Tag: United

  • The United States as guardian or bully

    The United States as guardian or bully

    The recent United States military incursion into Venezuela and abduction and subsequent arrest of its President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in New York is a major geopolitical event. Like all major geopolitical events, it has several components — historical, legal, political and moral.

    And like all major geopolitical events, it has very different points of view. There is no grandiose “Truth” about what happened. There are many truths and points of view.

    What can be said is that on 3 January 2026, the United States military carried out strikes on Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores. The two were then flown to the United States where they were arrested and charged with issues related to narcoterrorism.

    The United States’ intervention in a Latin American country has historical precedents as well as current foreign policy implications.

    Under President James Monroe, the United States declared in 1823 that it was opposed to any outside colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. Now known as the Monroe Doctrine, it established what political scientists refer to as a “sphere of influence”; No foreign country could establish control of a country in the United States-dominated Western Hemisphere.

    (This was indeed one of the central issues in the 13-day October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the United States established a blockade outside Cuba to stop the installation of Soviet missiles on the island.)

    The Trump Corollary

    In the latest U.S. official security strategy document — National Security Strategy 2025 — the Monroe Doctrine was presented in what has been labelled “The Trump Corollary.” In it, the government said that defending territory and the Western Hemisphere were central tasks of U.S. foreign policy and national interest. The document clearly stated that activities by extra-hemispheric powers would be considered serious threats to U.S. security.

    As such, the “Trump Corollary” of the Monroe Doctrine is the justification of the military action in Venezuela based on stopping Russian and Chinese influence in Venezuela. In addition, it can be seen as the justification for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, resume control of the Panama Canal and stop narcotics and illegal migrants coming into the United States from anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

    But the Corollary and Doctrine are mere national strategic statements. Are they legally justified? The U.S. military operation in Venezuela has been highly criticized by international lawyers as well as United Nations officials. The United Nations Charter, of which the United States is a signatory, clearly forbids the use of force by one country against another country except in the case of self-defense and imminent threat.

    In an interview with New Yorker magazine reporter Isaac Chotiner on 3 January, Yale Law School Professor Oona Hathaway noted that when the UN Charter was written 80 years ago, it included a critical prohibition on the use of force by states. “States are not allowed to decide on their own that they want to use force against other states,” she told Chotiner. “It was meant to reinforce this relatively new idea at the time that states couldn’t just go to war whenever they wanted to.”

    Hathaway said that in the pre-UN Charter world, you could use force if you felt like drug trafficking was hurting you and come up with legal justification that that was the case. “But the whole point of the UN Charter was basically to say, ‘We’re not going to go to war for those reasons anymore’,” she said.

    The legality of an ouster

    Besides the international legal issue, there is also a domestic legal question about the Venezuelan military action. The 1973 War Powers Act was enacted to limit the power of the U.S. president to use military forces with the approval of the Congress.

    It was enacted following the Vietnam War during which the president engaged troops without Congressional approval or a formal declaration of war. The Act clearly requires the president to notify Congress before committing armed forces to military action.

    Trump did not consult with members of Congress before and during the military action in Venezuela. The political implications of the Venezuelan strikes and abduction also have international as well as domestic implications. Internationally, there is a dangerous precedent being set.

    If the United States asserts its sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere, what is to stop the Russian Federation from claiming a similar sphere of influence in the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as Ukraine?

    Similarly, what about Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region and especially Taiwan? If the United States claims domination in one geographic region, why can’t other powers like Russia and China do the same?

    The Westphalian system

    Within the United States, there have also been serious reservations about President Trump’s actions. That was to be expected from the opposing Democratic Party. But, several members of Trump’s Republican Party as well as loyal members of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement argue that Trump was elected on the slogan “Make America Great Again.” One of the pillars of that movement is a focus on internal problems instead of foreign interventions.

    Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene used to be one of Trump’s staunchest supporters. On 3 January she told interviewer Kristen Walker on the NBC show “Meet the Press” that America First should mean what Trump promised on the campaign trail in 2024.

