Chapo Trap House - 288 - So You Want To Start A Union feat. Brace Belden (2/10/19)

Episode Date: February 11, 2019

Longtime friend of the show Brace stops by to tell us about his work unionizing Anchor Steam brewing in San Francisco. We also talk about Amy Klobuchar's unique brand of "Minnesota Nice" and dealing with the latest round of attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. Sign the petition to support the Anchor Steam union: https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-workers-unionizing?source=c.em&r_by=21072206 Crack open a cold one with the boys, and get it trending: #AnchoredInSF #AnchorUnion

I Hello, hello friends, it's your top open this week. It's me will Medeker joining me long lost hosts Amber Frost and Felix Biedermann, but more importantly joining us now is our good friend brace Belden of San Francisco DSA of Twitter of Foreign countries of the troops of the CIA of the psyops of the freedom fighters And just all around you know movie buff and entrepreneur brace. How's it going? Great? What's baffin? Yeah, you are right now, sir happen. Yes. Oh shit

We were back in QS live right now from the great city of San Francisco But actually I am at a country cabin right now, but it's near San Francisco. Okay at an undisclosed location. Yeah but you have been quite busy lately brace you have been Basically unionizing your workplace, which is a fairly famous one if you are a fan of drinking beer And I think we all are yeah. Yeah, shout out beer nerd I work at anchor steam brewery, which is probably I don't know if there's like an official thing for this But it's supposed to be like the first craft brewery in the US and it's like yes

It's the famous San Francisco style beer. Yeah. Yeah, it's called like California common beer I think originally but it now it's they just call it steam beer. Is it a steam punk brewing process? Yeah, it's like mostly like a zeppelin Each bottle comes with a really intricate pocket watch So, you know in in in the the anchor steam factory slash brewery that I just imagine there's lots of like giant gears turning and Top hats and goggles everything with a penny farthing pedal system Yes, yeah, let me just say that the working conditions aren't the only thing that's Dickensian But brace you've been sort of different center in this this effort going on right now to

Unionize the the famous anchor steam brewery like first of all like how did you start working for anchor steam and then went like when did you? You know start this idea or begin to this process of unionizing your workplace. So this was not Yeah, I sort of have been Try not to be front and center But some of the guys needed a little like encouragement to do interviews So I was like the only person who was dumb enough to start doing them But um now everyone's kind of that kind of gotten comfortable with it But I actually this this started pretty much right as I was getting there

A few years ago like a group of employees tried to talk to talk to a different union and that effort sort of fizzled out And some of those guys stuck around and so kind of concurrently to when I started there a little little like a week after We actually started this effort. So about a year ago, okay So been about a year now like for anyone listening like what is that process like like what do you what like what do you have to do? we were lucky because There's some members there's some members of DSA who work at the plant with me and We went to the this thing called the labor organizing committee and specifically to this one guy Evan Who is like I guess his title is like new organizing coordinator coordinator something like that

But he he wanted to help people start unions at their works So we went to him and he kind of laid out all the tasks that we needed to do which number one was get a list of Employees like we needed a list of everybody who worked there which we were able to get Because it's only about I think there's like a hundred and twenty hundred and thirty people who work their total But about seventy five who actually work in production give or take a few how did you get? How did you compile that list? Did you like ask you're the boss for a list of everyone who works there? Did you have to go person to person and say hi? Yeah, yeah, no bosses love it when you ask them for a list and name and phone number of everybody who works there

And what their salary is? Just tell them it's some religious thing You know you joke about that but actually one of the sneaky little tips that People sort of work their way around to making a list is to ask for everyone's name so they can send out Christmas cards Yeah, so it's a good way to if you you want to organize around the holidays. That's a sneaky little way to do it Yeah, no, so you did this sort of The secret secret Santa program to compile the names of everyone who works for anchors team Well, actually because of my my religion I was actually getting their name so I could hit them up Maybe for a bit of money to borrow

Perhaps I could lend them some money But uh, no, so I well the thing is with us is that it's you know, it's not a huge place You know, there's only 70 70 something people's names we had to get and luckily in the original organizing committee and now still there's people from every Department so when they send out the schedule Everyone's names aren't like you can see everyone's name in your department So we were able to do that like the day one pretty much So this is this is our sort of like, you know crash course here so you're thinking about unionizing your workplace that's that's step one is

Figure out exactly who the hell is working for the company like who they are Yeah, exactly and with bigger places like hotels and stuff like that It's really difficult because like, you know, if you don't work next to somebody you might not even know they work there That's that's a problem with like some larger places But we know we are if we're despite like being among if not the biggest factory in San Francisco You know, I kind of know everybody I work with so that I mean, that's a good first step But like, you know, take take us through this process like you know as you did this What did you learn and like what are the the steps that you went through? So literally the first step is to get everyone's name

