“We Are Making History Today, Baby”: Scenes From the First Day of the UAW Strike
Jubilant pickets. Rattled managers. Here’s what the first day of the historic United Auto Workers strike looked like on the ground with rank-and-file autoworkers.
19642 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
UAW Members Are Striking Against Corporate Power — and Americans Overwhelmingly Back Them
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain has said, “We fight for the good of the entire working class,” and Americans seem to believe him. In massive numbers, they tell pollsters they back the UAW over the Big Three auto companies.
North East Syria Is Still Dealing With the World’s Forgotten ISIS Problem
It’s been four years since Kurdish-led forces defeated the ISIS caliphate. But still today, the new authorities in North East Syria have to deal with thousands of foreign ISIS fighters, whose homelands refuse pleas to take them back.
Ursula Le Guin Has Given Us a New Posthumous Collection of Writings
Legendary science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin has a new posthumous collection out called Space Crone. Sometimes polemical and often hilarious, it discusses feminism and radical alternatives on an intergalactic scope.
With the UAW Strike, Bernie Sanders’s Political Revolution Is Continuing on the Shop Floor
Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns galvanized a new generation to fight against inequality and corporate power. The spirit of that fight is now finding expression in the workplace — as seen with the massive strike the United Auto Workers just started today.
The GOP’s Impeachment Case Is About Derailing Biden’s Reelection. He’s Making That Easier.
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy has opened a formal inquiry into impeaching Joe Biden. The case is thin — but the scandalmongering may weaken Biden’s reelection chances, especially if he doesn’t give voters a positive vision to counteract it.
Big Three Autoworkers Are Striking Against Concessions While Shareholders Reap a Bonanza
This morning, the United Auto Workers launched a landmark strike against the Big Three automakers for their refusal to provide adequate pay and job security. Meanwhile, over the last year, the automakers have authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks.
The United Auto Workers Strike Has Begun
The UAW launched a historic strike this morning, with workers at three plants across the Big Three walking out and UAW leader Shawn Fain declaring that an “all-out strike is possible.” It’s the first time ever the union has struck all three major automakers.
The UAW Strike Matters for the Entire US Working Class
The United Auto Workers, headed by a new reform leadership, are set to strike the Big Three automakers at midnight tonight. The entire working class will be watching to see if autoworkers can claw back decades of concessions and win a transformative contract.
The Big Three Automakers Are Bracing Their Auto Parts Centers for a Likely Strike
The United Auto Workers are rapidly approaching a potential strike with the Big Three automakers. The companies want to minimize disruption by stockpiling inventory at their parts distribution centers — and staffing them with nonunion workers who may scab.
Electric Vehicle Factories Are Overwhelmingly Nonunion. The UAW Strike Could Change That.
A key conflict in the United Auto Workers strike, which could begin at midnight tonight, is over the electric vehicle industry. The vast majority of EV plants are low-wage and nonunion despite being publicly subsidized — and the UAW is trying to fix that.
Real Estate Magnate Tim Gurner Is a Jerk. But He’s Saying What All Capitalists Really Think.
Real estate CEO Tim Gurner, of “millennial avocado toast” fame, has gone viral again for saying low unemployment has made workers arrogant and joblessness must rise. His remarks reveal a usually unspoken truth: capitalists rely on the subordination of workers.
No One Man Should Have All That Power
As “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk continues his campaign of censorship at Twitter, we’re getting an exhibition in the outsize power of billionaires to shape our politics.
The Right Says to Hell With Equality
The political right is a diverse intellectual tradition and world-making project. But there’s one thing that unites every variant of right-wing ideology: the belief that society will improve if we give up on the dream of a world where people are equal.
How Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus Broke the Hollywood Blacklists
Telling the story of a slave revolt in ancient Rome, the 1960 film Spartacus was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood and publishing.
Boys and Men in the United States Are Struggling. The Left Should Talk About It.
From being less likely to graduate from college to experiencing much higher rates of “deaths of despair,” men and boys in the US — especially working-class men and boys — are suffering.
Big Three Autoworkers Are Getting Ready to Strike As Negotiations Come Down to the Wire
The United Auto Workers’ contract with the Big Three automakers expires tomorrow at midnight. If no agreement is reached, the UAW is ready to strike to recoup concessions made over the past two decades, end tiers, and boost wages.
The More the Pandemic-Era Welfare State Shrinks, the More Children Go Hungry
Brand-new Census data shows child poverty has exploded since the expiration of the child tax credit and other pandemic-era protections.
Elmer Benson Showed What a Left Willing to Wield Power Can Do
Elmer Benson became the governor of Minnesota in 1937. His two-year tenure, during which he called the National Guard to defend strikers while other states had police crush them, is proof of the power that a Left capable of controlling the executive can exercise.
Wisconsin Republicans Are Reminding Us Once Again That They Really, Really Hate Democracy
The Wisconsin GOP is at it again. With the party’s stranglehold on the State Supreme Court in peril following a judicial election last spring, Republicans are now seeking to impeach the new judge before the court can throw out the state’s rigged election maps.