Campus Encampments and Beyond: lessons and next steps from the frontlines of palestine solidarity
Student encampments have shone a spotlight on U.S. support for Israel's genocidal war against Gaza and links between university administrations, capital, and state power.
What are the key lessons we should learn from the encampments? And how can we best build on them to strengthen the Palestine solidarity movement?
Featuring student activists and grad students from the frontlines of this organizing in solidarity with Palestine.
Palestine 101
Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is being aided and supported by the United States and other western powers. Meanwhile, the mainstream media acts as if history began on October 7, the day that Hamas militants attacked Israel. Come to this meeting if you want to understand the historical roots of the Palestinian struggle against colonialism, why socialists oppose Israeli apartheid and the occupation, and how we can build a movement to support Palestinian liberation.
SHIREEN AKRAM-BOSHAR, contributor to Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
BRIAN BEAN, co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
SHERRY WOLF, anti-Zionist Jewish socialist; former press officer for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
Yes We Do Mean Smash the State
Contemporary capitalism exploits and degrades human beings around the world, relying on the violent power of states to create profits, guarantee the functioning of markets, and cheapen labor through violence. There is no way to build a liberated future for all of us without overthrowing capitalism, and that will mean confronting and dismantling the capitalist state, its prisons, policing, borders, and military. It’s time we talk about smashing the state.
Resisting the Backlash: The Fight to Defend Black Studies
Join us for a discussion of the reasons for the backlash against Black Studies and how we can defeat it.
Sponsored by the Tempest Collective and National Educators United.
How to Fight the Far Right: Drag Story Hour, Clinic Defense & Antifascism in NYC
This panel will seek to further our understanding of how the broad left can defeat the far-right by learning from the experiences of those on the front lines in this struggle.
Class Struggle Today: Lessons & Strategies for Labor in Biden’s America
The current situation poses strategic and political questions for the labor movement. How can existing unions defend themselves against an unrelenting bosses offensive? How can new unions organize for better wages, working conditions, and social justice in the workplace? How can the labor movement break free of the business unionist strategy of labor/management cooperation and political reliance on the Democrats.
Join us for this panel of leading labor militants to debate and discuss which way forward for the labor movement.
Public Sector Power: Building Rank & File Organization Under Adams
The Adams administration—following a tradition of neoliberal governance going back to the ‘70s—is spearheading two major assaults on the living standards of city workers and retirees: A scheme to privatize healthcare for retirees, and ongoing contract fights involving virtually all the city’s public-sector unions. Successfully fighting back will mean rebuilding a strong militant minority of rank-and-file union activists: one capable of leading large numbers of coworkers in direct action against the city, and one that can relate to the city’s broader working class. To help figure out how we get there, Tempest is hosting a discussion between leading rank-and-file activists from DC37, the UFT, NYSNA, and the cross-union retiree organizing committee.
7pm at the LGBT Center - please check the list in the lobby for room number
While we strongly encourage people to attend in person, there will be a remote option available via bit.ly/public_sector_power
Speakers:
Bobby Greenberg, Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee
Robert Cuffy, DC 37 Progressives
Olivia Swisher, Movement of Rank and File Educators UFT
Sean Petty, NYSNA Bargaining Team Member
The Struggle for Freedom in Iran
The death in September of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Armini, a Kurdish woman killed while in the custody of Iran's "morality police" for failing to cover her hair as required by Iranian law, has sparked the most sustained wave of anti-government protests since the 1979 Iranian revolution. The government crackdown has been brutal: more than 300 protesters have so far been killed by the police.
What are the main social forces currently engaged in this struggle? What prospects do the protesters have of forcing the authoritarian theocratic regime to grant serious change? Join a discussion led by three speakers with distinctive insights into the current situation in Iran.
Cosponsored by Internationalism From Below and New Politics.
The Strike Wave in Britain: An Eyewitness Account
An eyewitness report by socialist and union activist Ian Allinson on the current political situation in the UK, where there is an ongoing strike wave by rail, postal, bus and tube workers, nurses, and others and mass protest against the Tory government, inflation, racist attacks, the climate crisis, and more.
Ian is a member of rs21 and of UNISON (the largest union in the UK), and the author of Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organizing at Work, just out from Pluto Press.
Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qc-isqjIrGNYt3Q07EE9V9JmJSDGPJ3oZ?fbclid=IwAR2tm5zGHRKUUuoMeVElNCLVQpLaqb3Pu_QH4P2OK_vA20P5tLMIFrYBS_o
Building the Revolutionary Left Today
The question of revolutionary organization remains a central one for the left. What kinds of organizations are needed in the 21st century, what opportunities and obstacles exist for activists trying to build them, and what can we learn from recent experiences in different countries? Join us for a discussion of these questions with an international group of left-wing activists.