Put in a fucking spreadsheet or have some nerd do it for you You know how to use Excel brace. Are you good with Excel with Microsoft Excel? No, no despite my appearances I'm actually more of a quick book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it sucks but uh, we we were able I was able to figure this out at least is that we put Um, everyone's name in a list and then next to them we we assign them a number and we start everyone at three which means like neutral basically and The way you're supposed to do it is once you get to talking to people you and then you try to separate them by department as well Like, you know group everyone who works in one area together

And once you get to talk to people you can change their number like if they're really really really really interested in like a hundred percent down Um, give them like a one like if they would actually come to meetings and join the organizing committee Um, if they're you know, if they're pretty much end but not like they're not willing to come to meetings or anything It's a four or excuse me. It's a two And then from there, it's like, you know four. They're probably not going to do it and then five. They're really anti What about what if they're a perfect ten though? Oh, well, that's impossible You go that only exists in drawn form if you know what I mean So but certain as your style some other countries

As you're as you're, you know, feeling people out though What is your like an initial pitch or like how do you sort of send out those feelers when you started talking to people? So the way I always thought to do it is to kind of find an issue Like if you've worked at somewhere for a little bit, you know The issues that people have whether like everyone gets paid kind of shitty or like, you know, they switch your schedule around a lot and like What you do is you don't like the one thing you don't want to do is go in and tell them like what their problem is Like you don't want to go to someone to be like, man, you're pay fucking sucks. You should start a union

Because everyone's just like, why are you talking to me? Or like if you considered, uh, you know going for a run every now and again Or maybe cutting your hair No, more than that. Yeah, exactly. Like I mean, I don't know I I when I'm at work like my Like the level of conversation I have with people rarely gets above like suck a fucking ding dong kind of shit like Really just like screwing around But like it's important to start like talking to people about their lives And like asking them questions and letting them talk Because like for instance if if like like where I work the pay is bad, right?

Um, but I don't just ask people about the pay you ask people about stuff that they would wish they could do with the pay like for me like personally my thing is like I have trouble paying rent and like You know if someone's to come up to me and talk about like wage increases like yeah, okay Like I get that that's great, but if they're talking about like well, you might be able to pay your rent now That the trick is to get someone to say that themselves like that they wish they could pay their rent on time or better or whatever um But you know if somebody for instance hasn't been to the doctor in 10 years, they'll probably mention it

Um, or if somebody like is sick of like having to wake up at different times every day Like they'll probably mention that and so the the trick is to just get them to like To really like kind of visualize what they want. It's kind of like the secret It's to they have to visualize what they want and like well, what's the only way to get more money? Well, it's either you know quit this job and get a really great job being like a scientist or some other thing It's gonna be that pay is very good. Um, which is I don't know why I picked scientist there. Um, I mean I mean there are other dream jobs like you know, uh driving the oscar mar wiener mobile The head of some sort of linden larouche foundation

So instead of a vision board, uh, you you substitute that with what if we organized collectively? Yeah, exactly like well, you know The other thing that like a lot of people get is like, I mean most people I at every job I've ever had I've been afraid to ask the boss for anything because I think they'll just fire me Like I've never asked a boss for a raise because I'm like, well, why would he would just fire me? Yeah, hire somebody who's working at what I'm working at And that's true for a lot of people some people like to like say that's not true But like and some people really can do it

But like most people can't and so like it helps if you explain to people like Well, you know if I go up there and I sit across from them they can say whatever they want for me And I have nothing really to counter with like I don't have any leverage over them But like if we all go up there and we ask for something Then like we do have some leverage because like well, we're the people who make the product We're the people who make the money they don't do anything except just like I don't know what they do But like, you know managers like especially at the higher echelon like They don't create the product or anything. They sample the product and they're like more more steam in this one less anchor

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah But the the trick is I forgot to mention this earlier Like a really important thing is is to get like two or three people if you can That are like really also excited in the same boat as you and who are willing to give up a lot of their time To do something like this Because you can't like as the romantic it sounds it's like it possible to organize a workplace by yourself Like you you have to have other people involved with you But yeah, like people start to get it because a lot of it like I was I was not surprised because

That a lot of people didn't really know what unions did because if you don't like Research it or whatever all you all you know about unions is what you see on tv And all you see on tv is like someone complaining about union dues Or like people talking about like whatever unions are preventing people from working and blah blah blah blah So there's a lot of education to be done as well. So you got to know your shit, right? Well, and we have a huge generational gap unless you're really lucky to be You know from one of these cities that still has a you know

