Organize!

Whether we are engaging in acts of resistance or creating new, alternative institutions, we need to create sustainable, democratic organizations that empower their members while also protecting against disruption. This section provides articles about effective organizing, creating democratic decision-making structures, building coalitions with other groups, and more. Visit the Resources Page for tools to assist your organizing efforts.

Flooding Increasingly Pummels The Southeast; Organizers Fight Back

March 6, 2023 Cameron Oglesby, Next City. Organize! climate crisis, Flooding, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas

Beverly May, retired nurse practitioner and current epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky, lives maybe 100 feet from the house she grew up in Floyd County, Kentucky. She characterizes her community as “hillbilly country,” an area in central Appalachia that once served as a critical cog in the coal industry’s wheel. When historic floods ravaged the area in late July 2022, May decided to trade in her medical work for flood research and activism with the nonprofit community well-being organization Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I could not believe it when I saw helicopters going out to rescue people,” she says. “Never has there been this many deaths.”

REI Workers Form Union At Ohio Store

March 6, 2023 Dave Jamieson, Portside. Organize! Ohio, REI, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers at an REI store near Cleveland voted 27-12 in favor of unionizing on Friday, adding more fuel to a labor organizing campaign at the national outdoor retailer. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union said it prevailed in the vote following a tally by the National Labor Relations Board. The company has a week to file any objections to the results. The Ohio election marks the third union victory at an REI outpost over the past year, following other votes in New York City and Berkeley, California. The Cleveland store, which is in the suburb of Orange, employs around 55 workers who would be part of the union.

In Buffalo, A Medical Campus And Community Collaborate For Equity

March 5, 2023 Matt Enstice, Next City. Organize! Buffalo, Cooperatives, Equity, wealth inequality

“If you want our money, you’ll have to work together.” That’s essentially what The John R. Oishei Foundation told three separate anchor institutions when they asked for money to fund new buildings on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC). As Buffalo’s largest foundation, Oishei has quietly supported the BNMC from the beginning. But all along, there was one steady condition: The institutions had to collaborate. Funding requests from individual organizations would almost invariably be rejected. Any request had to come from the campus as a whole. Insisting that the institutions collaborate wasn’t a popular decision. But it was the right one.

Auto Workers Presidential Election A Nail-biter, Reformers Sweep Regionals

March 4, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Elections, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In the first-ever rank-and-file direct election, as opposed to a vote of convention delegates, for the national leadership of the United Auto Workers, the presidential runoff is extremely close, with ballots still being counted. Challenges are expected no matter the outcome. At stake is the direction of the union. Presidential challenger Shawn Fain and the Members United slate have run on a platform of “No Concessions, No Corruption, No Tiers.” The slate was backed by the reform group Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), which formed in 2019 to fight for members' right to vote on top officers.

March 4: Libya Hearing Of The International People’s Tribunal

March 3, 2023 International People's Tribunal on US Imperialism, Popular Resistance. Organize! Libya, People's Tribunal, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Join the International People’s Tribunal on US Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, Coercive Economic Measures for a hearing on the effects and impacts of these policies and practices on the people of Libya. We will hear testimony and reports from expert and direct witnesses, with questions and discussion from our jurors. Around the world, U.S. sanctions and blockades have had a devastating impact on the lives of everyday people in countries targeted by these kinds of coercive economic measures. More broadly, they have served to push people into poverty and deny them self-determination.

Ohio Community Confronts Company, Politicians After Train Wreck

March 3, 2023 Otis Grotewohl, Workers World. Organize! Accountability, Disaster, East Palestine, Environment, Railroads

President Joe Biden’s trip to Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 20 shocked people living near East Palestine, Ohio, who have been devastated by a Feb. 3 toxic train derailment. The accident involved a 150-car train owned by Norfolk Southern, carrying dangerous and hazardous chemicals, which jackknifed due to a broken axle. On Feb. 6, state authorities slowly released and burned dangerous chemicals, such as the cancer-causing vinyl chloride and others, into the air. Since then, people in the area have faced various health problems ranging from slight headaches and sore throats to coughing up and vomiting blood.

Global Days Of Action On Military Spending 2023 From April 13 To May 9

March 2, 2023 Global Campaign on Military Spending. Organize! Anti-War, Pentagon Budget, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

This year of war in Ukraine has meant a huge boost for militarism and military budgets across the world, especially in countries of the Global North. But at GCOMS we believe the response should be quite the opposite: we should drastically reduce military spending and invest in common & human security instead… The 12th edition of the Global Days of Action on Military Spending will take place from April 13 to May 9, 2023. Join us protesting military budgets and warmongering, and take action for peace and justice! April 24 will be the main day of action once again. Using new military spending data released that day by SIPRI, we’ll hold press conferences and launch a Social Media Storm.

In 1996, There Was Union Summer; This Year, There’s ‘Labor Spring’

February 25, 2023 Cindy Hahamovitch, William P. Jones and Joseph A. McCartin, In These Times. Organize! Labor Movement, Strikes, Teach ins, Unions

Something is stirring this spring. People in the U.S. are becoming increasingly interested in what commentators once called “the labor question,” following recent organizing victories at Starbucks, Amazon and Apple stores; well-publicized strikes of teachers, nurses and railway workers; and the unionization of staff, graduate assistants and even faculty at scores of campuses, including the recent successful strike of nearly 50,000 academic workers on the campuses of the University of California. Evidence of this mood shift is unmistakable this spring as students, campus staff and faculty, together with unions and community allies, are coming together on or adjacent to more than 50 campuses nationwide — including ours — to engage in a remarkable national teach-in on worker rights and organizing called Labor Spring.

