Belabored Podcast #32: Black Friday

Belabored Podcast #32: Black Friday

This week, Michelle and Sarah share some good and bad news, including suggestions from listeners and a look forward to the Black Friday actions at Walmart next week. Journalist Liza Featherstone joins them to talk about Walmart’s corporate culture and the challenges it poses to organizing. They conclude with thoughts on Seattle’s new socialist city council member and the value of solidarity.


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This week on Belabored, Michelle and Sarah bring you some good news (and, of course, some less good news), including suggestions from listeners, and look forward to the Black Friday actions at Walmart next week. Journalist and author Liza Featherstone joins the show to talk about Walmart’s corporate culture, why that’s made the company hard to organize in the past, and how it might be changing. They share their thoughts on Seattle’s new socialist city council member and revisit the idea of solidarity as a value for the left.

Links for those reading along at home:  

Michelle: Qatar’s World Cup Spectacle Brought to You by Slavery

Sarah: Why port truckers are striking:12-hour shifts, noxious fumes, and $12.90 paychecks

Minimum wage of $11.50 proposed for the District

States Moving Beyond U.S. Minimum Wage as Congress Stalls

Machinists Defeat Boeing Proposal, Boo Union Brass Who Pushed It

Ruling Doubles Paycheck for 1375 Employees at High-Grossing Queens Slot Parlor

Liza Featherstone’s book Selling Women Short: The Landmark for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart 

Liza Featherstone: Walmart Workers Walk Out

Liza Featherstone: Is Walmart Losing its Bipartisan Luster?

Liza Featherstone: ‘Dukes v. Wal-Mart’ and the Limits of Legal Change

Liza Featherstone in Dissent

Josh Eidelson: Walmart Faces Warehouse Horror Allegations and Federal Labor Board Complaint

OUR Walmart Website for Associates Requesting Black Friday Actions

Demos, A Higher Wage is Possible

What We Wish We’d Written:

Michelle: Mariya Strauss, The Nation: Regulations Are Killed, and Kids Die

Sarah: Kurt Newman, Dissent: Letter from Santa Barbara: Reviving the Sympathy Strike