Cyberunions

Cyberunions

Exploring the intersections of labo(u)r unions and open source

Episodes

  1. 04/12/2017

    Cyberunions Episode 93: Tech workers can organize…?

    Download Ogg Ogg lite MP3 Torrent Update Section 1:00 Catch up 2:45 The final countdown 3:15 Help support the show https://www.patreon.com/cyberunions 4:00 How to organize … a lot of work, practice, and patience 5:00 Tech organizing ideas from Solidarity solidarity-us.org and DSA dsausa.org 5:45 The revolution is not going to happen tomorrow 6:55 Always opportunities from the public or president on bringing events forward to further a leftest discussion 7:30 Need to organize, need to join groups that are organized, anarchist, socialist or whatever 8:20 Net Neutrality will be a future show on what we can do to respond outside existing ISPs Mesh it all up https://act.eff.org/action/protect-the-open-internet-order 9:00 Occupy days wireless mesh independent internet was kicked around in the tech groups but nothing materialized at that time 10:00 Libraries loan wireless hotspots. 10:45 Libraries are a good starting point, projects like Library Freedom Project training on threat models. 11:30 Public venues as places to organize municipal or community ISPs 12:00 We can use trump anymore, need a new word 12:50 FCC chairman is upset that his family has taken a brunt of the impact on his position on net neutrality… keep up the effort. 13:30 Tech Worker Coalition The history, the idea, and the movement afoot http://techworkerscoalition.org/ The Interview & Recap 60:00 Matt’s thoughts on the interview 65:00 For the Win! http://craphound.com/category/ftw/ 67:00 Do you know how much your co-workers are paid? Share your wage! 69:00 Speaking to the blood vessels in the bodiess of the conservative bench, clot away! 70:00 Our new groups on Matrix #cyberunions:matrix.org and on Telegram https://t.me/cyberunions they are connected to each other.

    1h 11m

  2. 20/03/2017

    Cyberunions Episode 92: Alt ‘Rights’: What does labor look like in the age of Trump

    Download Ogg Ogg lite MP3 Torrent Update Section This is decidedly not Walton Matt coming in from Chicago Chicago teachers strike Site of Haymarket square, Mayday for the American listeners Is there a memorial for the workers in Haymarket square? Using new tech for this podcast connections Zokos.com planned to be free software Indiana became a Right to Work state Stephen has left the FSF as of last week, more details in future show, but now back into his coop Glocal.coop and social movement organizing Matt gets an orientation in the studio Matt starts hosting himself and gives his intro Matt is a data analyst with Cook County Election, encompassing the suburbs outside of Chicago and a member of SEIU local 73, prior worked with Unite-Here and then SEIU local 1. Stephen learns about a hell-of-a-question as Matt grew up in a union family Matt is pretty actively involved on the ground in street actions Stephen received artisan beer from Mexico Matt prepares to get off the grid.  Labor section What are we entering in terms of labor in the US.  Our thoughts on what we think Trump ran a campaign supported by many poor workers, areas that were devastated by globalization Reality is Trump has fought workers often Not sure what he will do with the NLRB What does the worst look like? US in 1900s, no protection to workers and was a much more violent experience to gain a union Are we destined for a return to 1920s instead of a closed shop A lot of unions that are saying that the President and Congress are hostile to workers and unions and seek to kill off unions It is impossible in the capitalist system to eliminate the conflict between workers and bosses, may kill the organizing for a bit Brief history of the NLRA Labor peace led to a movement to overcome capitalism was put back, and then Taft Hartley Act killed hopes of the left in labor at the time Seeing for the first time the left really coming together, socialist groups experience large growth for the first time in a generation Business unionism to potentially advance and not for organizing militancy amongst workers In the prior to NLRB and in the 1900s to 1930s most union activists being killed were unskilled workers as skilled was protected to a greater extent Concern of build up of Nationalism and a similar dynamic of patriotism that was held against the IWW in their stance on World War I and their inaction was used against them Tendency to see labor being split and now we are seeing the trades, that being building trades Stephen may repeat himself… the FDR model of pay a man to dig a ditch and pay another to fill it to put people back to work, we have a perverted version of that  The idea of the wall is not about borders and or stopping the flow of immigrants it is an appeal to racism and fear of the other Global ‘fear’ of racism like Brexit and now more traditionally conservative voices like Angela Merkel appearing center and liberal Scapegoating the poor and turns out that the story was false The US embarrassment Coming back to labor If building trade goes back supporting Trump and have been in gentrification in major US cities Does this path lead to the AFL-CIO split again? Matt is not in the AFL-CIO as SEIU is part of Change to Win Will the AFL-CIO respond differently than before  There has been a lot that unions have done to reach out and support worker centers, but here are tensions brewing between service workers and building trades  Allowing Police and Law enforcement being part of the federations may also lead to splits in the labor movement Some building trade unions have gone to the White House and it is of great concern It seems like attacks on workers and there may be unions that will work their cut and screw other unions If we face a national work to right will the business unions face militancy from their members Any one who says that to go on strike is a privilege is bull shit and do not understand the sacrifice that is being made and for why No one ever wants to go on strike it is something they want to avoid .. Strike is not the tool of the privileged True alternate facts to see liberal outlets saying it. Tech Section New age of surveillance … Alexa in Matt’s house Alexa is waiting to be heard, waiting to respond to saying its name, the claim, that nothing is uploaded to the servers, but cannot verify it cause it is not open source Matt might do a packet sniffer to find out The new trend of Internet of Things Serious privacy implications, already Ecco has come up in police subpoena to get records Alexa listening in and new microwaves turning in to cameras TechSolidarity meeting talking about tech workers discussing the data that they are sitting on Same conversations at opendata meetings in Chicago too, lots of folks having the conversations about gathering data A question coming up about people wondering if we want to have this data Stephen did something….he has a Facebook account …first time in 11 years This is mostly for organizing with solidarity-us.org Facebook and security the use of GPG for email notification Facebook break tracking addon and block ads Might create a Cyberunions group too Close out Zokos.com will be free software, it is being planned it is on github in a private form as they cleanup the code

