This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Ashley Reyes and Cam Crowell, former workers of the Portland-based fast food chain Little Big Burger. Both Ashley and Cam were fired for their involvement in the recent campaign to unionize Little Big Burger, and they join the crew less than 24 hours before their union election to talk about these organizing efforts.
Ashley and Cam talk about the issues facing workers at Little Big Burger, and explain how this led to collective action culminating in their union campaign. We talk about the impact of the success of Burgerville workers in forming a union, as well as their decision to join Burgerville workers in the IWW. They also discuss how their efforts resulted in a targeted harassment campaign by management designed to coerce other Little Big Burger workers from joining. This included the firing of nine employees including Cam and Ashley, and the creation of a wildly conspiratorial website that specifically targeted organizers.
We learn why these management tactics have been in vain, and how the push for the Little Big Union has gained traction.
You can find out more about Little Big Union at littlebigunion.org, follow the union on Twitter @LBU_IWW, and support the Little Big Union strike fund by giving to their fundraising campaign.
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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by immigration attorney Sophia Gurulé who works for the non-profit legal advocacy group, The Bronx Defenders. Sophia has also participated in the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas for which she helped provide legal services to asylum-seeking women and children.
Sophia describes how the Bronx Defenders, which represents over 30,000 people each year, is creatively redefining public defense through a holistic approach and how this has helped communities impacted by the criminal and immigration system find authentic and effective representation. We learn about the challenges facing public defenders and their clients, from a lack of resources to a system that is designed to instill fear into asylum seekers who are seeking reprieve.
Sophia helps us understand what's at stake for her clients and other undocumented people who are facing an increasingly inhumane detention process. We also talk about the importance of highlighting the ways each recent US President, Republican or Democrat, has ratcheted-up the brutality relative to their predecessors. While Trump is certainly the worst yet, the immigration policies of Clinton and Obama paved the way for the nearly unimaginable cruelty we are enacting today.
You can follow Sophia on Twitter @s_phia_ to keep up to date with her work. You also can find more information on The Bronx Defenders at bronxdefenders.org and on Twitter @BronxDefenders. And support your local bond fund!
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!
This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Sina Toossi, a research associate at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) where he specializes in Iranian politics and US foreign policy in the Middle East, for another deep dive into the Trump administration’s push for regime change in Iran. Sina was previously at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Institute for Policy Studies in DC, and his work has been published in Newsweek and Foreign Policy among many other outlets.
After sharing a bit of his personal background as well as his path to both his politics and the world of foreign policy thinktanks, Sina breaks down escalating US-Iran tensions, including the fallout from the tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman and Trump’s recent decision to order and then call off military strikes in response to the downing of a US drone in Iranian airspace. The gang also discusses the various responses of the Democrats to the threat of war, public sentiment and activist perspectives in Iran, and why it’s no longer in the Islamic Republic’s interest to abide by the nuclear deal, which Sina outlines in his recent piece for the National Interest on the Iranian government’s strategy for geopolitical survival.
You can follow Sina on Twitter @SinaToossi and keep up with his work at sinatoossi.com.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!