Kind of a vibrant union legacy that's still going You have to basically fill people in on 30 years of dead union history Exactly. Yeah, and like, you know, I had to explain to people like what the ILW because we're we're unionizing with the longshoremen How to explain to them what they are although some people did know which was cool and explain to people like no You don't have to like pay The dues thing really chips a lot of people up Which I get because you know if you watch like tv or whatever you think that like people are forking over half their paychecks to these like You know nurses union or whatever

But the thing to always like a good thing to say to people which is true Is that nobody would ever start a union if it meant they were going to lose money? Right, you know Like why would anybody join a union if you had like if you had to pay more in dues than you did in like Increases to benefits or whatever our wages. Well, maybe you just want one of those cool jackets that has like a logo Like one of those starter jackets that has a logo on it. I want them for so long. They're so tight I also want those like big like pictures of like puff bulldogs like with hard hats and like cigars Union motherfucker those things are cool. Oh, this is a slight digression, but wasn't there some

Recent court case where they ruled that unions can't Do the scabby the rat outside job sites because it's like it's doing violence to They're trying to get rid of scabby. I don't know if they ruled that was like definitely but I but there was a case where like they were trying to make scabby the rat Illegal to do like a sort of an illegal form of protest, which I think sucks. I love seeing scabby the rat Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's easy for you to say, but you've never been a worker of contract who said they're space invaded By play by plague rats, yeah So

You you mentioned that you're you're doing this effort with the the IWW the longshoreman. Yeah, the ILW you who actually come out of IWWW originally they have the same motto as the IWW which is an injury to one is an injury to all But I mean but that but that's another important step here is that you need like you need some sort of outside sponsorship, right? Like you can just create your own union from scratch, right? No, as much as people would like to know so when I when I got together with the guys that are doing this and we have I'm kind of the newest employee Amongst like the group of guys doing this

We've got some pretty long-term ones and every like about eight of us in every department Um, and like we talked about like what unions we would want to represent us and like longshoreman was the one We all agreed on because they are badass Uh, and they like they started in san francisco. They really like have a powerful presence here and and yeah, we actually we ended up by getting connected to them through I think The ex-president of either the local or the international. I can't remember who is like affiliated to dsa somewhat Um, and we met with them or I didn't but like a couple of the other guys Uh met with uh met with them

And they ended up passing us along to the to the organizer for the international who has been yeah, awesome Well, what kind of stuff do you have to do to um, you know get an institution like that interested in you or willing to You know, uh go in with you on something like this. So here's the thing is like this is I think really how what why they got Go that why they why they agreed to do it with us is because we had done a lot of the ground work Like we had built a pretty strong foundation had talked to most of the people in the factory had already done like you know trainings like You know, we've been to some local labor notes trainings like me and me and the guys, uh You've you've already assigned a number to everyone. You've given them a number and taken away their name Yes. Yes, exactly getting them prepped for union life

um Yeah, everyone's wearing a sort of a single color unitard very bleak bland, you know Yes, yeah, I'll be introducing this further at the dsa convention later But yeah, this is I think kind of the way things are headed taking away people's individuality and you know things like that But uh, we had done like a ton of the work beforehand, which I think if anyone listening to this Wants to wants to sort of replicate this effort, which can be done It's important to like get together and have somebody who knows what they're doing If you don't helping you with it

um And doing a lot of that ground work first because a lot of unions get calls like every day like you know Hey, me and two guys at my work of like 500 people want better wages. Like will you represent us? um And you know the units follow up with that stuff But it's they'll take you a lot more seriously if you've actually shown interest in like doing the effort have self organized, which Yeah, which we did uh with granted a lot of help from uh, evan from the dsa So, yeah, you got you got to come to them, you know with you got to make it sort of an attractive package

That that you're offering here so that it's not like it, you know, you're just you know tripping over your dick into their office Going like oh, can I have a union, please? Yeah, exactly. And we're lucky too because the iow is sort of like having um They've been organizing a lot of places on the west coast that because they already have all the docks organized every single one on the west coast And now in Panama some of them uh are iow you but they've uh, they've been organizing pet hospitals Pet hospitals pet hospitals. They've organized like five pet hospitals Wow, including one down the street from anchor steams and they're in there and they've they've been really successful with that So we're like, well hell we're like a factory, you know the pet hospital is just a factory for um, I don't know what it is

I was just I was just assuming pet hospitals are like where uh crooked doctors work to like fix bullet wounds from people who Don't want to report it. Uh, you know at a regular hospital I just I was when I was in Syria, I I got like there was this horse doctor who would come to the front and give us Giant injections on our asses that was supposed to be he said it was steroids I have no idea what it was for but uh, it made me feel powerful And I would ask like I was like what kind of doctor are you and he said hesp and hesp means horse in Kurdish. So, you know It made you it made you strong like secretariat. Yeah, and you know, actually I've just continued on that steroid cycle since I've been home Felix you have any uh advice for in that regards? Oh with steroid cycles. Yeah