    50 min

  3. 24/01/2017

    Cyberunions Episode 91: Announcing the Punch a Nazi Challenge, Take that Ice Bucket!

    Download Ogg Ogg lite MP3 Torrent Update section Richard Spencer punch to the music of Born in the USA. Peoples Inauguration Friday night in Boston. Womens march Saturday in Boston over 175,000 people. Labor section ideas Framing the conditions. Davos — themes, new tech and rise of robots, globalization and retreat of globalization.  Typically not supportive of right wing. They are realizing that the anti union perspective is bad for them.  View of what to expect under trump. Refinery Town book review, about forming Progressive Alliance to win locally and building an alternative to the two parties.  Tech section Tech Solidaity meetings.  Boston experience. ACLU: massachusetts membe Kade Crockford spoke and highlighted the importance of secure communication and informed peopel to use Signal. Emphasis on calling elected officials and getting them to hear us, we have a tendency to not take action. FBI can hack without a warrent and the concerns it puts forward. Tech for Liberty project. Local organizing to hold police accountable Seecops legislation. Lots of focus on local actions.  National Domestic Workers Alliance: Spoke about the challenges the immigrant communities have faced and their need to begin to use better technology and communication but also shared knowing the fear many newly active people are seeing. Need to work on making sanctuary companies, in contracts and pushing company leaders. Need tech support with worker centers and working on expanding the security and privacy knowledge.  MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocates Coalition) spoke about the local push for supporting free legal assistance and municipal IDs for undocumented folks who cannot get state IDs. Labor Lawyer Spoke about the difficulty in organizing tech workers. Spoke about the ways in the US that companies use captive audience meetings to control thoughts on forming a union. But that now is the time to organize to protect our work but more importantly to protect the data that many of the tech workers present work on. The need to eliminate that data from being a tool or threat against us all.  Others can follow to find out more info from their twitter. Also the NeverAgain Tech pledge.  Feedback Turkey is starting to ban strikes.  Davos industry 4.0 tthe big things is if contract worker are recognized as employees.  Fighting for fundamental rights.

