Belabored Podcast #51: Taking on the Big Boys, with Ellen Bravo

Belabored Podcast #51: Taking on the Big Boys, with Ellen Bravo

Ellen Bravo sits down with Belabored to discuss new challenges and milestones in the movement for gender justice and why the basic, structural struggles for women’s economic empowerment are still far from over. Plus: the port truck drivers’ latest labor action; struggles led by sherpas, cabbies, and banking sector workers; divisions in NYC charter schools; and Donald Sterling.

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Ellen Bravo has been fighting sexism for most of her life, so she knows a thing or two about “taking on the big boys” (also the title of her pioneering guide to fighting everyday patriarchy). She sat down with Belabored this week to drop some knowledge about new challenges and milestones in the movement for gender justice; raising consciousness about social justice feminism in debates on and labor policy; and the fact that, while we’re talking more these days about women “breaking the glass ceiling” and “having it all,” the basic, structural struggles for women’s economic empowerment are still far from over.

We also discuss the port truck drivers’ latest labor action, a sherpa uprising in the Mount Everest tourism industry, New York City cabbies’ fight for health and disability insurance, and the struggles of workers in the banking sector. We end with a nod to some critical reading on racial divides in public schools and basketball arenas.

News

Port truck drivers strike in Los Angeles

ILWU joins picketing truck drivers and Long Beach, LA ports

Michelle: How a Fatal Disaster at Mt. Everest Has Turned Into a Full-Blown Labor Struggle

Everest’s Sherpas fear for livelihood after killer avalanche

Wells Fargo moves annual meeting to Texas, but protesters follow

Committee for Better Banks

Michelle: How New York’s Taxi Drivers Lost Their Health Insurance Fund

New York Taxi Workers Alliance

Conversation with Ellen Bravo

Ellen Bravo’s website

Taking on the Big Boys

Sarah: Paid Sick Leave Pays for Itself: So Why Is NYC’s Mayoral Hopeful Blocking It?

Michelle: National Paid Family Leave May Finally Be on the Horizon

Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!

Michelle: Trymaine Lee, “Separate and unequal: The charter school pedestal the public can’t reach,” MSNBC.com

Sarah: Mychal Denzel Smith, “Donald Sterling’s Impolite Racism,” The Nation


Correction: The news segment of the podcast incorrectly states that a New York state appeals court struck down the health and disability fund of the Taxi Workers Alliance; in fact it was the state Supreme Court that issued the decision.

The audio for this podcast has been updated.


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