Um steroids are no neurotropics for your body, right? Right. All right. So who's telling you not to do steroids? Okay It's uh doctors because they want they want to corner the market on strength Uh doctors prescribe substandard exercises like going on the recumbent bike for 45 minutes while listening to cereal And this actually reduces your body's natural production of testosterone So if you even get the doctor to allow you to take steroids, they're going to be like, oh only take like You know Half of the amount of anivar that your favorite youtube bodybuilders take When in fact you should take double

Question this who benefits if you don't become the strongest possible the doctor Uh, they're selling you they're selling you uh kettlebells and other other instruments That they make markup on throw away. Yeah, they're Adjustable weight kettlebells the kind that uh boomers use. Oh the kind with like removable discs No, minor russian-ass kettlebells, right? They should be measured and made up russian weight units Yeah, uh, this is a clock Thank you for your weight unit that is uh, no vowels in it And represents 47.8 pounds exactly. I'm gonna use that a lot

But anyway, yeah, you should take double the amount of steroids your doctor gives you and there's no difference between Anabolic steroids and the kind that give you when you're you breathe you suck at breathing There's literally no difference that it's It's like yeah, it's it's like the difference between uh, you know, like when they're like, uh, buying computer they're like, oh, do you want an amd or an intel and The social fascists try to divide us between intel and amd when really they're exactly the same They're made in the same factory and it's the same with steroids and you should just

Whatever you got take double ask for more say you lost them say your kid took them Say you had to bring your dog back from the dead because you left him in a hot car You should take all of them Then beat your boss's ass or uh, the best way to unionize do a Harlem shake thing in 2019. It's sick. It's coming back So that's why buzzfeed just fell apart right now. They stopped the Harlem shake video So yeah, you've uh, okay, so you you you've talked you you're in fellow your fellow employees You you've ranked them on their likelihood of you know, how they feel about that you've put together Uh, an effort you've done a lot of the legwork. So you're bringing something uh to um an outside union

That's like we can work with this you have uh taken some sort of dubious injections into your buttocks from a Kurdish horse doctor And you've followed all of Phyllis's instructions about using steroids. Yes, uh, what's next? So uh in between that in that point you should be having you should be having off-site meetings with like people kind of one on one to really like Like inoculate them. I guess which is it's the kind of the word organizers use but all it means is just talk to them um, and the next step is Is you start getting people pumped for signing cards? So the next step being you got to start thinking about uh getting a Let's say a critical mass of employees to sign a card But isn't also like while this is going on isn't the other really really important thing is making sure none of the bosses find out about any of this

Yes. Yes. So luckily it isn't my nature to be very sneaky Um, yeah, nature. So like we have a pretty tight Nick work Workforce there and like, you know a lot of the guys that that are on the organizing committee have worked there for like, you know close to a decade Um, and are like, you know, these are like the people they hang out with on the weekends. Like these are their friends, uh And so like there's kind of like you're not really going to snitch on your friends in this case And we've been lucky that nobody has but I mean we're working a pretty loud factory So it's not unusual to see like two guys sort of standing behind something talking to each other Uh, yeah, it's like it's really important for the bosses not to find out because

After your public and after you're openly for the union, it's really illegal for them to fire you But if they catch you sort of before you do that, you know If they want to be an asshole about it, they can fire you you might be able to get your job back with back pay and all that stuff If the you know, if you if you have a lawyer if the union provides you a lawyer, but you know, it's it's really risky Um, so that's like you got to take it seriously Like you can't kind of fuck around with it or like talk about it a lot or tell people like if there are people You know who are gossips you shouldn't like we didn't really account of that in our place But like that's like one thing where I was always warned about like if somebody is going to talk to management

Or talk in front of management like don't tell them until way later Um, and then you mentioned having these off-sites meeting off-site meetings where you you know, in inoculate people That's just talking to them But also that means like you have to prep them for kind of the the rap that they're going to get the sort of Anti-union rap one of one of our live shows we did this thing where we watched a whole bunch of Like management training videos for like how to prevent a union from being formed at like, you know Kmart or walmart or something like that and you know, they have this whole

spiel and you know ways to like convince people that a union is not in their best interest because You know, we're a family and we like to solve problems like the family way, which is um, uh, dad screams at you Um until you go away and maybe kicks you out of the house Um, so what are like one of the kind of things that um, you need to inoculate people on like to sort of hip them to Do this well-rehearsed rap that they're going to get about why joining your union is actually not in their interest So first of all, you got to tell them what shit the bosses can't do and that's illegal So that like if they do one of these things you write it down