    “So my understanding of America First is strictly for the American people, not for the big donors that donate to big politicians, not for the special interests that constantly roam the halls in Washington and not foreign countries that demand their priorities put first over Americans,” Greene said.

    Other criticisms have centered on President Trump’s focus on restoring business in Venezuela for the U.S. oil industry, which has the world’s largest oil reserves. Republican U.S. Representative Thomas Massie warned that “lives of U.S. soldiers are being risked to make those oil companies (not Americans) more profitable.”

    Finally, there are moral arguments against the use of force in Venezuela as well as Trump’s threats of the use of force in Colombia, Cuba and elsewhere. There is no question that Venezuelans had suffered under the rule of Maduro; statistics show the rapid decline in the economy as well as a significant democratic deficit.

    Fundamental to today’s notion of international order is what’s known as the Westphalian system of the integrity of state sovereignty. The world has seen an order since the end of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations. That order was based on respect for the rule of law. There are other means for states to act against other states, such as sanctions, below military intervention. One country invading another goes against the basis of the Westphalian system.

    The Venezuelan strikes and abduction have set a dangerous precedent.

     

    Questions to consider:

    1. What is meant by the “Monroe Doctrine”?

    2. When is one country considered part of a “sphere of influence” of another country?

    3. How do you define “national security”?

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  • How Superior Public Schools united curriculum and data

    How Superior Public Schools united curriculum and data

    Key points:

    Creating consistency between classrooms and ensuring curriculum alignment school-wide can be challenging, even in the smallest of districts. Every educator teaches–and grades–differently based on their experience and preferences, and too often, they’re forced into a solution that no longer respects their autonomy or acknowledges their strengths.

    When Superior Public Schools (SPS), a district of 450 students in rural Nebraska, defined standards-referenced curriculum as a priority of our continuous improvement plan, bringing teachers in as partners on the transition was essential to our success. Through their support, strategic relationships with outside partners, and meaningful data and reporting, the pathway from curriculum design to classroom action was a smooth one for teachers, school leaders, and students alike.

    Facing the challenge of a new curriculum

    For years, teachers in SPS were working autonomously in the classroom. Without a district-wide curriculum in place, they used textbooks to guide their instruction and designed lesson plans around what they valued as important. In addition, grading was performed on a normative curve that compared a student’s performance against the performance of their peers rather than in relation to a mastery of content.

    As other educators have discovered, the traditional approach to teaching may be effective for some students, but is inequitable overall when preparing all students for their next step, whether moving on to more complex material or preparing for the grade ahead. Kids were falling through the cracks, and existing opportunity gaps only began to grow.

    SPS set out to help our students by instituting standards-referenced instruction at both the elementary and secondary levels, allowing us to better identify each child’s progress toward set learning standards and deliver immediate feedback and intervention services to keep them on the path toward success.

    Take it slow and start with collaboration

    From day one, school leaders understood the transition to the new curriculum needed to be intentional and collaborative. 

    Rather than demand immediate buy-in from teachers, administrators and the curriculum team dedicated the time to help them understand the value of a new learning process. Together, we took a deep dive into traditional education practices, identifying which set students up for success and which actually detoured their progress. Recognizing that everyone–teachers included–learns in different ways, administrators also provided educators with a wide range of resources, such as book studies, podcasts, and articles, to help them grow professionally.

    In addition, SPS partnered with the Curriculum Leadership Institute (CLI) to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices across all content areas, schools, and grade levels. On-site CLI coaches worked directly with teachers to interpret standards and incorporate their unique teaching styles into new instructional strategies, helping to ensure the new curriculum translated seamlessly into daily classroom practice.

    To bring standards-referenced curriculum to life with meaningful insights and reporting, SPS integrated the Otus platform into our Student Information System. By collecting and analyzing data in a concise manner, teachers could measure student performance against specific learning targets, determining if content needed to be re-taught to the whole class or if specific students required one-on-one guidance.

