocols that keep ships safe from harbor to horizon.

Control the gangway:a

Every person who steps aboard must earn that right. The gangway is the only door to the ship, and it must be treated like one. No unchecked bags. No unverified visitors. Every crew member must know that letting someone slip by without a pass is not kindness, it is a failure. A strict sign in system and a visible officer at the top of the ramp sends a clear message.

Lock what matters:

Engine rooms, steering gear compartments, and bridge wings hold the ship’s nerve centres. These spaces need solid locks and regular checks. An open door might save a few seconds during a work shift, but it invites trouble from anyone wandering where they do not belong. Keys must be controlled. Masters and spares must be accounted for. Small discipline here prevents large disasters.

Drill until it is habit:

Paper plans are useless if crew members freeze when an alarm sounds. Regular drills turn written procedures into muscle memory. Everyone should know their assembly station, their buddy, and the sound of the security alarm. Drills also reveal gaps. A missing torch here, a broken lock there. Fixing these in calm water means they are fixed for good.

Scan the horizon:

Eyes do not stop working when the ship leaves port. Suspicious boats approaching too close, small craft hovering without purpose, or unusual behavior from a following vessel all deserve attention. The officer of the watch must know what looks wrong and when to call the captain. Vigilance is free. The cost of missing a threat is not.

Guard the cargo:

Piracy gets headlines, but cargo theft drains millions in silence. Secure hatches, sealed containers, and accurate counts are the first line of defense. Random spot checks and surprise inspections keep everyone honest. When cargo is handled in multiple ports, the chain of custody must stay tight from the first lift to the final drop.

A business trip abroad. A family holiday. A remote work retreat. Every journey carries hidden variables. The best plans account for flights, hotels, and meetings, but what about the unexpected? A stolen laptop. A sudden protest near the hotel. A medical emergency in an unfamiliar city.

These moments test the traveler. The difference between panic and composure often comes down to one thing: awareness. When people understand what to look for, they become active partners in their own safety. This is what travel risk management provides you with.

Spotting trouble before it starts:

Awareness begins with observation. Travelers trained to notice small details see the man loitering in the lobby without luggage. They sense when a crowd is forming for no clear reason. This early warning gives them time to move away or alert security. It turns ordinary people into the first line of defense.

Protecting devices in public spaces:

Airports, cafes, and co working spaces are hotspots for digital theft. A aware traveler never leaves a laptop unattended, even for a moment. They use privacy screens on planes and keep devices locked with strong passwords. Public charging stations are avoided in favor of personal power banks. These small habits stop data loss before it happens.

Choosing safer routes and transport:

Ride sharing apps and taxis are convenient but not always safe. Security aware travelers verify license plates before getting in. They share their trip location with a trusted contact and sit in the back seat behind the driver. At night, they choose well lit, busy streets over shortcuts through empty areas.

Controlling what is shared online:

Posting a beach photo from the airport announces an empty home to the world. Aware travelers wait until they return to share holiday pictures. They disable location tagging and check that family members do the same. Social media becomes a highlight reel, not a live feed of their movements.

Preparing for medical and health needs:

Awareness includes knowing the body. Travelers research whether their prescriptions are legal at the destination. They carry a small medical kit and know the address of the nearest clinic. Those with allergies learn the words for their condition in the local language before they arrive.

Security awareness is not a burden. It is a skill that becomes second nature. When travelers carry this mindset with them, they move through the world with confidence.

Remember rows of high-walled cubicles and corner offices that felt like isolated islands? Modern work has moved on, and so has office design. The open plan concept has become a favorite for its power to break down physical and social barriers, fostering a new kind of workplace energy. It’s a philosophy that prioritizes flow, light, and connection.

Getting this environment right relies on smart interior office fit out concepts that turn the space into a productive and positive community.

Breaking down the walls:

The most obvious change is the removal of solid partitions. This physical opening creates a visual connection across the entire floor. Natural light reaches deeper into the space, brightening every desk. People can see each other, which encourages spontaneous conversations and makes the team feel unified. It moves away from a closed-off feel to one of shared purpose.

Zones for different modes:

An effective open plan is never just a sea of identical desks. Clever design carves out specific areas for different kinds of work. You might have quiet zones for focused thinking, furnished with sound-absorbing materials. Collaboration hubs with writeable walls and casual seating invite teamwork. A mix of settings gives people the freedom to choose where they work best throughout their day.