You tell the union you tell people and like something happens But you know, they can't threaten to close the factory. They can't discipline you if you haven't you know, like abnormally Um, they can't change your schedule. They can't like punish you or surveil you So you want to tell people all that stuff first and because the number one thing people are worried about is both harassment And losing their job So, you know, you really give them the rap on that and like how like the truth is like if they do this That's illegal and like it gives us ammunition But like we you know, we tell people like, you know, they might have to do they might start holding like big meetings

With the whole everybody and like talking like trying to have this sort of town hall forum Will the present Quote-unquote the opposite viewpoint or I guess it's not quote-unquote. It is the opposite viewpoint that we shouldn't start a union Or they'll like say, you know, give us time if we can work this out or like You know, we should solve things internally. You don't bring in the union as like a you know, a third party or whatever Um, and you just tell like if the you they have the same playbook pretty much every time So like it's pretty well documented. It's easy to anticipate Yeah, we we haven't experienced any of that yet because this is still pretty new and hopefully we won't experience any of that

You know, they might just recognize us voluntarily but um You just got to tell people like, you know, this is like we're not the first people to be doing this and we it's not Like it really helps to let people know that like it's not just us in here doing this So there's like people on the outside working for us And that like once we got went public and like the the support we got from people like I think that buoyed a lot of guys So you've got a sort of critical mass willing to sign a card They signed the card. When do you like, you know, this is like you said this has been like a year-long effort

But like this is now just sort of finally come to fruition with sort of going public with this like What happens then like how do you do that? And like how has it been for you so far since this is really, you know, sort of Um become news. So the guys I've been working with have been like Really good about sort of keeping like like a strong strong discipline around like not just telling everybody Like I didn't tell most of my friends like once, you know, once this was presented to me Um after I started working there like I didn't tell like they'll go didn't go out and tell everybody So like it should be still secret right up until you start the card signing But what happened is we made a plan. Um, we had we assigned people to talk to

Um, and it's easy because we're like friends with everybody there like amongst our organizing committee, you know, everyone knows everybody at the factory So we just went and like You know, uh, we got everyone to sign the cards, uh, which was a lot of surprises there We actually got the vast majority of people to sign them which was really like that made me feel good But we did it over a three-day period um And and then presented the company with a letter asking them for a uh a volunteer for them for to voluntarily recognize the union And how's that going so far? Have you gotten a response? That was the most insane day of my life. Let me just it was

It was fucking psycho. I felt like Like wait, that was the most insane day of your life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, seriously I'm gonna run back the interview there the first interview we did with you. We talked about that fucking cannibal guy So I guess if you know, this is the hardest thing you've ever done. I'm gonna take your word for it Well, the thing is like that, um, that was like At least I would die And be eaten baby, I'll just blow it. Yeah, or I could get one of those cool like Ernest like, you know, uh, Ernest Hemingway, um

wounds if you know what I mean And then you wouldn't have to worry about really romantic dashing figure for the rest of my life Yeah, you wouldn't have to worry about being horny again ever the worst thing Oh, yeah, I've actually because of um the regimen, uh That felix has put me on I actually don't have to do that anyways, but that's near You know, that's right. Um, yeah, since I was only for the arms, but um Yeah, we just went up there about five of us which like represented a pretty good cross-section of the guys from the from the plant Um went up there with the union organizer

We were unfortunately not able to meet with the president or the vice president or the uh, the next guy in line But we ended up giving it to I believe an accountant or something um And uh, we heard nothing from there, but we had I mean at that point we had uh We had gotten Sort of let the cat out of the bag, but only internally in san francisco dsa And we have a pretty strong like network here of like activists with or organizers rather within the chapter And they were able to get the call out really quickly to people

So we had pretty much in like with three days notice a giant rally the night that we went public Um, and we're able to get a uh sign into every single bar in the mission except for like two That's awesome. And you know everyone's drinking anchor steve in san francisco. You have to if you live there So that's the thing is like like we want People a lot of people like why don't you do a book? Oh, why don't you do a book because we don't like we don't need to do a book on anything like people like steam We don't want to we don't want to I mean I don't drink anymore because I was too good at it But like one of the first beers I drank as a child

young adult rather um Was anchor steam it's just like it's a it's a We love that shit. Um, and certainly the guys I work with aren't going to stop drinking it We don't want anyone else to yeah, no, so you see you have the rally I guess like the cat's sort of out the out of the bag now Where does it stand now? Like what are you working on right now? And uh, like Where's this going? So we're running a really positive campaign, which is you know

good to do We're running a really positive campaign. Um, and like we're gonna be holding rallies every so often We've met with a lot of like sort of local politician types and have made some really good contacts with other unions And uh and political groups. Um, and we're basically going to make this like you know a sort of citywide effort because Like I think a lot of people know that like I I grew up knowing due to worked in anchor steam Like I've pretty much always known at least one person who's worked there Uh, and we have a lot of people that like are really super local except for like half the factor Which has to live like an hour and a half away