Prisoners Reignite Movement To End Mass Incarceration

February 25, 2023 Raymond Williams, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Life Sentence, Mass Incarceration

On Dec. 5, I sat in a circle with 30 prisoners at the Washington Correction Center in Shelton, Washington. As we looked around the room, anticipation, resolve and relief reflected in our eyes — yet we were all eager for this moment. Unable to meet due to COVID restrictions, we watched the world change around us for nearly three years. During this time tragedies like the murder of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and countless others took place, and justice reform became a dinner-table conversation for many Americans. As incarcerated activists, we sat silenced, unable to convene — even though, as stakeholders, experts in the field and leaders in justice reform efforts in Washington state, we have a lot to contribute.

NLRB Punches Holes In No-Recording Policies

February 24, 2023 Robert M. Schwartz, Labor Notes. Organize! South Carolina, Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Anderson, South Carolina - A February 13, 2023 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) clarifies whether employees can be disciplined for recording conversations with management officials. The ruling (372 NLRB No. 50) involved two Starbucks stores in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and members of a rank-and-file group called Baristas United. Two leaders of the group were fired for ostensibly violating established store policy by secretly recording conversations with supervisors on their cell phones. During the conversations, the employees were illegally warned about making negative statements about Starbucks.

USC Grad Workers Win Their Union, Join UAW

February 21, 2023 Graduate Student Workers At USC, Portside. Organize! California, Education, Graduate School, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

By a 93% margin, graduate workers at the University of Southern California have voted 1,599 to 122 in favor of joining the Graduate Student Workers Organizing Committee-United Auto Workers (GSWOC-UAW), according to ballots tallied today by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The victory caps a multi-year effort, with workers standing strong against USC administrators’ anti-union campaign. GSWOC-UAW will represent 3,000 Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants and Assistant Lecturers at USC. “We are so energized by this resounding vote in favor of our union,” said Stepp Mayes, a Graduate Student Worker in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Colombian Peace Caravan: Bringing The Hope Of ‘Total Peace’

February 20, 2023 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Afro-Colombians, Colombia, Indigenous Peoples, Peace

Ajamu Baraka was invited to serve as part of an international delegation of human rights defenders that would accompany the activists, community leaders, government officials and representatives of the National Liberation Army on an historic “humanitarian Caravan” in January to the Indigenous and Afro-Colombian areas of the Pacific coast of Colombia as part of the peace process initiated by the new government. Ajamu was also an observer and international guarantor in Havana, Cuba during the last round of the Peace Process that produced the Ethnic Chapter of the peace agreement between the government and the FARC in 2016. This is his report back on the Caravan.

Organizations Provide Mutual Aid To Residents Of East Palestine, Ohio

February 18, 2023 It's Going Down. Organize! Disaster, East Palestine, Mutual Aid, Ohio, Railroads, Solidarity

Organizations and affinity groups across Ohio are uniting to offer support and mutual aid to those most affected by last week’s train derailment and subsequent release of toxic chemicals. We are accepting donations of both funds and supplies for communities in and around East Palestine, Ohio. This disaster is a policy decision. The Biden administration and Congress refused to support rail workers in their demands to improve safety in December 2022 and January 2023. Ohio Governor DeWine mandated the conditions to allow the toxic burn off in lieu of alternative remediations. The purpose for escalating the release of volatile chemicals was to speed up the process for trains to resume to generate profit for the companies who perpetuated this catastrophe.

Rescue Collective Life By Reading A Red Book

February 17, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute For Social Research. Organize! Cuba, History, Red Books, US Imperialism

In December 1998, Fidel Castro addressed the 7th Congress of the Young Communist League in Havana, Cuba, a year after the catastrophic ‘market failure’ in Asia, when global finance exited the region and left behind economic deserts stretching from Korea to Malaysia. ‘The world is rapidly being globalised’, Castro told the Cuban youth, and this globalisation was ‘an unsustainable and intolerable world economic order’ founded on the cannibalisation of nature and the brutalisation of social life. Capitalist ideologues championed greed as foundational for society, but this, Castro cautioned, was merely an ideological claim rather than a statement drawn from reality.

Game Workers Are About To Take On The Biggest Boss Fight Of All

February 16, 2023 Stephen Franklin, In These Times. Organize! Games, Labor Unions, Wisconsin, Worker Rights and Jobs

Madison, Wisconsin - The American Dream never seemed real to Justin Smith, who grew up in Ohio’s Akron-Canton area. Factories had vanished, taking well-paying blue-collar jobs with them. Watching his single-parent mom do her best to survive on low-wage gigs, he got used to dreaming small. Then came the pandemic, which wiped out Smith’s hotel concierge job in Madison, tossing him into a year of unemployment and depression. In 2021, at the age of 34, he found a warehouse job at a retail gaming store for $11 an hour — much less than he’d earned before. It was a financial heartbreak millions of workers know well.

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