The power of flexible furniture:

Fixed, heavy desks are the enemy of adaptability. Lightweight, modular furniture is key. Desks on wheels, movable screens, and reconfigurable meeting tables let the space evolve. Teams can quickly rearrange their area for a project, or the whole layout can shift as the company grows. This flexibility makes the office a tool that serves changing needs.

Managing the soundscape:

Noise is the classic worry with open plans. A good fit out tackles this head-on. Acoustic panels on ceilings and walls, soft floor coverings, and sound-muffling furniture fabrics all help absorb chatter. Sometimes, designated phone booths or enclosed pods are added for private calls. The aim is a comfortable hum of activity, not a distracting roar.

A visual translation of your brand:

Without many walls, other elements carry the visual identity. A cohesive color palette, distinctive lighting fixtures, and branded graphics become central. Materials like wood, glass, or metal are chosen carefully to convey a specific feel. This styling turns the open space into a true reflection of the company’s character, felt by everyone in it.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

Whatever happened to the “polycrisis”? A couple of years ago it was the buzzword of the world, describing a concatenation of interacting crises that aggravated each other and made solutions appear impossible. In the year since the inauguration of Donald Trump his words and actions have so dominated world events that discussion of the polycrisis has atrophied. But the polycrisis is alive and well and massively aggravated by Trump’s aggressive and erratic behavior. This commentary and the following two trace the development of the polycrisis in the Trump era, examine the intensification of its dynamics, look at its possible outcomes, and give a preliminary perspective on how it might eventually be quelled.  

Donald Trump speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

For the two decades from the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 to the Great Recession in 2008, the world order was largely shaped by economic globalization and US global domination. Since then the world order has been riven by interacting crises that came to be dubbed “the polycrisis.” “Polycrisis” characterizes the way crises in many different spheres – ranging from geopolitics and economics to climate and inequality – are aggravating each other and even converging.

The key concept for the polycrisis is interaction. It cannot be understood by simple cause-and-effect models within a single sector or even within the world order as a whole. The interaction of forces, acts, and events determines its patterns and its course. This interaction is illustrated by two crises that might appear quite separate, war and climate. Many of the world’s current armed conflicts are caused or aggravated by climate change; for example, desertification caused by rising temperatures precipitated Sudan’s civil war. Conversely, military buildups and wars are significant causes of global warming; the total military carbon footprint is more than five percent of global emissions. And of course, each of these interacts with the breakdown of international cooperation on climate and security; the rise of para-fascist parties and movements; and many other aspects of the polycrisis. 

The next commentary in this series will examine the dynamics of the polycrisis in the Trump era. There are contradictory tendencies both within and among the polycrisis dynamics. For example, there is a fracturing of globalization but at the same time continued growth in world trade and the concentration of global economic power. Such contradictions make it of limited value to extrapolate these polycrisis dynamics into longer-term trends, other than the probability of increasing chaos and conflict.

Why analyze the polycrisis? Certainly not in order to make credible predictions about the future. Unpredictability is an essential element of the polycrisis. But nonetheless there are two good reasons to try to understand it. First, to avoid faulty assumptions that lead to strategic errors. For example, it was widely believed that Trump’s tariffs would severely damage Chinese exports, but, due to the realities of a global economy, Chinese exports actually increased substantially in the year after Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs. Second, to have a better idea of what needs to be overcome and how to replace it. It’s easy to identify one aspect of the polycrisis as “the” problem and focus on it without noting its context. But any effort to move beyond the polycrisis will require a holistic approach to both the problems and the solutions.

Flag raising at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/2023. Photo credit: UK Government, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Looking at the polycrisis today, the polycrisis of a year ago appears the embodiment of rationality and order. Leaders still pursued rational, comprehensible aims, even if what they actually produced was usually unintended consequences. Institutions, however much they twisted into modified shapes, still maintained a family resemblance to their former selves. Today, who could claim to really know the aims of Trump or Putin, or to see today’s NATO as a logical outgrowth of NATO past?

There are many questions about the polycrisis we would like to know the answers to. How much of our world order is shaped by national objectives, how much by simply trying to grab resources and territory? Or, at another level, will the “West” as a socio-political entity survive the Trump assault on Europe? Or, what will become of the triangular relationship among Russia, China, and the US: tripartite division of the world into spheres of influence; continued de facto alliance of Russia and China against the US; three-way cold war; or limited or all-out war among two or three?  Unfortunately, these are just the kind of questions that the unpredictable and chaotic character of the polycrisis makes it impossible to answer. 