Um, so there's a lot of roots in the community and what we're doing is trying to have this campaign show that like Well, the workers are really like the heart and soul of anchor steam like our men who were owned by Sapporo You know the japanese beer company as of a year ago And so like you know what like the sandwich like anchor steam's whole brand is basically san francisco and like you know i'm From here my co-workers are from here Um, so we want people to really like kind of make that connection that the workers are anchor steam are san francisco You know i'm not saying People should do this or that these creatures should be um sort of molested in any way

But is there any way you can get those sea lions on board or maybe like slap a a sign on one of them? Or a couple of them they work for no man. I'm actually Funny you mentioned that it's Extremely illegal for me to go near them now Beautiful follies But yeah, I mean i'm sure they can there's probably some Some your entrepreneurial fell out there who's renting them out I think the sea lions are lumping. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, absolutely. All they do is fight and fuck

They're like gg allen, but fat in a creature So like gg allen, yeah sounds like gg allen yeah, so For people for people listening to this this now who you know, maybe thinking about uniting their own workplace, but also who want to Uh support this effort, uh at the anchor steam brewery. I mean, uh, what can they do? Well, that's two kind of different questions Okay for for the one for supporting us is right now

We're asking people to sign a petition Just asking for a free and fair election and nutrition for the company to stay neutral And we're asking people if they live somewhere that sells anchor steam and they're like an alcoholic or buying beer anyways Or if they're not they want to become one Um to take a picture of themselves with an anchor steam or with whatever like a glass of water if you want to And uh post it on social media with the hashtag. I know this is corny, but it's working Um anchored in sf and anchor union Um, that's been like it's been pretty insane to see how many people have been doing that which is cool

And yeah, just to sort of keep abreast of what's going on When people want to start their own unions I would definitely say go to like a labor notes thing because I learned a lot from those people um And start really like talking to your friends at work about like Maybe shifting the direction towards something like that and you don't even want to mention the word union at first But just sort of get the idea of collective action in their heads. Maybe go out for a beer. Maybe an anchor steam maybe uh, uh

Some sort of protein drink, um Maybe some synthol. Yeah, maybe some synthol, which you know If you do drink synthol it makes your heart so big that you can love the whole world And you know just start talking like introduce the like the notion of collective action to people It's it's really easy to do that this year because the teacher strikes have been in the news and like, you know the the flight attendants Are in the news a lot right now and like locally we have a teacher strike in oakland right now So like people kind of are reading about it more and so it's that's sort of an easy way to approach this uh topic as well But also it's like, you know, most people have the experience of having to work for a living and having a job that they

You know rather not be doing or wish they could do less for more money Uh, like I said these very basic things like I wish it were easier for me to pay rent or see a doctor But like broader than that like, you know, what can you what can you tell people about like? What's the cool thing about being in a union? Like how does it make your life better? Or how does it make you as a person a cooler and more attractive to uh, Everyone else of your choosing the sex of your choosing. Yeah Something that like kind of blew my mind that I found out recently is that uh, Is that craft brewing even though like the amount of craft breweries has like multiplied by a ton in the past five years wages have dropped

25 on average Uh, but with unions They've gone up not unions and craft brewing because as far as we know, there isn't there are like one or two But none that have started the way in the same way we have But with like any union job the pay is 15 higher like that's the first thing people like But like the main thing that I really like makes me want to be any unionist because like for instance, I am a renter I I pay money to some guy to live in a house that he can kick me out of for pretty much any reason I pay bills to people who can just like fuck me over for any reason

And I work for somebody who can fire me for any reason. I have no like there's no seat at the table for me at any of these places I'm basically being told what to pay or what to work and I do it Um and a union like and that you know, that's the case for most americans and most people in the world Uh, but with a union like under capitalism, it's pretty much the one thing that could let you like have a place at the table Yeah, and it's like it's it's it's got your back. It's it's like a sense of security, right? Like there's a reason union people are like so psycho about unions and get like crazy ass big dog shirts And like just go to barbecues with other big guys in with

But yeah, it's I mean you get like you actually have like I'm most people are at wheel employees Meaning like my boss can fire me for no reason for for any reason But with a union you actually like there you have some protection there and also do you think like being in a union or you know experiencing You know the power of collective action or solidarity personally in your own life Do you think that also like opens up horizons for like other political struggles and conversations to be had? Well, yes and no, but without an organized party the workers will only achieve trade union consciousness But trade union consciousness right now is like yeah, I mean people if if

