Jacobin Radio: Barry Eidlin on Labor

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2019

⏱️ 83 minutes

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Summary

Here, before a live audience at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) headquarters, Suzi talks to Canadian sociologist and labor activist Barry Eidlin about socialist politics and the many issues facing radicals oriented to the working class. The interview is followed by a lively, well informed discussion from the largely DSA audience. The result is a remarkable “town hall” meeting that could serve as a primer for socialist politics in the present moment. Some of the issues discussed: the Democratic Party vs. Canada’s labor party or NDP (New Democratic Party); the potential of today’s labor upsurge and teachers' strike wave; the labor bureaucracy and the rank-and-file strategy required to combat it; how to develop a “militant minority” within the workers' movement; the relationship between organizing in the traditional industrial working class and new struggles oriented around problems of social reproduction; and how to relate to Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party, and electoral politics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman.
0:08.8	This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman.
0:11.9	We recently spoke to sociologist and labor activist Barry Eidlin in front of a live audience at
0:17.8	UTLA in Los Angeles, home of the victorious LA Teacher's strike strike in January about the modest topic, labor, socialism, and the struggle for power.
0:27.8	Barry wrote an article in Jacobin on Rank-and-file strategy and his book, Labor and the
0:32.4	class idea in the U.S. and Canada
0:34.4	compares Labor's divergent fates in the two countries in order to shed light on
0:39.2	the urgent problems facing workers today. Since that book appeared, we've seen a spectacular wave of public sector strikes, mainly teachers,
0:48.0	and it is fitting that we are broadcasting from UTLA headquarters where the Union built and developed their strategy over four years
0:56.0	on the model we first saw in the Chicago Epoch-making Teacher Strike of 2012, which has become
1:02.4	the template for successful strikes in the 21st century.
1:06.4	More workers were on strikes in 2018 and 19 than any time since 1986, and not just in the public sector,
1:14.3	though the teachers have led the way.
1:16.0	This is our topic and we follow with discussion
1:18.5	from our live audience, all when Jacobin Radio
1:21.3	returns in just a moment.
1:23.0	Welcome to our live broadcast at UTLA.
1:33.3	I'm Susie Weisman and we're going to spend the next 30 to 40 minutes
1:37.5	with Barry Eidlin and then open the discussion with you.
1:41.0	And the modest topic tonight is Labor Socialism and the
1:46.2	struggle for power and we'd like to think that we go beneath the surface on
1:51.8	most of these programs that I do, but tonight we hope
	...

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