    With the support of our teachers, SPS was able to launch the new curriculum and assessment writing process district-wide, reaching students in pre-K through 12th grade. However, standards-reference grading was a slower process, starting with one subject area at a time at the elementary level. Teachers who were initially uncomfortable with the new grading system were able to see the benefits firsthand, allowing them to ease into the transition rather than jump in headfirst. 

    Empowering educators, inspiring students

    By uniting curriculum and data, SPS has set a stronger foundation of success for every student. Progress is no longer measured by compliance but by a true mastery of classroom concepts.

    Teachers have become intentional with their lesson plans, ensuring that classroom content is directly linked to the curriculum. The framework also gives them actionable insights to better identify the skills students have mastered and the content areas where they need extra support. Teachers can adjust instruction as needed, better communicate with parents on their students’ progress, and connect struggling students to intervention services.

    Principals also look at student progress from a building level, identifying commonalities across multiple grades. For instance, if different grade levels struggle with geometry concepts, we can revisit the curriculum to see where improvements should be made. Conversely, we can better determine if SPS needs to increase the rigor in one grade to better prepare students for the next grade level.

    While the road toward standards-referenced curriculum had its challenges, the destination was worth the journey for everyone at SPS. By the end of the 2024-2025 school year, 84 percent of K-5 students were at or above the 41st percentile in math, and 79 percent were at or above the 41st percentile in reading based on NWEA MAP results. In addition, teachers now have a complete picture of every student to track individual progress toward academic standards, and students receive the feedback, support, and insights that inspire them to become active participants in their learning.

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  • Higher Education Labor United ("HELU") November 2025 Report

    Higher Education Labor United ("HELU") November 2025 Report

     

    November 2025 HELU Chair’s Message

    Billionaires and the ultra-wealthy have no place in setting the future agenda for higher ed. We – the students, community members, workers that actually make the campus work – do. 
     

    Upcoming Events:
     
     

    From the Blog:

    In Michigan, the MI HELU coalition decided that we wanted to get ahead of the curve by providing candidates with a forum that focused exclusively on Higher Education and the challenges we are facing.

    Together, we’re fighting back against the demonization of higher ed and we won’t cave to governmental bullying to water down our education system with the goal of elimination. Our students deserve better, and so do we.

    Founded in 2020 during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education (SNDHE) is a group of teachers and researchers committed to rebuilding our colleges and universities so that they can be a true public resource for everyone.

    And now [New York is] being punished by a federal government that sees organized labor, public education, and social investment as threats instead of strengths.

    Public protest and influencing public opinion is keeping UCW (CWA Local 3821) busy. Members have been fighting fiercely to Defend Remote Work at their state institutions.
     

    Want to support our work? Make a contribution.

    We invite you to support HELU’s work by making a direct financial contribution. While HELU’s main source of income is solidarity pledges from member organizations, these funds from individuals help us to grow capacity as we work to align the higher ed labor movement.

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  • The United Kingdom needs a new generation of Levellers

    The United Kingdom needs a new generation of Levellers

    In 1649, a group of English radicals sent a petition to the House of Commons. In it, they lamented the licensing of printing — which allowed the government to “pre-censor” books and pamphlets — as well as the harsh punishments for publishing unlicensed or “scandalous” ones. 

    The radicals warned that this kind of censorship would usher in a tyranny, and they insisted that it “seems altogether inconsistent with the good of the Commonwealth, and expresly [sic] opposite and dangerous to the liberties of the people.”

    These radicals, known as the Levellers, paid dearly for their defiance. Their leaders were repeatedly imprisoned, and their demands for near-universal male suffrage, religious freedom, and unrestricted speech were crushed. 

    Yet their bold vision left a legacy. Later champions of free expression, from the authors of Cato’s Letters to John Wilkes, carried their arguments forward. Those ideas crossed the Atlantic, circulated in pamphlets at revolutionary speed, and ultimately found their way into state constitutions and the First Amendment.

    Centuries later, it seems Britain is in dire need of a new generation of Levellers.