Revenge of the Essential Worker
Live stream of event: Revenge of the Essential Worker - What's Next for Labor in 2022?
Labor and Climate Crisis: Urgent Struggle for the Future
Speakers -
Jeremy Brecher – Senior Strategic Advisor, Labor Network for Sustainability; author of labor history classic Strike! and of “The Green New Deal from Below”
Lauren Bianchi - member of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU); teaches in Southeast Chicago; active in the CTU Climate Justice Committee and was part of the fight in Southeast Chicago to deny General Iron a permit to place a metal shredder in that neighborhood.
Sean Petty - Registered Nurse, New York City; member New York State Nurses Association; long-time union climate activist.
Marcelina Pedraza - Environmental justice activist, electrician at the Ford assembly plant in Southeast Chicago, member of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 551. Marcie is part of the Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) caucus, which is pushing for democracy in the UAW, and is active in the Chicago General Iron struggle.
Among the social crises we face are escalating environmental disasters related to the intensification of global warming. This is generated by the powerful forces of fossil-fuel capitalism that overwhelm government efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The resulting climate emergency poses a strategic challenge for socialists, who understand that only the working-class majority has the potential power to tip the balance toward survival. Conceptions of working-class power – advanced through strikes, mass struggle, and disruption – suggest themselves, but this is not yet the reality that exists.
Any hope for the future involves a convergence of labor and climate politics, connecting the fight to reduce emissions with the struggle for an economic transition providing decent jobs, living standards and quality of life for all. This convergence must become central to the working-class consciousness and class struggle of our time. How can we extend the climate fight inside our unions and workplaces? How can we build an effective coalition of labor, community, and environmentalist forces capable of tipping the
Fighting the Attack on Abortion Rights
The leaked Supreme Court draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health makes it all but certain that the Court will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade later this summer. This massive attack on women and anyone else who can become pregnant has led to protests around the country. What kind of movement do we need to reverse this attack? Come to a meeting in which experienced abortion-rights activists will offer their perspectives on this vital question.
Speakers:
Sheila Bates is a member of Black Lives Matter Grassroots.
Linda Loew is a founding member of Chicago for Abortion Rights and a longstanding union activist and socialist.
Haley Pessin is a socialist activist based in New York and a member of the Tempest Collective.
Camila Valle is an editor, translator, writer, and member of NYC for Abortion Rights.
Register: https://bit.ly/3wiGOUy
Responding to the Backlash: Fighting for Trans and Queer Liberation
A wave of legislation targeting trans and queer people is sweeping across the United States from Alabama to Arizona. These laws deny youth access to gender-affirming care, effectively criminalizing trans youth and their families.
Like the manufactured panic over Critical Race Theory and the recent attacks against Roe v. Wade, anxieties directed toward transgender and gender-nonconforming people have become central to the GOP’s incursion into the culture wars. Without a doubt, the attacks against trans youth are a calculated political play aimed at motivating conservative voters ahead of the midterms.
In efforts to overturn this wave of reactionary legislation, mainstream queer activists have primarily turned to legal strategies. These are important and necessary efforts, but, (just as in the past) they are not enough to ensure justice for all trans and queer people.
What is motivating these attacks and how should the left respond?
Tempest hosts a panel discussion featuring:
Isabelle is an intersex activist, writer, athlete, and coach from Rochester, NY now living in Portland, OR
Kristen Godfrey (they/she) is a Black, non-binary community organizer and social worker living on stolen Tohono O’odham and Yoeme ancestral and traditional lands. Kristen has worked alongside LGBTQ+ young people in after-school programs, community resource centers, and higher ed for nine years. She is a member of Tempest Collective, and a co-founding member of Thompson House Tucson, a socialist organization and mutual aid collective.
Ash Terry (she/her) is a student at the University of Texas. She organizes with the grassroots network TEAR IT UP and is a member of Trans Resistance of Texas (TRoT). Both groups have been at the fore of organizing protests in response to Governor Abbott's February executive order criminalizing trans youth and gender-affirming care.
Eric Maroney (he/him) is a transgender organizer and an active union member with the AFT. He teaches community college E
Palestine & the Future of DSA
Had trouble following the ins and outs of what happened in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the BDS and Palestine Working Group over the last couple of weeks? We've got you. We will explain what happened, contextualize it, and raise some arguments about next steps for BDS organizing, as well as discussion about the future of DSA.