Starting in June, 2024, I wrote a series of ten Strike! Commentaries laying out some basic dynamics of the polycrisis. They included burgeoning warfare; accelerating conventional and nuclear arms races; breakdown of international cooperation around climate, public health, and conflict resolution; a “war crime wave”; conflict between a rising China and a resisting US; unstable tripartite rivalry between the US, Russia, and China; rising economic nationalism; struggle to control global economic networks; decay of democratic institutions; rise of fascist-style movements and governments; accelerating global warming as climate protection gave way to national economic rivalry; unpredictability; and proliferating folly.   

The election of Donald Trump as US president in November 2024 was both a product of the polycrisis and its great accelerator. As I wrote in a Commentary on “Trump, Trumpism, and the Polycrisis” immediately after the election, “Trump’s style of provocation, deliberate unpredictability, and unrestrained folly will lead to intensified conflict, strange shifts in alliances, deliberately aggravated chaos, and wars.” Uncertainty is further aggravated because we do not know how long Donald Trump himself will remain in power and who and what will succeed his rule.

While Trump’s actions have indeed exacerbated the polycrisis, that doesn’t mean that his intentions are shaping the present, let alone the future, world order. The actions and reactions of other players, and their interactions, are also shaping the developing polycrisis. In fact, the polycrisis remains a dynamic, interactive, uncontrolled, and unpredictable reality in which the acts of actors – above all of Trump – have consequences different from and in many instances contradictory to their intentions. Consider, for example, Trump’s ignominious retreat from his demand to annex Greenland in the face of Europe’s threat to retaliate with its economic “big bazooka.” To paraphrase the Bible’s “Book of Proverbs,” Trump may propose, but the polycrisis disposes.

The polycrisis has consequences. Each year since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a “Doomsday Clock” to “convey threats to humanity and the planet.” The clock has become a “universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by man-made technologies.” Noting the threats from war, nuclear arms race, climate change, and a variety of new technologies, in January 2026 the Bulletin set the clock to 85 seconds to midnight — the closest it has ever been. That represents the catastrophe so many of us sense we are living in. It is not just the product of one or another actor, but the momentum of the polycrisis as a whole toward global destruction. 

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  Cruz Salucio (right), CIW senior staff member and farmworker, discusses the transformative success and expansion of the Fair Food Program in a class with students from the University of Michigan 2019 University of Michigan Advisory Committee report: “The Fair Food Program is the most comprehensive social responsibility program in the U.S.,” and the best thing that the University of Michigan could do in order to improve labor standards would be to “become a signatory to the Fair Food Program.”
Nola De Graaf, a current student at the University of Michigan: “The best part of this program is that it is an organization that amplifies the voices of workers, not attempting to speak over them but rather making them the forefront of the organization, something that is unfortunately not often done. I also love that there is a very set goal; joining the Fair Food Program. With this alliance between workers and students, it’s attainable and real, something that can make lasting, permanent change.”

A new initiative calling on universities to join the Fair Food Program is rapidly gaining momentum across the country.

Just last week, we shared an update from Yale University, where students are leading a movement urging the storied Ivy League university to become the first to join the Fair Food Program as a Participating Buyer. Now, following a multi-day campus visit from the CIW, that momentum is carrying over to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where hundreds of students are joining the growing campus-based campaign, leveraging their demand for fresh fruits and vegetables to expand the FFP to new fields where workers remain in desperate need of the program’s life-saving human rights protections.

For decades, the CIW has confronted the egregious human rights abuses that have plagued the agricultural industry, demanding modern, humane business practices that ensure the farmworkers who put food on our tables are treated with dignity and respect. To achieve that goal, the CIW partnered with consumers, growers, and buyers to forge the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program — a groundbreaking model that has not only remedied abuses in participating fields, but actually prevented modern-day slavery, sexual violence, wage theft, retaliation, and more. Yet since the program’s launch in 2010, there has been a troubling rise in human rights violations on fields beyond the reach of the FFP’s industry-leading protections, including documented cases of modern-day slavery.

The need to dramatically expand the FFP’s reach is therefore more urgent than ever, and the new Fair Food University initiative aims to do just that. Over the course of the visit to Ann Arbor, more than 200 students took part in classroom presentations, luncheons, film screenings, panel discussions, and organizing meetings — trekking through growing mounds of snow and icy sidewalks to hear from the CIW and student allies.