    In April, The Times reported that more than 30 people a day were being arrested for various online offenses, equating to 12,000 arrests a year, according to The Telegraph. In June, Hamit Coskun was fined £240 for a religiously aggravated public order offence after burning a Quran and shouting profanities against Islam outside the Turkish consulate in London — an act of protest against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authoritarian Islamism.

    With every arrest, the British must remind themselves: Rights lost are not easily regained. 

    In March, six girls at a Quaker meeting house in London were arrested for “suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” for holding a meeting about a potential non-violent protest. They were part of a group called Youth Demand, which had been carrying out acts of civil disobedience as part of their “fight to end genocide.” Thirty officers were involved in the arrest, which was part of a larger campaign of raids for similar offenses that took place across the city that day.

    Nearly 900 people were arrested in London over the weekend for protesting against the government’s ban on the advocacy group Palestine Action under an anti-terrorism law, which in the U.S. would be similar to the Trump administration declaring Students for Justice in Palestine a terrorist organization. Expressing support for a proscribed organization is punishable with up to 14 years in prison.

    And Irish comedian Graham Linehan was arrested by five armed police officers at Heathrow Airport last week. Linehan, a vocal critic of gender self-identification, rejects the idea that biological sex can be changed and opposes access for biological males to female-only spaces. His alleged crime apparently consisted of three tweets from April, one of which read:

    The tweets were undoubtedly harsh and deeply offensive to many transgender people, who see Linehan’s stance as a denial of their very identity. Yet tolerating speech that offends our most cherished beliefs is the price of any meaningful conception of free expression, whether in law or in culture. 

    Even in the U.S., where legal speech protections are stronger than in the U.K., (imminent) incitement to violence can be restricted. However, a provocative tweet from more than four months ago suggesting that someone “punch” others in a hypothetical situation does not meet any meaningful threshold of incitement (imminent or not) — no more than do abstract exhortations to “punch Nazis” or, conversely, to attack “TERFs,” as some trans activists have urged.

    All told, it is difficult to escape the depressing conclusion that the home of the Levellers, Cato’s Letters, John Wilkes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Tom Paine, John Stuart Mill, and George Orwell has taken a deeply troubling turn away from the robust tradition of free speech these seminal figures argued so eloquently for.

    With every arrest, the British must remind themselves: Rights lost are not easily regained. And for Americans looking across the pond in horror, a warning: It can happen here, too.

    Why John Milton’s free speech pamphlet ‘Areopagitica’ still matters

    Milton’s most important work on free speech was “Areopagitica,” a short polemical pamphlet that argued “For the Liberty of unlicensed printing.”


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  • Two upcoming HELU events (Higher Ed Labor United)

    Two upcoming HELU events (Higher Ed Labor United)

    Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bill? Higher Ed Fights Back!
    Monday, August 18 at 7:30 PM ET / 6:30 CT / 5:30 MT / 4:30 PT

    Join HELU leaders and organizers for our upcoming webinar “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bill: Higher Ed Fights Back” on Monday, August 18th at 7:30 PM ET / 6:30 CT / 5:30 MT / 4:30 PT. We’ll be joined by Sara Garcia, a policy analyst for Senator Bernie Sanders on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). Sara will walk us through the parts of the bill that will affect higher education and discuss what’s possible in terms of pushing back. Thomas Gokey of the Debt Collective will discuss how the myriad changes to student lending will affect student borrowers and we will end with discussion and call to act in the fall with our colleagues across the country and fight back against the attacks on higher education in the United States.

    Higher ed workers – staff, faculty, university healthcare workers, facilities & maintenance workers, research assistants, academic advisors, students; in short, anyone who works on a campus – must come together as a united front to defend higher education as a public good. Higher ed must be fully-funded, with living wages and job security for everyone working on campus. We must look into the next four years with courage, determination, solidarity, and long-term strategy. Register for the August 18 webinar here.

    This event is closed to the press.