For background: https://www.tempestmag.org/.../npc-disbands-bds-working.../
Tempest Collevtive statement: https://www.tempestmag.org/2022/03/democracy-isnt-optional/
We'll answer questions that come up in the comments during the livestream.
Against Imperialist War! Ukraine, Russia, NATO, and the US
Imperialist Russia has invaded and occupied Ukraine in a bid to rebuild its former empire in Eastern Europe. The US has responded with a raft of sanctions and plans to strengthen and further expand its imperialist NATO alliance, turning Europe into a militarized zone split between rival great powers. China, while careful to appear balanced in order to preserve its deep economic ties with the West, has opposed Western sanctions and given at least tacit support to Russia’s conquest of Ukraine. This panel of socialists will explain the roots and nature of conflict and how the international left should respond.
Sponsored by Tempest
Endorsed by: Against the Current, Anti*Capitalist Resistance, Haymarket Books, Internationalism From Below, Madison Area DSA, Marx21 US, Midnight Sun, New Politics, Rampant, Solidarity, Spectre
This Isn't Normal: Capitalism and the COVID Pandemic
As the Omicron surge starts to slowly recede, politicians from both major political parties in the US are in a stampede to roll back public health measures such as mask mandates and vaccination requirements, even though infection rates remains high, hospitals are at the breaking point, and the possibility of a new variant remains. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the world's population remains unvaccinated and at risk, because Big Pharma has put profits before lives.
Join us for a discussion of how capitalism has made the COVID crisis much worse than it should have been and what we can do to get out of this pandemic and prepare for the next one.
Speakers:
Gregg Gonsalves is is a global health activist, an epidemiologist, and an associate professor at Yale School of Public Health.
Dennis Kosuth is a nurse in the Chicago Public Schools, a rank-and-file activist in the Chicago Teachers Union, and a member of Tempest.
Achal Prabhala, is coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.
Register: https://bit.ly/364ghzJ
Striking Back! Labor Strategy in the Pandemic
Over the last several months, workers have been locked out at Chicago Public Schools, struck at Kellogg’s and Kroger’s, organized at Starbucks, and resigned low paying jobs at record numbers. Join us for a discussion of the patterns and results of struggle and socialist labor strategy amidst an ongoing global slump and unending pandemic.
Speakers:
Joe Burns is a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer. He is currently the Director of Collective Bargaining for the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA. He is the author of Class Struggle Unionism, Strike Back: Rediscovering Militant Tactics to Fight the Attacks on Public Employee Unions and Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America.
Elizabeth Lalasz is a steward in Chicago with National Nurses United, serves on the steering committee of the Chicago DSA Labor Branch, and is a member of the Tempest Collective.
Kim Moody a founder of Labor Notes in the US and the author of several books on labor and politics, including On New Terrain: How Capital is Reshaping the Battleground of Class War. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Westminster in London, and a member of the University and College Union and the National Union of Journalists.
Kirstin Roberts is a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, a preschool teacher at Brentano Elementary, and a member of Chicago DSA.
The talks are being live-streamed, to join the discussion afterwards on zoom follow this link: https://bit.ly/3IbRhV2
Responding to the Attacks on Critical Race Theory
Right-wing attacks on the teaching of Critical Race Theory are a reactionary response to the gains of the Black Lives Matter movement. The GOP uses the term to mean any discussion of systemic racism and sees it as fodder for its culture-war narrative. Meanwhile, the Democrats have offered only tepid responses to the attacks. How should the left respond to these attacks and how can we help to defend education workers?
Tempest hosts a panel discussion featuring:
Denisha Jones—Director of the Art of Teaching Program, Sarah Lawrence College, Co-Director for Defending the Early Years, Inc, Assistant Executive Director for the Badass Teachers Association, and co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School (Haymarket Books, 2020)
Naomi Murakawa—Associate Professor in African-American Studies, Princeton University, Abolitionist Papers series editor (Haymarket Books), author of The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America (Oxford UP, 2014), and Tempest Collective member
Jesse Hagopian—Ethnic Studies teacher, Garfield High School, Seattle, a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee, and co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School (Haymarket Books, 2020)
Register here to be part of the live discussion: https://bit.ly/3xZiyG9
Sudan Resists the Coup: Organizing Solidarity with Sudan's Revolutionaries
Sudan Resists the Coup: Organizing Solidarity with Sudan's Revolutionaries
!["[Vance’s] story is a classic tale of white resentment against invading foreign bodies."Reposting from 2022.](https://img4.medioq.com/232/065/998143282320655.jpg)
!["For revolutionaries elections are never the key events, but they are important… [W]e have to be the voice that explains...](https://img5.medioq.com/140/898/973926661408984.jpg)
