On tonight’s episode of RPM, we’ll talk about how the “border crisis” is manufactured under capitalism and break down some of the dangerous presidential election year framing we see from both Republicans and Democrats. You’ll hear from Yvette Borja, abolitionist and Laura E. Gomez Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law. Yvette lived and organized in Tucson for 6 years and will tell us what it’s really like on the ground in Southern Arizona along the border and why there are no single issue voters. We’ll al...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 230
Tonight on Revolutions Per Minute, we travel to the United Kingdom, where far-right riots have swept the country. We ask Alex Roberts, a UK-based organizer and host of the anti-fascist podcast 12 Rules for WHAT, how communities can fight back. We also speak to Paolo Gerbaudo, a senior research fellow at Complutense University in Madrid, on the role of social media in contemporary politics.
Aug 14, 2024•56 min•Ep. 229
Last Tuesday was election night across New York State. The night highlighted both the enduring challenges and promise of the rising Socialist movement. In the most widely covered race of the night, Reactionary forces across the Right and Center, including AIPAC, funneled tens of millions of dollars into the 16th Congressional District to secure the defeat of DSA-endorsed incumbent, Congressman Jamaal Bowman by George Latimer. While at the state-level, all eight DSA incumbents in the State Senate...
Jul 03, 2024•40 min•Ep. 228
For over five and half years and 220+ episodes, we here at Revolutions Per Minute have brought the voices of activists and organizers fighting for a better world to the listeners of WBAI. Tonight, we dig into the show’s archives to hear some of those interviews through the years. Each of the interviews you will hear tonight, in their own ways, exemplify the different dimensions of our show, the members of our collective, and showcase the perspectives that you won’t hear anywhere else. Ultimately...
May 29, 2024•51 min•Ep. 227
1864. That’s the year Arizona’s abortion ban was passed. The archaic law has remained dormant since 1976, when Roe v. Wade made abortion legal nationwide, but a little over a month ago, on April 6, the Arizona Supreme Court resurrected the law, banning abortion in almost all cases. The Arizona State Legislature has since passed another law to repeal the 1864 ban, which would default the state to a still strict, 15-week ban on abortion because of a law that was passed and signed by former Republi...
May 15, 2024•54 min•Ep. 226
Students here in New York and across the country are staging protests and encampments on university campuses in solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza for over 200 days. The student movements are united by a common call for their institutions to divest and boycott the state of Israel, companies, and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation and ongoing genocide in Gaza. In response to this vast mobilization of students, the university administrations at Columbia, NYU, CUNY and else...
May 01, 2024•49 min•Ep. 225
In this episode we meet Jonathan Soto, the DSA endorsed candidate running for New York State Assembly in the North East Bronx. Jonathan is a public school parent, an inter-faith organizer and a democratic socialist, campaigning to unseat longtime incumbent Michael Benedetto in Assembly District 82.
Apr 18, 2024•54 min•Ep. 224
If you’re interested in democratizing the economy then you’re going to need to build a social base capable of such a dramatic transformation of our way of life. The only way to shift the balance of power toward the working class is to build the labor movement. Organized labor remains weak in the United States with about 10 percent of all workers organized into unions. This number has dropped nearly 25 percent since the peak of the AFL-CIO during the 1950s following the incredible surge in organi...
Apr 10, 2024•33 min•Ep. 223
Tonight, we continue our series of interviews with NYC- DSA’s 2024 slate of endorsed candidates and will be talking with Eon Tyrell Huntley, a retail worker, father and tenant running for Assembly District 56 in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights. We’ll talk to Eon about the beauty of Bed Stuy, fighting for affordable rent, standing in solidarity with Palestine despite facing AIPAC money and so much more. To learn more about Eon: www.eonforassembly.com...
Apr 03, 2024•55 min•Ep. 222
Today in Albany, New York tenants numbering in the thousands descended onto our State’s Capitol Building in a Day of Mobilization, urging the New York Legislature to pass key legislation, such as Good Cause protections for tenants and greater rent support for low-income families facing eviction. Amidst the calls made by tenants and housing justice organizers for greater protections against the worst injustices of the current housing system, there also exists a new transformative vision of what h...