Students with the University of Michigan met with staff members of the CIW to jumpstart an effort for the university to join the Fair Food Program

During the UM campus visit, Michigan students learned how farmworkers with the CIW developed a cutting-edge analysis of the food supply chain, identifying where the power to guarantee farmworkers’ dignity truly lies: at the top of the massive food industry, with major produce buyers like Taco Bell and smaller institutional buyers such as the University of Michigan. In packed, often standing-room-only presentations, students, faculty, and staff heard from CIW staff member and farmworker leader Cruz Salucio, who described overcoming immense odds to forge — and ultimately scale — the Fair Food Program by building lasting partnerships with consumers, growers, and buyers alike.

The CIW visited about a dozen classes across a wide range of disciplines, including public health, education, drama, and food studies. In Spanish classes, students practiced their language skills while learning directly from CIW staff about the realities of agricultural labor and the strategic vision behind the Fair Food Program. In an introductory acting class at the School of Drama, students performed a popular education exercise often performed at farmworker community meetings in Immokalee, depicting the life of a farmworker whose rights are routinely violated by an abusive crewleader, discovering how theater has long served as a powerful tool for farmworkers to raise consciousness among workers and allies alike within the Campaign for Fair Food.

At the Ford School of Public Policy, a packed luncheon drew such a large crowd that the catered food quickly ran out. There, Michigan Dining representatives joined students and faculty to learn about the Fair Food Program’s unique model of worker-driven enforcement — and the pivotal role their university can play in becoming a national leader on human rights within higher education.

Nola De Graaf, a  current UM student, shared a moving reflection on meeting the CIW and hearing about the FFP: 

“I was first introduced to CIW through my Spanish language class. The representatives gave a presentation that made me realize that I, as a student but also as a general consumer of the products of agricultural labor, had a responsibility to make sure that I wasn’t endorsing the abuse and exploitation of workers. I also knew that as someone who has the privilege to attend a university, I needed to use my position as a student to be an active participant in change. The best part of this program is that it is an organization that amplifies the voices of workers, not attempting to speak over them but rather making them the forefront of the organization, something that is unfortunately not often done. I also love that there is a very set goal; joining the Fair Food Program. With this alliance between workers and students, it’s attainable and real, something that can make lasting, permanent change.”

Braving blizzard-like conditions outside, students packed an informational session on the Fair Food University initiative. Michigan students also met virtually with current Yale students to exchange ideas and strategies. Yale students shared how their campaign to bring the Fair Food Program to their campus has included investigative research revealing that Yale Hospitality sources from a massive grower with a documented record of egregious human rights violations.

This kind of student-to-student exchange has long been central to the movement’s success. From 2001 to 2005, it helped students across the country successfully “Boot” Taco Bell from dozens of campuses until the corporation ultimately joined the Fair Food Program. One panel discussion between the CIW and leading human rights scholars also featured University of Michigan alumni who, in 2019, successfully pushed Wendy’s off campus. They shared hard-won lessons from their campaign with current students eager to carry forward the fight for farmworker justice.

History comes alive

That legacy of student-led organizing and university-backed calls for farmworker human rights still looms large at Michigan.

In 2019, the University of Michigan Student Government overwhelmingly passed a resolution removing Wendy’s from campus until the fast-food giant joined the Fair Food Program. The vote followed the release of a report — commissioned by UM’s own Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights — outlining a clear path forward: to identify labor and human rights concerns in the university’s supply chain, partner with external experts, collaborate with peer institutions, and present feasible pathways for improving labor standards and human rights protections.

The report’s conclusion was unequivocal: “The Fair Food Program is the most comprehensive social responsibility program in the U.S.,” and the most effective step the University of Michigan could take to improve labor standards would be to “become a signatory to the Fair Food Program.”

More recently, the university awarded CIW co-founder and national human rights leader Lucas Benitez the prestigious Wallenberg Medal for his role in freeing thousands of workers from modern-day slavery rings and for his leadership in creating the Fair Food Program.

Today, seven years after students first locked arms with farmworkers from Immokalee in the Wendy’s Boycott, the University of Michigan finally has a clear opportunity with the Fair Food University campaign to realize the goal outlined in its own 2019 Advisory Committee report. The CIW’s recent visit has already sparked an enthusiastic effort by current students to ensure their administration follows through and joins the FFP. We look forward to more news from the snowy north as the UM campaign continues to grow in the months ahead!

