By Keith Brower Brown and Caitlyn Clark - Labor Notes, October 31, 2023
Workers from three Chicago hospitals marched October 21. Photo: @lowisiana on X.
In the U.S. and across the world, hundreds of thousands of people have taken the streets to protest Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 8,300 Palestinians, including 3,300 children, since October 7. On October 27, the United Nations called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce.”
In the U.S., those protesting Israel’s attacks have faced a wave of repression by employers.
Management retaliation has struck journalists and academics. Michael Eisen, editor-in-chief of the open-access science journal eLife, was fired after sharing a satirical article from The Onion that criticized media responses to the loss of Palestinian life. Jackson Frank, a sports writer for PhillyVoice, was fired after criticizing a pro-Israel post by the Philadelphia 76ers.
After publishing and signing a letter of prominent artists and critics for a ceasefire, to stop an “escalating genocide,” Artforum Editor-in-Chief David Velasco was fired after 18 years at the magazine and six in that role. Three other editors resigned from the high-profile magazine in protest.
The National Writers Union is documenting such cases—both to connect writers with individual support, and to push for industry-wide reforms.
Meanwhile in Gaza, at least 25 journalists have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Local contractors and labor union members packed Eureka’s Wharfinger Building Thursday night to give the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Board of Commissioners their two cents on a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the