Mar 20, 2024•55 min•Ep. 221
Today is day 158 of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and also primary day for voters in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. Over the last several weeks, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have voted "uncommitted" in the presidential primaries, to send a message to President Biden calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Tonight we’re joined by Ali and Tzara to talk about DSA’s role in the Vote Uncommitted campaign and what comes next ...
Mar 13, 2024•56 min•Ep. 220
In the early twentieth century the vast majority of mass production industries were unorganized in the United States. Efforts to replicate the success of the United Mine Workers, brewery workers, and the garment trades were largely unsuccessful until the 1930s when the Congress of Industrial Organizations changed everything. Fragile Juggernaut tells this story with a narrative that spans from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1950s. Andrew Elrod joins us to discuss why this history is important ...
Mar 06, 2024•56 min•Ep. 219
Tonight, we’re talking to Claire Valdez, a NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for Assembly District 37 in Queens about what being endorsed by NYC-DSA and UAW Region 9A means to her, how she plans to bring her union organizing experience of becoming ‘more powerful than the boss’ to the halls of power in Albany and much more. There are currently 8 socialists endorsed by NYC-DSA serving in Albany in the Senate and Assembly. If electoral organizers get their way- that number could be 11 next year - the larg...
Feb 21, 2024•55 min•Ep. 218
The unionization rate in the United States remains at around 10% after decades of deindustrialization in the Northeast and Midwest as well as anti-worker policies from corporations and the state, but labor organizers are fighting back. Across the country the UAW is attempting to organize non-union auto plants while here in New York service workers are building collective power. Last year we spoke with organizers from Barboncino’s who successfully organized a union at the pizza restaurant where t...
Feb 14, 2024•56 min•Ep. 217
This past weekend, DSA held their inaugural kickoff for their new nationwide campaign for Trans Rights & Bodily Autonomy. Spearheaded by the Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign Commission, DSA will mobilize the organization’s tens of thousands of members across 150+ chapters across the country, not only to combat the advances of the far-right and their systematic attempt at every level of government to remove trans people from public life & restrict access to abortion, but also to ...
Feb 07, 2024•52 min•Ep. 216
This episode of Revolutions Per Minute explores the life and legacy of Pablo Yoruba Guzman, who co-founded the New York chapter of the Young Lords, and later became a prominent television reporter on local news channels in the city. We are joined by Mickey Melendez, a fellow Young Lord, to discuss the group's occupations of the First People’s Church in Harlem and Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. We will also hear from New York City Council Member Charles Baron, the organizer Denise Oliver-Ve...
Jan 24, 2024•54 min•Ep. 215
With the battle over abortion rights raging in the United States at local, state, and national levels, we here in New York state cannot become complacent that access to abortion will always be guaranteed here. Economic, social, and logistical barriers prevent many people from accessing the care they need, and without decisive action to change that, working-class New York residents as well as people living in the surrounding area will continue to be at risk. Tonight we're joined live by Chelsea W...
Jan 17, 2024•55 min•Ep. 214
2023 was the hottest year on record and for many people across the country being able to afford their utility bills to cool or heat their homes during the more extreme temperatures caused by climate change is becoming a possibly deadly challenge. Last year, Maine DSA was part of a statewide coalition called Pine Tree Power that attempted to take over the two largest corporate utilities in the state through a ballot measure in November. They didn’t win. But here on Revolutions Per Minute we are j...
Jan 10, 2024•54 min•Ep. 213
The holiday season is in full swing, and as some people head toward time off and relaxation, workers in many industries are facing their busiest time of year. We are joined live by Connor Spence, a worker-organizer at Amazon’s first union distribution facility, JFK8 on Staten Island. Connor discusses his work as a co-founder of both the Amazon Labor Union and the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus, and how Amazon workers organized and won new leadership elections in their union. Now they'll be upping ...
Dec 20, 2023•56 min•Ep. 212
On the 1st of December, the United Auto Workers International Executive Board, alongside other labor unions & allies, announced the UAW’s support for a permanent ceasefire in Israel & Palestine. The announcement also called for the formation of a Divestment and Just Transition Working Group to study the UAW’s ties to the ongoing violence & terror of the Israeli occupation, and to explore future scenarios for a Just Transition of US workers from the war economy. The endorsement repres...