If you are a student, professor, or university staff member interested in learning how your campus can become part of the Fair Food Program, reach out to the Student/Farmworker Alliance at organize@sfalliance.org to get connected to the growing Fair Food University movement.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

By Alexandria Shaner, Jeremy Brecher January 16, 2026

Protest against ICE in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 10, 2026 | Image credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License

On January 16, shortly after the ICE killing of Renée Nicole Good and just before the “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom”  January 23, I was interviewed by Alexandria Shaner of Znetwork about social strikes and the impending popular shutdown of Minneapolis. Shaner’s introduction noted,

“From escalating resistance to ICE to a growing call for a Jan. 23 Minnesota shutdown following the killing of Renée Nicole Good, forms of mass refusal — to work, to comply, to carry on as usual — are moving from theory into practice. Drawing on historical examples of people power uprisings and on his recent work examining how general strikes and broader “social strikes” are built, in this conversation Brecher reflects on where the U.S. is now, what conditions make such actions possible, and what strategic groundwork is required to turn diffuse outrage into sustained, democratic power.”

The interview grew out of my report “Social Strikes: Can General Strikes, Mass Strikes, and People Power Uprisings Provide a Last Defense Against MAGA Tyranny?” The interview was co-published by ZNetwork.org, Waging Nonviolence, and the Labor Network for Sustainability.

Could you give a definition of what you mean by social strikes?

Social strike is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of activities that use the withdrawal of cooperation and mass disruption to affect governments and social structures. I use the term “social strikes” to describe mass actions that exercise power by withdrawing cooperation from and disrupting the operation of society. Social strikes represent the withdrawal of cooperation and acquiescence by a whole society, manifested for example in general strikes, political strikes and mass popular “people power” uprisings. The goal of a social strike is to affect not just the immediate employer, but a political regime or social structure. In all their varied forms they are based on Gandhi’s fundamental perception that “even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled.”

Why is this a winning strategy, and as you put it, a “defense against MAGA tyranny”?

The power of the powerful ultimately depends on the acquiescence and cooperation of those they rule. Social strikes have been one way that people have exercised the power to withdraw that acquiescence and cooperation.

Social strikes provide a possible alternative when institutional means of action prove ineffective. In many countries, where democratic institutions have been so weakened or obliterated that they are unable to disempower tyranny, such methods have been used effectively. My report on “Social Strikes” recounts examples that have brought down tyrannical regimes in Poland, the Philippines, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and most recently South Korea. These large-scale nonviolent direct actions — often referred to as “people power” uprisings — made society ungovernable and led to regime change. In all these cases, popular mobilization and the threat of general social disruption were so great that the autocrat’s supporters abandoned or turned against him and forced him to resign.

Of course there are no guarantees that social strikes can win in the U.S. today or in any other situation. But as MAGA tyranny drives more and more individuals, constituencies and institutions into opposition, its power is being progressively undermined. 

Historical experience around the world has shown social strikes are a powerful means to manifest that withdrawal of acquiescence and the refusal of the people to cooperate. Indeed, widespread forms of mass resistance like the Tesla and other boycotts, the No Kings Day-type national protests, and the on-the-ground resistance to ICE are already hamstringing the Trump administration’s freedom of action. Social strikes would represent a significant intensification of what I have called “social self-defense” against Trumpian tyranny. They have the potential both to further impede MAGA depredations and to contest for support from the majority of the population.

Free Our Future. Families Belong Together. Abolish ICE March and Day of Action, Minneapolis, Minnesota | Image credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License

Where would you situate us, in our current moment, in terms of the trajectory of the escalating authoritarianism that we have been experiencing? How does this compare to some of the historical scenarios you analyze in the report and what does that mean for our strategic organizing?

An authoritarian takeover is under way in the U.S., complete with the arrest of opposition political leaders like Rep. LaMonica McIver, unrestrained executive usurpation, and lawless physical violence and kidnapping by masked, unidentified, armed federal agents. The government is now protecting and defending ICE agents who shoot down protesters in cold blood. The president is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to use the military to suppress a “rebellion,” i.e. action by any who oppose him. As his power is threatened, it is entirely plausible that he will turn to a full-scale coup. When a regime starts shooting down unarmed protesters in the street, that’s a Rubicon.

