Amazon and Starbucks Union Drives Show The Importance of Solidarity

Sputnik

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Lillian House, writer for Breaking the Chains magazine and organizer with the ANSWER Coalition in Colorado to discuss the upcoming vote in the Senate on the Women's Health Protection Act, which would codify the right to abortion amid the Supreme Court's preparations to overturn Roe v. Wade, the inaction of the Democrats to protect the right to abortion despite their historic and current holds on power and why they have seemingly already given up on the upcoming vote by refusing action on the filibuster, how this episode exposes the true character of the abortion struggle as a class and gender issue, and why now is an important time to buid a movement to demand action from Congress an Joe Biden to protect nnd expand abortion rights.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by KJ Noh,a scholar, educator and journalist focusing on the political economy and geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific. He's also a member of Veterans for Peace, and senior correspondent with Flashpoints on KPFA to discuss the upcoming summit of ASEAN nations hosted by the Biden administration and how this summit plays into US efforts to shore up support for its new cold war on China, the history of the European Union and the US in colonizing ASEAN nations and how that factors into the fragmentation among those nations between the western and Chinese models of development, and how the ongoing war in Ukraine factors into the administration's efforts to dissuade nations from participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Daryle Lamont Jenkins, Executive Director of One People's Project to discuss “We Don't Walk In Fear,” a new documentary about Daryle and the One People's Project, the lessons of the documentary not only on the true prevalence of fascism in the US but also how we can fight back against it, and the powerful influence of Daryle's parents on his life's work of bringing people out of fascist movements.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jaribu Hill, founder and executive director of the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights to discuss the wave of labor organizing that has taken hold of new targets like Amazon and Starbucks and the retaliation that those companies have waged against union organizers, why and how consumers must show solidarity with unionizing workers and demonstrate the insurmountable power of working and poor people when we are united, and the lip service that Joe Biden has paid to the surge in labor organizing while the Democrats continue to refuse to provide any sort of piecemeal reform to benefit workers.