A Look at the GEO Strike in Michigan Fighting the University's Reopening Plan

We spoke with Amir Fleischmann of the Graduate Employee Organization, a union at the University of Michigan, about their latest strike leveraged to fight the university's reckless reopening plans amid a pandemic.

Amir provides a play-by-play of the strike, the events leading up to it and the larger context in which it occurred, and how their union was able to raise expectations and demonstrate the organic links between worker justice and social justice.

We discuss the demands of the strike, including demands to disarm and defund campus police, and take a look at the strike's mechanics and how workers were able to make their presence felt even during measures of social distancing as well as the power they were able to build among their own membership and in coalition with campus and community organizations.

Laborwave Radio is an independent podcast sustained exclusively through our patrons at patreon.com/laborwave If you enjoy the show, please share our content across social media, like and comment, and join our patreon as either a rank-and-filer, committee member, or strike captain. All patrons receive custom-made gifts from our resident artist including original stickers, illustrated zines, and Laborwave tees.

Music by:

Damaged Bug- Transmute

Highlights from Three Years of Laborwave

Laborwave Radio is celebrating it's three-year anniversary! In three years we've produced 50 episodes and had nearly as many guests, and we've reached more than 17,500 listeners!

To celebrate this milestone we've put together this highlight reel from our latest year featuring Jarrod Shanahan, Asad Haider, Boots Riley, Raj Patel, Holly Lewis, Micah Uetricht, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Sarah Jaffe, Natasha Lennard, Liza Featherstone, Bill Fletcher Jr, Andrea Haverkamp, Shannon Ikebe & Tara Phillips, Nick Driedger, and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò.

We also take a moment to reflect on our history and give a shoutout to all our patreon members! Lots of credit needs to be given to our frequent guest host Andrea Haverkamp for all her work dreaming up this podcast and helping sustain it, thank you comrade for your all-around friendship and radical spirit that gives me hope!

Thank you Rank-and-Filers, Committee Members, and Strike Captains that make up our patreon community! You help keep Laborwave running, and we greatly appreciate your contributions. Our patreon community includes: Nicholas Fisher, Jason Sarkozi-Forsinski, Caroline Hunter (my mom!), Tony Vogt, Michael Marchmann, Dawson Hughes, Molly Harney, Hazel Daniels, David DeHart, Shane Scopatz, Meera Petroff, Lucas Carpenter, Erica Mercier, Sam Drake, and Nicholas Driedger.

Also thanks to Jon Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees and Damaged Bug for allowing us to use his music on our show, and final gratitude goes to our resident artist, my wonderfully talented and lovely wife Kerry Hill for all the artwork that goes into our stickers, zines, and t-shirts!