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  • UNITED ‘25: Principals explore solutions to pressing K-12 challenges

    UNITED ‘25: Principals explore solutions to pressing K-12 challenges

    Principals from K-12 schools across the country traveled to Seattle to attend UNITED, the National Conference on School Leadership, July 11-13, where they discussed and shared solutions for the many challenges facing the education sector.

    From concerns over school safety to the dilemma of chronic absenteeism, school leaders heard about innovative ways to tackle these issues by embracing local partnerships or looking into resources from national organizations. 

    Principals also learned about creative approaches emerging in the classroom. At one Indiana high school, for example, a public relations class is helping both to boost the school’s messaging to its community and to build students’ media skills. District administrators at Portland Public Schools, meanwhile, discussed how they’ve navigated and sustained a high-impact tutoring program in the state’s largest school district. 

    Read on for K-12 Dive’s coverage of the 2025 annual combined meeting of the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

     

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  • The Enshitification of Higher Education in the United States

    The Enshitification of Higher Education in the United States

    Cory Doctorow’s theory of enshitification—originally coined to describe how digital platforms decay over time—perfectly captures the grim evolution of U.S. higher education. Institutions that once positioned themselves as public goods now exist primarily to sustain themselves, extracting revenue, prestige, and labor at the expense of students, faculty, and the broader public.

    In the post–World War II era, higher education in the United States was broadly seen as a driver of social mobility, economic growth, and democratic citizenship. The GI Bill and substantial state funding opened college doors to millions. Tuition at public institutions was minimal or nonexistent. Academic freedom, faculty governance, and research for the common good were foundational ideals.

    By the 1980s, neoliberal policies began to reshape the higher education landscape. Public disinvestment led institutions to rely more heavily on tuition, philanthropy, corporate partnerships, and student debt. Universities became more bureaucratic and brand-conscious. Students were reframed as consumers, and education as a commodity. Faculty positions gave way to underpaid adjunct labor, and Online Program Managers like 2U, Academic Partnerships (aka Risepoint) and Kaplan emerged to monetize digital learning. Marketing budgets ballooned. Classrooms and research labs became secondary to enrollment targets and revenue generation.

    A 2019 Higher Education Inquirer report revealed how elite universities joined the downward spiral. Institutions like Harvard, Yale, and USC outsourced online graduate programs to 2U, employing aggressive recruitment tactics that resembled those of discredited for-profit colleges. Applicants were encouraged to take on excessive debt for degrees with uncertain returns. Whistleblowers likened it to fraud-by-phone—evidence that even the most prestigious universities were embracing an extractive model.

    Doctoral education offers a deeper glimpse into how enshitification has hollowed out academia. Sold as a noble pursuit of truth and a path to secure academic employment, the Ph.D. has become, for many, a journey into economic instability, psychological distress, and underemployment. Only a small percentage of doctoral students land tenure-track jobs. Graduate schools continue to admit far more students than they can responsibly support, while providing little preparation for careers outside academia. Mentorship is often lacking, and financial support is frequently inadequate. Many graduate students rely on food pantries, defer medical care, or take on gig work just to survive. Meanwhile, universities benefit from their labor in teaching and research.

    International graduate students face even steeper challenges. Promised opportunity, they instead encounter a saturated job market, low wages, and immigration precarity. Their labor props up U.S. research and rankings, but their long-term prospects are often bleak.

    The rise of career-transition consultants—like Cheeky Scientist and The Professor Is In—has become a booming cottage industry, a byproduct of the failed academic job pipeline. For most Ph.D.s, what was once considered “alternative academia” is now the only path forward.

    Financial hardship compounds the crisis. Graduate stipends in many programs are far below local living wages, especially in high-cost cities like San Francisco, Boston, or New York. Few programs provide retirement benefits or financial literacy resources. The financial toll of earning a doctorate is often hidden until students are years deep into their programs—and years behind in wealth accumulation.