While they have much in common, every tyrannical regime and every opposition has its own dynamics. Growing popular discontent and emerging elite opposition (think Jerome Powell and the Clintons) are likely to lead to intensified repression (think Iran today). Authoritarian regimes are likely to use every means available to them to destroy opposition — something we are seeing every day with the Trump administration and its allies. Such repression can be effective, but it can also provoke still further opposition (think popular response and on-the-ground resistance following the ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good). We need to be prepared for intensified repression, but also be mindful that the people potentially have the power to defeat tyranny.

Following the murder of Renée Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota on Jan. 7, and an ongoing assault on the state by federal immigration forces, a labor-community coalition is calling for residents to refuse to work, shop or go to school on Jan. 23. Could you comment on this and other recent calls for social strikes?

The Minnesota story is developing hour by hour. The escalation of repression, including more and more shooting of unarmed civilians, massive invasion by additional ICE agents, and Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, seem to have enraged large swaths of the state’s population without intimidating them into acquiescence. Mass action responses have been cascading. Rapid response networks and neighborhood ICE watch groups, armed with cameras and whistles, are proliferating. A friend in St. Paul wrote to me that there are 1,100 rapid response anti-ICE volunteers in their neighborhood alone.

On Jan. 10, ten thousand joined an “ICE Out of Minnesota” rally and march. On Jan. 14, thousands of St. Paul high school and middle school students marched to the State Capitol Building; nine high schools staged walkouts; a thousand students blocked St. Paul’s main thoroughfare with a two-mile march. On, Jan. 18 union postal workers will rally to demand “ICE Out Of Minnesota!,” followed by a march to the site of Renee Nicole Good’s killing. 

The proposed day of refusal to work, shop or go to school is a perfect example of a “social strike,” including work stoppages by workers but also myriad other forms of noncooperation by large and highly diverse sectors of society. A wide swath of immigrant, religious, labor, community, tenant and other groups are deeply involved. Unions already supporting the day of action include the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, and St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28. 

The way Minnesotans are turning to this form of action is a result of the specific situation they face, but also of the growing discussion of and calls for general and social strikes. In that context, the “day of refusal” could have repercussions far beyond Minnesota. Teacher and union activist Dan Troccoli says, “in addition to appreciation, we want emulation. We need that out there in the streets in every city.”

Large vigil for Renee Good in South Minneapolis. Good, who was observing ICE actions, was killed by an ICE agent earlier in the day.m| Image credit: Chad Davis/Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License

Where are we now in terms of strategy and readiness for impactful and sustained mass social strikes? 

A crucial development of the past years has been the emergence of what I call the “movement-based opposition.” With the Democratic Party largely failing to effectively play the role of an opposition party, an alliance of social movements has begun playing the role of a “non-electoral opposition” that can mobilize those harmed by MAGA, identify common interests, unify their programs and actions, and articulate alternatives. The movement-based opposition is exemplified by the participation of millions in protest days of action like Hands Off!, MayDayStrong, and No Kings, and the mass civil resistance to ICE raids around the country. 

Next steps are already under way. Indivisible’s One Million Rising, which it describes as “a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation,” could be a step in preparing those already participating in mass protests for social strikes. Future actions can progressively incorporate elements of noncooperation and disruption that evolve toward social strikes and serve as living representations of their potential power. They can combine strikes with non-workplace actions like boycotts, commercial shutdowns, mass picketing, blockades, occupations and civil disobedience. Such actions will need to constantly seek the “sweet spot” between effective disruption of MAGA oppression and alienation of forces that might otherwise be won over.

Could you outline a medium to long-term organizing vision and priorities for where we should aim to go from here?

I have dubbed the overall struggle against MAGA tyranny “social self-defense” — the defense of society by society against the forces aiming to destroy it.

Social self-defense against a creeping or galloping MAGA coup is most likely to succeed through a combination of electoral and social strike methods. The overcoming of authoritarian regimes in the Philippines, Serbia and elsewhere, while accomplished under circumstances far different from those in the U.S. today, provide examples of how they can be combined.

The detailed timelines of social strikes cannot be known in advance. They are likely to grow out of a gradual, and not always visible, buildup of harm — and resentment at harm. This is already occurring in Trump’s America. It could lead to a series of escalating struggles, possibly punctuated by defeats or by concessions generating temporary quiescence. Popular opposition could also diminish as a result of repression, MAGA counter-maneuvers, a sense of futility, or other “unknown unknowns.” A period of apparent quiescence with a rising sense of grievance might eventuate in a sudden explosion of popular rage and a mass uprising. 