    36 min

  4. 05/12/2016

    Cyberunions Podcast Episode 90: Identity politics lacks class

    Download Ogg Ogg lite MP3 Torrent Intro (0:28) Swimming in the lake at 8 C/ 46 F The site will be moving and design changes to cyberunions.org and it will be more mobile friendly Steel plant in Germany and worker perspective with a more internationalist perspective Reminds of Capital Moves: The RCA story  Passing of Fidel and the end of an era Transition from Fidel to Trump… is it the end of Neoliberalism? Trump ‘Saving jobs in Indiana’ Main Topic (10:42) Threatening rise of fascism Giving out This Machine kills Fascists  The big fight of identity and class politics Liberals have defended identity politics and occused people bringing up class as white privilege SDP and Communist parties fought each other and the splits let the right come to power, we need to make sure that does not happen again Jacobin magazine historical map of the left in the US (PDF) Highlighting The Guardian newspaper covering identity politics well but not showing up to a strike Identity politics alone seems simple to solve but it has potential for large repercussions, LGBTQ rights comng about in the US at least is great but not everyone is on board with it where class issue is missed.  (19:45) Capitalists don’t care about LGBTQ but they will exploit the split of the working class Gains in identity politics is more commonly found in the upper class In the film “Pride” Gay and Lesbians support the miners  Shows the struggle of breaking down divisions it will take us a long time but we will grow and become stronger Liberals stop blaming voters, instead blame the movements that failed We need to hold the line and defend identity politics but need to bring class into it The backlash is it left out half of the equation Socialist and revolutionary groups are seeing quite an uptick in membership and interest When did we ever have democracy Scotland shows great signs of positive changes in working class  The wierdness factor is still there, president is not held to conflict of interest laws In a bizarre state of mind of want to know what happens but we are not a game of Sims Spent life fighting Neoliberalism and now it is like oh shit neoliberalism might be better Capitalist will they oddly be in a place of ‘saving us’ in certain parts i.e. capitalist supporting LGBTQ Keep in mind there are splits in capitalism too A wait and see that we don’t want to wait and see The passing of Fidel thinking back on the legacy of Fidel Tech (39:30) Rebuilding the commons, things have changed since we started, but we still have not figured it out The ongoing challenge of social media in the public commons Do we give up on social media and do really targeted communication What is the problem we are trying to solve it seems it is more like we are trying to still replace email Signal, Whatsapp and Telegram replacing social media seems we want the immediate communication and secure and accessible instead Facebook is becoming a newsfeed, a don’t tag people and let them decide, privacy is being grasped Not writing off XMPP/Jabber Do we want Cyberunions to be more of a role of advising and research for unions and develop a transition process One example is a group in Mexico called Sursiendo that developed an adaptation and adoption plan to free and open source software Should we open a facebook group for cyberunions as general outreach and awareness as people are there and we could use it as just a news outlet feed come to https://telegram.me/cyberunions Not to endorse the Facebook game and we want to pull people away there are a lot of leftist groups that have developed strength from there Outro (54:23) Dockers podcast shoutout  Rate and review us on Itunes to expand our reach, we know many of our listeners use iPhones Telegram group https://telegram.me/cyberunions Look we created a podcast