Dec 13, 2023•54 min•Ep. 211
2023 has been a major year for workers so far, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down as we head into 2024. While major strikes by UAW at the Big Three in the auto industry and by WGA and SAG-AFTRA in the entertainment world are making headlines, thousands of workers across the country are taking action in ways big and small that you may not always hear about. On this show, we're joined live by Jenny Brown, assistant editor at Labor Notes and author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Ove...
Nov 29, 2023•55 min•Ep. 210
Earlier this month, voters nationwide went to the polls. In Ohio, The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, listed on the ballot as Issue 1, passed with 57% of Ohioians voting to codify a right to an abortion, contraception, and other reproductive rights into the state Constitution, in a clear rebuke to the near total-ban on abortion pushed through by the far-right Republican Ohio Legislature in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs Decision. While here in New York,...
Nov 22, 2023•52 min•Ep. 209
Regular listeners of Revolutions per Minute will be familiar with our coverage of Palestine solidarity work within the Democratic Socialists of America. We recognize that the struggle for Palestinian liberation and the violence of settler colonial displacement are both ongoing. Tonight, our coverage continues with a live conversation with Sumaya and Daphna, two NYC-DSA members and organizers with deep experience in Palestine solidarity work. We discuss this month’s outbreak of violence in Palest...
Nov 01, 2023•55 min•Ep. 208
Tonight, we’re traveling to Arizona to learn from socialist organizers who are fighting on their home turf to make forming and maintaining strong unions easier for workers. We’re joined live by Bobby and Kaland of Arizona Works Together and Phoenix DSA to hear about their campaign to repeal so-called “Right to Work” laws in their state and what it means for union organizers in Arizona and nationwide. Plus, it’s ladies’ night once again here on RPM with Amy and Lee as hosts, so we’ll spend some t...
Oct 25, 2023•55 min•Ep. 207
Revolutions Per Minute explores migrant solidarity efforts in Brooklyn, exploring the broader context of the global migration crisis as Israel continues its military offensive against Gaza. RPM interviews people who have recently arrived in New York from Mauritania, and we meet Jaz Walker from Assemblymember Emily Gallagher's office.
Oct 19, 2023•51 min•Ep. 206
The City University of New York improves the lives of millions. Founded in 1847 with the purpose of providing higher education to working class New Yorkers, CUNY today has 25 colleges spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 243,000 degree-seeking students of all ages and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. Like many other institutions built to serve the public good, CUNY faces multiple intersecting crises. The university system could not function without its 30,000 strong unionized l...
Sep 27, 2023•54 min•Ep. 205
After Friday’s midnight deadline, the United Auto Workers went on strike against the Big 3 automakers of Ford, GM, and Stellantis, marking the first time in history the UAW has gone on strike against all three auto companies. As of this recording, 12,700 auto workers have walked off the job at three plants: a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and there are potentially many more plants to follow. While here in New York City,...
Sep 20, 2023•54 min•Ep. 204
Join us as we celebrate our 200th episode! We’ve been broadcasting on WBAI and online for almost five years and in that time, have featured the stories of hundreds of workers, tenants, and organizers fighting for socialism in New York City, in the United States, and around the globe. It’s a true honor and privilege to bring these stories to you, and we’re looking forward to what the future has in store! For this week's show, we’re joined live by Honda Wang of DSA Labor. As a New York City delega...
Aug 30, 2023•55 min•Ep. 203
Earlier this month the national Democratic Socialist of America joined the Atlanta chapter of DSA in publicly endorsing a campaign to put a referendum on the November ballot that would stop “Cop City”, a massive police training facility that has been proposed to be built in the Weelaunee Forest - public forest land and one the largest remaining green spaces in Atlanta - surrounded by predominantly Black working class neighborhoods. Tonight we’ll hear from Atlanta DSA member Gabriel Sanchez about...
Aug 23, 2023•57 min•Ep. 202
The workers of Barboncino Pizza in Crown Heights, Brooklyn made New York history on July 26th, as they voted unanimously to form a union with Workers United. Barboncino Workers United became New York’s first unionized pizzeria, an incredible show of strength for the cause of Labor in the deeply unorganized food service industry. Tonight, we hear from Alex and Mike, two workers involved in the organizing effort, about their successful campaign at Barboncino, and the fight that’s yet to come not o...
Aug 09, 2023•56 min•Ep. 201