Whether gradually or rapidly, social strikes will need to develop the power necessary to reduce MAGA power enough to bring an end to its rule — through elections, collapse of political support, or social disruption.

Resisting the rise of tyranny will no doubt require sacrifice. But that sacrifice will not be primarily on behalf of one political party vs. another, of Democrats vs. Republicans. It will be a defense of democracy — defense of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Beyond that, it is the protection of that which makes our life together on Earth possible. It is defense of the human rights of all people; of the conditions of our Earth and its climate that make our life possible; of the constitutional principle that government must be accountable to law; of global cooperation to provide a secure future for our people and planet; and of our ability to live together in our communities, our country, and our world. A MAGA tyranny is a threat to all of us as members of society. Overcoming MAGA usurpation of power is social self-defense.

We can hope that social strikes will not be necessary to limit and ultimately end MAGA tyranny. Accomplishing that goal by less drastic forms of social self-defense inside and outside the electoral system would likely require less risk and less pain. But if other means are unavailing, experience around the world indicates that social strikes may provide a way for people facing authoritarian takeover to establish or reestablish democracy.

Join in solidarity: https://www.iceoutnowmn.com/

Alexandria Shaner is a sailor, writer, and organizer. Originally from the US, Alexandria has lived most of her life in the Caribbean, as well as in Egypt and Central America. A sailor, writer, organizer, and street medic, she has been involved in community organizing, media, and education for over 20 years. Alexandria is currently a staff member of ZNetwork.org, a writer for Extinction Rebellion, and is active with Caracol DSA and Food Not Bombs. Her work has appeared on ZNet, Common Dreams, Foreign Policy in Focus, CounterPunch, LA Progressive, Waging Nonviolence, Antiwar.com, The African, The Socialist Project, mέtaCPC, DiEM25, PeaceNews, Green Left, Popular Resistance, Resilience.org, Grassroots Economic Organizing, Shareable, Dissident Voice, Democratic Underground, and various other outlets.

Jeremy Brecher is a co-founder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. He is the author of more than fifteen books on labor and social movements, including Strike! Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction, and The Green New Deal from Below.

 

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In solidarity with social movements in Minneapolis, the family and friends of Keith Porter Jr., and all those murdered and disappeared by ICE and DHS The Strategy Center renews its solidarity and call for open borders and amnesty.

We too, will be on the frontlines with the rest of LA today as we all participate in one of the largest general strikes in the history of the U.S.—a well-deserved vote of no confidence in the federal government as it makes moves to open fascism that has been a bipartisan project of the U.S. for as long as the country itself has existed.

We’re deeply disappointed in the way that the city has mishandled funds, continues to pay half of the city budget to the LAPD, while the LAPD chief announces that, in defiance with an LA county ordinance, he will not enforce any measures that prevent ICE from murdering and disappearing BIPOC community members.

We continue to work with organizations in the Police Free LAUSD coalition to protect programs like BSAP, to fight for a complete defund to the LA School police, to protect LGBTQ students and to fight against ICE activities in and around LAUSD schools and our neighborhoods.

We are from the radical Afrocentric ant-imperialist traditions of caring about all of the oppressed people and the true slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.

We call on those today whose righteous anger we share, to remember the Black students and adults and Black/African immigrants who are kidnapped every day by the LAPD, County Sheriffs, and ICE, put in holding cells for crimes the system makes up, with no bail, guilty until guilty.

We cry for the houseless of all races. We cry for our Latinx, Somali, and all oppressed sisters, brothers, and siblings. We use those tears as fuel for our rage and our resistance.

This is a long fight against fascism. We will march with everyone, bring our bodies to the larger cause. We offer our Strategy and Soul Movement Center as a safe place for those who want to change the world to gather, eat, talk, get respite, resilience, talk about strategy and tactics and closer alliances, and build the will and encouragement for us to fight on together.

The time for all hands on deck to stop the U.S. imperialist white settler state and its world genocide is not just now but has been now for the past few decades.

Students involved in our Strategy & Soul Social Justice group are fired up, members of the Strategy Centers chapter of South Central Power Up e-bike library are fired up, and friends of the Strategy and Soul Bookstore are ready for the fight.

We’ll see you out there,

In solidarity, the strategy center team.

Channing, Eric, Akunna, Barbara, Pau, Clinton, and many more members of The Strategy Center.

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