    Meanwhile, university medical centers—often affiliated with elite institutions—offer a parallel example of institutional enshitification. These hospitals have long histories of exploitation, particularly of poor and minority patients. Even today, these facilities prioritize affluent patients and donors, while relying on precariously employed staff and treating marginalized communities as research subjects. The disparities are systematic and ongoing. The rhetoric of innovation and healing masks a legacy of racial injustice and extractive labor practices.

    Legacy admissions further entrench inequality. While race-conscious admissions have been rolled back, legacy preferences remain largely untouched. They serve to maintain elite networks, ensuring that wealth and access remain intergenerational. These policies not only contradict the rhetoric of meritocracy but also deepen structural inequities in the name of tradition.

    Today, higher education serves itself. Institutions protect billion-dollar endowments, award executive salaries in the millions, expand sports programs and real estate portfolios, and depend on underpaid faculty and indebted students. Campuses are rife with inequality, surveillance of student protest, and performative gestures of inclusion, even as DEI initiatives are gutted by state governments or internal austerity.

    The consequences are clear. Enrollment is declining. Campuses are closing. Faculty are being laid off. Public trust is eroding. And even elite institutions are feeling the strain. Doctorow’s theory suggests that once a system has fully enshittified, collapse becomes inevitable. The College Meltdown is not hypothetical—it’s here.

    And yet, collapse can be a beginning. Higher education must be radically reimagined: public investment, tuition-free education, student debt relief, labor protections, honest admissions policies, and genuine democratic governance. The alternative is more of the same: a system that costs more, delivers less, and cannibalizes its future to feed its prestige economy.

    Selected Sources

    Caterine, Christopher L. Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide. Princeton University Press, 2020.

    Cassuto, Leonard. The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It. Harvard University Press, 2015.

    Kelsky, Karen. The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. into a Job. Three Rivers Press, 2015.

    Roberts, Emily. Personal Finance for Ph.D.s. https://www.pfforphds.com

    Shaulis, Dahn. “2U Expands College Meltdown to Elite Universities.” Higher Education Inquirer, Oct. 4, 2019. https://www.highereducationinquirer.org/2019/10/college-meltdown-expands-to-elite.html

    Shaulis, Dahn. “The Dark Legacy of Elite University Medical Centers.” Higher Education Inquirer, Mar. 13, 2025. https://www.highereducationinquirer.org/2025/03/the-dark-legacy-of-elite-university.html

    Doctorow, Cory. “TikTok’s Enshittification.” Pluralistic.net, Jan. 21, 2023. https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

    American Association of University Professors. Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2023. https://www.aaup.org

    National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Current Term Enrollment Estimates, 2024. https://nscresearchcenter.org

    Newfield, Christopher. The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.

    Goldrick-Rab, Sara. Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream. University of Chicago Press, 2016.

    Roth, Gary. The Educated Underclass: Students and the Promise of Social Mobility. Pluto Press, 2019.

    Teen Vogue. “The Movement Against Legacy Admissions.” Jan. 2, 2025. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/movement-against-legacy-admissions

    The Guardian. “‘Affirmative Action for the Privileged’: Why Democrats Are Fighting Legacy Admissions.” Aug. 11, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/11/college-legacy-admissions-affirmative-action-democrats

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  • Starbucks Workers United Spreading Like Wildfire (Starbucks Workers United)

    Starbucks Workers United Spreading Like Wildfire (Starbucks Workers United)

    We’re on day 4 of our 5 days of ULP strikes, and the SBWU strike lines keep spreading! Baristas are fired up and ready to fight for a fair contract and protest hundreds of unfair labor practices – and as each day passes, more and more workers are walking off the job.