    57 min

  5. 14/11/2016

    Cyberunions Episode 89 : This Podcast Kills Fascists

    Download Ogg Ogg lite mp3 Torrent Intro 0:50 Walton is not in Scotland anymore… 1:20 Why would we ever bring this podcast back? 1:27 A terrible thing happened in the world 2:00 Beard scratching the mic 2:13 Shit is shitty on this side of the pond 2:37 Before jumping into the election how did Walton end up in Switzerland? 3:55 Make Donald Drumpf Again 4:16 Stephen might go chaotic as he is challenge with grappling with the shit we have 4:36 Prophets of Rage tries to Make America Rage Again Labor/Political shit 5:23 Twas the night of the election 6:14 Waking up to some kind of hell, just not sure which one 7:10 We need a time machine to get back to the future 7:29 Maybe the world did end in 2012 according to the Mayan calendar and time split and we are in the wrong version of the future 8:00 Neoliberal era is it coming to an end? 8:46 The right tore the hole that the left had been trying 9:24 What in the world will Trump do? 10:00 The devil we know vs the devil we don’t know 10:40 Trump is not a good business man 11:00 Living in chaos theory 11:30 Separation of cause and effect 12:00 Chaos under heaven all is well, cannot change the world when things are stable 13:00 Trump lacks an organized front like Hitler had, we need to stop him from getting organized 14:30 Democrats and labor failed to organized the working class white…it is a class division that needs to be addressed 16:00 Look at the numbers, low voter turnout, not a mandate 16:35 The problem of the left was giving up class and moving to identity politics, we won or thought we won 17:20 Organized parties of the left stopped talking to parts of the working class and it bit us on the ass 18:10 Marches and protests after George W. Bush were not enough we need to go further 18:40 We need to be concerned about the US being what we don’t want 19:20 What ground work do we need to start laying now, from the Occupy movement experience, 2008 debt and 2001 etc. 20:20 New folks being agitated, there is a moment for the left to expand 20:50 Protest and marches are great, but they are just a start 22:50 The kind of stuff that is happening is not just in the US and UK but the rest of the world 25:00 Putin in Russia, in Hungry and in France there are threats from the right 26:50 There are a lot of angry people out there and the causes are complicated 28:00 The right tries to give a simple answer to complex problems 28:30 The booming 1920s the elites won out, but let up to the 1930s where fascism took power 29:25 We may be looking at the end of the Neoliberal era, we don’t know but the economy is growing at least in terms of real estate 30:10 Major economic crisis after party changes in US politics 30:30 We need to improve how we respond, we learned from Occupy, but we face a potentially harsher threat 31:35 Trump threat of galvanizing popular support through rallies 32:30 Stephen gets chaotic, we step forward and leap backward 33:20 The might keep us in the US when we want to get out 34:10 Jumping back in time to Jim Crow and legal racism, sexism, etc. 34:30 The morning after the Brexit vote is now nothing compared to Trump 35:30 Trump and Brexit represent the unresolved shadows of the country 37:00 All the problems are out in the open…we really need to construct the society we want day-to-day and cannot rely on liberal politicians 38:40 The march of progress from the end of WWII has ended we are no longer in the age of Aquarius 39:00 Hitler mustache replaced with a toupee 40:25 There is a need for us that are white and have been complacent to support our allies and need to be coming together 41:10 If we don’t we will get the fascist state we don’t want Tech 41:35 Security, Security, Security!! 42:10 Now is the time to learn about using encryption 42:30 When we first started we talked about the use of Tor in oppressive nations and now we are that 43:15 Using encryption has become a lot easier in the last couple of years, more like pushing a button, not as much of a learning curve 43:45 Biggest weak spot with encryption is ‘you’ 44:20 Resources: Tactical Tech, Guardian Project, Bitmask, Email Self Defense, Telegram, Signal, Tor, CryptoCat, Off-the-record, Omemo 47:10 Try to get your friends off Whatsapp, which is owned by Facebook 50:00 Stephen can’t remember a link and software, but finds it 52:50 We come to the end 52:46 Bella Ciao – by Manu Chao

    56 min

  6. 12/10/2015

    Cyberunions Podcast Episode 88 We’re Back!!

    Downloads Ogg Ogg lite mp3 Torrent Updates Where have we been? What have we done? Where are we now? Walton is still in Glasgow and Stephen is *not* in Mexico Our careers and what is keeping us busy Labor Labourstart or Laborstart for the non-british english speakers UNI conference and the scope of the labor movement activism online Tech Free software and the movements Libreplanet & CiviCON and how it relates Place for movements to collaborate Popular Tech Looking at Snapchat and how it could relate to organizing precarious workers Ideas of opening up the API and making it more secure Feedback Thanking Derek Blackadder South African accent is invading Stephen’s satire dependence in The Daily Show with Trevor Noah save the conversation for another time

    45 min

  7. 14/07/2014

    Cyberunions Episode 87 Yes IndyRef Yes!

    Downloads Ogg Ogg -lite MP3 Torrent Updates Stephen is in Mexic—-Scotland!! We have been Civi…er…busy Been on a pub crawl er… podcrawl kevie & mcnalu Tech We go tech Crazy GLI Streaming and education event Walton & Stephen explain the stresses, the problems and the hope Future plans to get away from google is to use Mexcla  and to develop Mexcla Expansion We met Bill Fletcher networked with so many people from around the world Labor Walton goes Independent to explain the details of the campaign for an Independent Scotland Stephen asks some detailed questions More info for Radical Independence Feedback Welcome new listeners Stephen highly recommends a book Strike For America and goes into detail about the book being a good read for activists and a model for reforming a union

    42 min

  8. 01/05/2014

    Cyberunions Episode 86: MayDay! Programming Sucks and Strikes in China

    Download Ogg Ogg Low Quality MP3 Torrent   Updates Stephen is back in Mexico City Walton went to Geneva Tech Talk Walton introduces us to a great article on why Programming Sucks Stephen enjoys the analogy from the article Programmers are crazy! Why heartbleed was bad, but why it reinforces FLOSS as the best method for development May First People Links audio will be available on the site soon Who is to say the proprietary one is also not compromised? what overview is there for that? The best part is that since it is FLOSS it is humanly readable by anyone that seeks to do so. Labor Talk Walton goes into great depth in discussing the strikes in China Great to be talking on MayDay about Strikes in China Walton & Stephen have hopes for China to create capitalism to then kill it for all out communism! Feedback Our podcast rss feed should be working again, Stephen discovered not all podcatchers like ssl certificates

