This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman.

We begin today with the massive protest movement in Belarus that has gone on since

August 9th when the blatantly fraudulent election results were announced

spurring unprecedented protests that continue to this day despite a brutal response from the security

forces. President Lukashenko claimed he won 80% of the votes in a deteriorating economic situation and escalating pandemic which the government

ignored while spending lavishly on World War II parades.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets, workers have downed their tools to go on strike and join the protest movement,

while President Lukashenko has dug in, doubling down on repression and shocking the world with the regime's brutality.

We'll talk to Elizabetha Merleac, International Secretary of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union

BMP in Grugno, Belarus.

We then turn to California where the courts and the legislature have determined that

Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash, and Postmates are not tech apps apps but driving companies and their workers are

employees not independent contractors. The court has issued an injunction

against the companies and they in turn have threatened to halt services in California

until November when voters will vote on their sponsored Prop 22 which would

give them a carve-out or exemption to the law to deny their drivers rights and protections like minimum wage, sick leave and safety protections.

Sarah Mason, a former lift driver and Dorasher, who's now a grad student studying platform

mediated labor, joins us to explain.

All this when our program returns in just a moment.

This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Susie Wiseman. We're going to begin today's program on the situation in Belarus.

Now I recognize that many listeners know very little about this beyond what is in the headlines,

but that's our purpose today to go beneath the surface.

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