    Today, we’re out in 3 new cities: Boston, Portland, and Dallas! Here are the 13 cities we’re holding anchor pickets in:

    • LA:  10am PST @ 3241 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA

    • Seattle: 1pm PST @ 1124 Pike St, Seattle WA

    • Chicago: 12pm CST @ 5964 N Ridge Ave, Chicago, IL

    • Denver: 12pm MST @ 2700 S Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO

    • Columbus: 12pm EST @ 7176 N High St, Worthington, OH

    • Pittsburgh: 8am EST @ 5932 Penn Cir S. Pittsburgh, PA

    • St. Louis: 12pm CST @ 8023 Dale Ave, Richmond Heights MO

    • Philadelphia: 9am EST @ 1528 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA

    • Brooklyn: 9am EST @ 325 Lafayette, Brooklyn, NY

    • Long Island: 1pm EST @ 914 Old Country Rd, Garden City, NY

    • Dallas: 11am CST @ 1445 West University Drive, Denton TX

    • Portland: 10am PST @ 9350 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton OR

    • Boston: 10am EST @ 470 Washington St, Brighton MA

    If you’re able to join your local picket line, workers would love supplies like: hand-warmers, food, water, hot beverages, and energetic vibes! Don’t forget to bring your own picket sign!

    Don’t live near a picket line? We still need you! Striking baristas are calling on allies to flyer as many not-yet union Starbucks as possible. Workers across the country are infuriated over the paltry 2% raise, and SBWU gives not-yet union baristas a path to increase their wages. But in order to win, we need not-yet union stores to get in the fight. We’re asking allies to flyer these stores and talk to baristas about the union.

    Show us your solidarity: register your canvassing event, attend an anchor strike line near you, and DO NOT cross the picket line!

    Onward,

    Lilly

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  • HELU’s Wall-to-Wall and Coast-to-Coast Report – April 2025 (Higher Ed Labor United)

    HELU’s Wall-to-Wall and Coast-to-Coast Report – April 2025 (Higher Ed Labor United)

    April 2025 HELU Chair’s Message – May Day Strong

    From Levin Kim, HELU Chair
    Over the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, higher ed workers from coast to coast have been fighting back against attacks on critical lifesaving research, on immigrant workers, on education and research in the public interest. We’re in the fight of our lives, for our work, our communities, and our future. 

    Despite alarming news on the daily—from students and workers removed from our campuses, firings, program closures, government intervention in classroom curriculum, and brazen attacks on academic freedom—we refuse to be immobilised into inaction because we know a better world is possible if we fight for it. We’re standing up for the future of higher ed by building a wall-to-wall, coast-to-coast movement of workers ready to organize, to fight, and to win. Now is the time for coalition-building, for moving your coworkers to take action together, and getting out in the streets. Find and attend a May Day event near you tomorrow, and stay tuned for more ways to take action. 
     

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  • United Steel Workers Goes All in on Solidarity at Convention

    United Steel Workers Goes All in on Solidarity at Convention

    More than 2,000 members from across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean spent four days charting the future of our union and recommitting themselves to the solidarity that powers the union at the USW’s triennial constitutional convention earlier this month.

    International President David McCall opened the convention by calling on union members to fight back against wealthy elites who want to silence workers across North America.

    “To turn back the tide of economic injustice and corporate greed, we need to truly be all in,” McCall said. “We can hold nothing back, and we need every member to join in the fight – for as long as it takes.”

    In debating resolutions ranging from fair trade to civil and human rights, delegates shared their struggles and victories in the fight against corporate greed. They also heard from trade unionists from other countries and a panel of federal workers who warned of broad attacks on workers’ rights coming out of Washington, D.C.

    A panel of federal workers speaks to delegates of the USW convention.

    While billionaires like Elon Musk may be emboldened under the current administration, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler declared that with 71% of Americans supportive of unions, union members are in a “generational moment” to build the labor movement. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond reminded delegates that “we know the way forward.”

    The way forward is going all in on solidarity. Delegates demonstrated what that looks like by taking action right from the convention floor by calling their members of Congress to demand passage of the bipartisan Protect America’s Workforce Act.

    Convention delegates hold signs saying 'Solidarity' while holding their fists raised.

    Delegates left Las Vegas fired up and ready to carry that energy forward into their workplaces and communities.  

    “Being all in isn’t a one-time action – and it isn’t a bet,” McCall said. “It’s our way of operating, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

    You can find full coverage of our convention, including photos, videos, resolutions, and more, on the USW website.

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