That I would take that in the case of most like Americans, you know, like it's like we Americans have very low class consciousness and like one of the few avenues to get into that besides watching YouTube videos from Prager you is They don't teach you that's good, but you know, they teach you that class consciousness exists and is bad The only like real way to get class consciousness in America unless you're a nerd like pretty much everyone listening to this is to join a union Because you actually like you actually can engage in like a struggle and like you see that like Oh, you know my me and my interests are

Directly opposed to the boss's interests and like that's a contradiction that we need to solve You know like I want to get paid as much money for as little work as possible He wants to pay me as little money for as much work as possible Um, and it kind of helps you see things in those in sort of that lens. Well Grace, I want to thank you so much for for joining us and for your efforts here Brace Belden fighting the good fight Uh, wherever it may be and let's get those out. Let's get those hashtags going Where's it hashtag anchored in san francisco and hashtag anchored in sf anchored in sf and hashtag anchor union anchor union

Yeah, anchored in sf and then anchor union. Okay, we will put those tags in the show description And once again brace Belden. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you I Okay, uh, so yeah, I want I want to get to uh, klobuchar in a second But I do want to update a story we talked about last week. Um It just keeps going. There is Apparently no politician currently serving in the state of virginia that has not done blackface at one point in their life Why does virginia have a sovereignty?

You know, there's just what what I mean, you know, you can say like, oh like, uh, louisiana or like illinois more fucked up state But those like those like have a culture Yeah, virginia is just the only two types of virginians. Well, it's not called chat genia, is it? Yeah The only two types of virginians are evan mcmolyn And uh, lean in order to caprio from jango. Those are the only two types of people that live there There's julep genians and then there's like blackface medical school guy. Yeah, no, it's all guys Yeah, all guys who go to all bon pain

And did blackface every single day until 2005 and then they were They were liberal like ralph northam voted for bush twice And they just sort of defaulted him when they wrote wrote like virginia season two. They're like, oh, you're a democrat now It's like cool But now my the newest thing is it's actually now. This is the first time it's touched a republican uh politician in virginia is well, it's easy to spread, you know He didn't actually do blackface, but he edited another yearbook that was nothing but blackface And here's another thing I want to say

Why are all these like men in in medical and grad schools doing shit in yearbooks? What the fuck? Why do they have yearbooks? Isn't it like isn't this for high school kids? Are you to be old to be doing that? I've never heard of a college yearbook, but also like Yeah, it just I mean that's that's the thing like they If if this was just like a story about some guy you knew that would be all we focused on it'd be like Wait, you had a yearbook for medical school and it was a blackface yearbook Was that the only reason they had a yearbook because there was no facebook or anything and it's like We've got to find someplace to put these pictures

I think it's like a thing for a certain like, uh, you know upper middle class where like they never quite become adults So they hit 45 and they go to rock and roll fantasy camp Like these are like adults that go to camp and have yearbooks as adults Nobody likes it when I got too polished on me. What's my age again? What's my age again 43? So yeah, we will we will keep you abreast of the situation as it develops and uh, yeah more of More medical school era of minstrel shows Come to light It helps with their bedside manner. Maybe it's a part of the training. It's just

Uh, it's confounding. It's confounding like I know. Yeah, they're just like racist shitheads, but it's just like like an entire Yearbook of blackface. Oh, and it also just came out. Uh, allen simpson famously of simpson and bowls Oh, yeah, another awesome blackface uh moment captured on film So simpson bowls finally cancelled we can finally put that wretched. Well, you know, I like to separate the art from the artist What's yo, what's urskine bowls been up to though? What? It's If urskine bowls like he thinks he's in the clear and he just like

Worn offensive chinese character outfit and here's his yearbook for like an accounting night auditing class He took when it was 32 Good lord Urskine bowls his yearbook page had the uh, the little The little drawing that the guys who escaped from prison at danimora left on the pipe as they were crawling out Um, but uh, I want to switch now to uh, another politician Uh, this is maybe my favorite uh new story of the week It's everyone's favorite girl boss minnesota senator. Amy klobuchar. I like this story because

Uh, it started at the beginning of the week. Um hummingham post had an article about how uh, you know, she's gearing up to uh run for president And apparently three people have already turned her down. Uh, the offer to run her campaign Because it's something of an open secret that she is a nightmare to work for And I I've heard this from various, you know, dc people as well. And there are a lot of people we have insiders Yes, a little of our moles, uh, that yeah that she is an absolute nightmare, uh to work for but like the originally the hummingham post piece was Sort of vague, uh, there's no one on the record and it was just sort of like vaguely It made note of the fact that she has the highest turnover rate for people who work for her like out of anyone in washington dc