    34 min

  9. 18/04/2014

    Cyberunions Episode 85 Unionizing the South: The lessons from VW

    Download Torrent Ogg Ogg-lite MP3 Interview Edition Chris Brooks  from Chattanooga For Workers Chris gives a great historical background to the radical history of Chattanooga Tennessee Stephen thinks there is 95% union density based on the history Right to work is an ideology deeply ingrained in the society, local labor unions have no plans to fight right to work laws Right to work is often confused with worker “at will” UAW is not new to Tennessee with the GM Saturn plant, but the drive with VW sparked global interest Chris describes the UAW presence is not new many small locals, but still frustrating Over $570,000,000 from tax subsidies was given to VW to bring the plant there Tennessee has the highest proportion of workers on minimum wage and the highest sales tax. $288,000 tax subsidies for each job created Same time austerity cuts came in at the same time, so social welfare organization Steal from the poor bribe the rich to provide jobs for the working people The struggle by the community organization just extended to VW. When the UAW came in to organize they do not see the social justice unions or community organizing or bottom up organizing The business model of UAW unionizing does not fit in the local struggle. In the south the company can be neutral toward unions but the society is *not* neutral Numerous right wing tactics, but the right started to take leftist tactics but on the right Southern Momentum is being called a Workers’ Center but it is a right wing back organization. The right are using legitimate criticisms of the UAW to build an anti-union discourse Where were the frustrations with UAW and the organizing Lack of bottom up, media messaging from Detroit, but in the local press was local people slamming the union, the right-wing used the local voices to fight UAW did not try to promote or lift up local voices for different narratives. Group of labor activists created Chattanooga For Workers (CFW) adhoc organization to lift up alternative voices ALEC funded event with Wall Street Journal said “unions are cancer”, CFW did a pray vigil against ALEC and UAW did not try to promote The local press is so close to those in power, the south needs national news to inform people. Mike Elk and Steve Greenhouse came down to try to raise the stories We had a community forum about the right-wing attacks, and the UAW no show CFW went directly to the workers, a meet regularly to discuss the actual conditions. Labor Notes was keen on bringing the actual voices from the factory on what happened Workers on hold now as the UAW tries to figure out the next steps. Leaked documents show that the Governor’s chief of staff was coordinating with anti-union groups and was specifically leveraging $300 million on an SUV line with VW to work against the workers. The Germans’ had no idea what they were getting into, they had no idea that the politicians would be so anti-union The local corporate class view VW as a class trader “Free Markets” is such b******t, bosses should not be regulated, but workers should be. The right-wing did what the UAW should have been doing in the first place VW committed to the US but not the south thanks to Sen. Corker National Right to Work Foundation Lawyer was overheard that Mercedes money was used to fight the unionization drive. Working conditions are harsh, much like we know from UAW history that was eliminated in the 1930s No place for full recovery CFW talking to workers about concerted action, that rights exist without workers, things can be done. Feeling amongst workers is that they cannot wait for UAW but need to take action on their own. Fundraising Chattanooga for Workers supporting the VW workers that lost their jobs Please Donate! it is through the  Mercy Junction PayPal

    52 min

  10. 10/04/2014

    Cyberunions Episode 84 To Where Labor Day Started

    Download Torrent Ogg Ogg-lite MP3 Updates Met Listeners in person matt and michael both in the Chicago area In fact recording from matt’s place now Lots to talk about from this week in chicago Labor Talk labor notes conference Stephen attended on behalf of May First / People Link extensive discussion of the various workshops that Stephen attended In particular the VW chattanooga panel on the UAW organizing drive met Chris who worked on the facebook Chattanooga for Workers in support of the UAW drive. Really good analysis from two workers that were in the plant organizing. Tech Talk From the CWA telecom session a clear generational gap amongst the labor activists. Met some awesome folks involved in the CWA next generation labor tendency to support capitalism need to build and fund activist network software encourage labor activists to join the Organizing Network Feedback Michael will be posting our content on reddit for us since my account got blocked

    43 min
  • 10 Episodes

About

Exploring the intersections of labo(u)r unions and open source

Information

  • Creator
    Cyberunions
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2017
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Cyberunions