Description: Bill, Kelley, and Rachel discuss the nationwide railroad shopmen’s strike of 1922 which mobilized 400,000 strikers and kept the union intact but did not achieve its original goals.
Links and notes for Ep. 366 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AFD-Ep-366-Links-and-Notes-Great-Railroad-Strike-of-1922.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Description: Bill and Kelley review primary source documents to understand the disastrous failure of the 1911 Illinois Central Railroad Shopmen’s strike and lessons it might hold for today.
Links and notes for Ep. 354 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AFD-Ep-354-Links-and-Notes-Illinois-Central-Shopmens-strike-of-1911.pdf
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Bill and Rachel examine what an 1842 Massachusetts court decision can tell us about the process of industrialization and the emergence of labor unions and what parallels we can draw for modern gig workers. Full episode for subscribers on Patreon.
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Description: Kelley, Rachel, and Bill discuss California’s Prop 22 ballot law against independent contractors and New Mexico’s positive reform for public-sector employee unions. Part II coming to the bonus feed.
Links and notes for Ep. 348 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AFD-Ep-348-Links-and-Notes-State-level-labor-law-part-1.pdf
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Description: In 1930, Depression-era Minnesota elected friendly radical and syndicalist Floyd B. Olson as Governor. In 1934, he was forced to declare martial law to protect communist Teamsters from Minneapolis police and business militias. Bill and Rachel discuss.
Links and notes for Ep. 346 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AFD-Ep-346-Links-and-Notes-The-1934-Minneapolis-Strike-and-Floyd-B-Olson.pdf
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Description: In 1934, longshoremen along the entire US West coast emerged as a powerful force in organized labor, staging a general strike in San Francisco and unionizing every port on the coast. Kelley, Rachel, and Bill discuss.
Links and notes for Ep. 344 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AFD-Ep-344-Links-and-Notes-The-1934-West-Coast-Longshoremens-Strike.pdf
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Description: It’s October 2002. Congress is debating the Iraq War Resolution. George W. Bush invokes the Taft-Hartley Act for the first time in decades to halt a lockout of West Coast longshoremen in a contract dispute over future automation. Bill, Rachel, Kelley.
Links and notes for Ep. 342 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AFD-Ep-342-Links-and-Notes-The-West-Coast-Ports-Lockout-of-2002.pdf
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