And then there was just like people no one was on the record other than like a vague like yeah She's hard on her staff and it was enough that like A overwhelming amount of the reactions to the piece was Wow big old nothing burger. They would never write this about a man like they're they're picking on her because she's like a Strong tough woman or whatever and then of course the people who did go on the record were all you know there to say Amy Klobuchar is the kindest warmest most Wonderful boss I've ever had in my life. Yeah, and if they want to blink twice Yeah, we will send a car for them. We'll find them a safe space

They actually based jennifer aniston's character in horrible bosses off of Amy Klobuchar I want to um Look Amy to targaryen the last dragon I want to fully defend her if I can take that role Uh, let's start the country in corner again. Felix. I mean, I think it's bad to abuse your employees, but Okay, what does everyone like to do all day on twitter? They like to fucking Throw epic dunks at robby mook and all the other guys all the johns all the people who

had the jobs Of the people that Amy Klobuchar is abusing She's so effective at it that they are Are telling the media how mean she is So she's already better at that than anybody Okay, do you want robby mook to be like just explain to you how he lost the campaign or do you want him already Leaving the job in tears The last dragon Amy Klobuchar is uncompromising unyielding unbending

She demands excellence because you can either you know die in your old world or live in hers You know bend the knee to the dragon Uh, you saw it today. Amy Klobuchar made Dozens if not hundreds of national media reporters including, you know esoteric Gavin Uh hot hot hot line at the end Uh media rachel All our favorites that doesn't narrow it down

There's only one media rate. There's only one media rachel only one woman named rachel who works in all of new york city media Uh, and she made them all wait outside In february in minnesota the worst month of minnesota like negative 20 harsh wind blizzard And what did she she came out without a hat The last dragon her royal blood keeps her from getting cold. It's so fucking pimp probably dozens of reporters died That's sick She's so fuck. She's the best. I support her. She held it at the center of a topiary maze And they all froze to death trying to trying to find her. She

Amy Amy She's like, okay. So kory booker He's on his tour of just not offending anyone They're like, they're like, what do you think about ralph northam being in blackface? He's like Well, put yourself in the shoes of someone who likes to be in blackface and You know, he had he had an absolutely amazing line the other day where he said speaking He was like, uh, I think harry tubman and he she was like he was like she was responsible for the greatest

infrastructure program this country is everyone The underground railroad, okay So bear with me here because I have this theory that if kory booker won which he won't but in my little mind palace We would have michael scott as president Yeah, you would have someone who wanted to please everyone who doesn't quite understand what's going on Which has who has an underlying kind of seething rage for people who don't accept him but represses it he's the Perfect quietly resentful nerd trying to be civically minded the underground railroad thing. That's an office joke

That is 100% an office joke. I was like he was like I can't I can't believe they built that railroad that far underground In that short amount of time. You're telling me america can't do that again now No, but he's not a dragon. He's not he's not and there are some look. There are some hard hitters in this field There are some like once in a lifetime Just powerhouses of charisma and dynamism You got tim ryan. You got michael bennett You got is that like delaney guy? Is there some rob delaney back to america? Uh, uh, uh, you you got you got you got uh peep but edge edge. Isn't that how you say it? Let me say

Just everyone that you would ever want who looked like they could have been a background extra and michael clayton But you know, there's only one dragon and there's only one song of fire and ice and it's amy clobe Isher. What did she do? Okay, after the hub in your post article came out Which was like vague enough that like a lot of people were just being like these kids are snowflakes Like I was abused every day at all the law firms. I worked at my boss killed my first wife And I know it's like all the people who are like Every job I've ever had uh, I was I was abused by my boss and it made me the totally normal person

I am right now. I own an etsy shop and I abused everyone I come in contact with Well, these people love this. This is like, um, this is the you know, the devil wears prod a narrative where I was abused by A woman and it made me stronger except it's like the devil wears and taylor loft That is the best thing about her being just like a shitty domineering like perfectionist. She's not even cool Right. She's doing it for like like she's like I want this fucking yesterday You should have been aborted you stupid piece of shit your mom should have fucking swallowed How fucking dare you not charge my fucking iPod now? I want to have my policy brief and it's like well What is she so and what is she so like amplified for does she have like this amazing plan for

She's an empire right Do she have this plan for like renewable energy or something because we're at this climate catastrophe or no Historic inequality, but she then she's just fucking trots out there and it's like I think that americans need to be encouraged to have savings account It's her that that's what you did it for She's a tyrant Waddling off in a fucking, you know polyester blend suit. Um, maybe for like, you know Adjusting interest rates. Yeah her her it's like the equivalent to if someone if an artist

They had all of Picasso or Jackson Pollux demons and mistreatment of everyone they came in contact with but they were a wiki-haw illustrator And it was like well, you know, that's they got their demons, but look at look at their work I bet klobuchar does like that weird shit where she would like, uh, You know stare at someone dead in the eyes without blinking then hold her hand over an open flame And it's all and it's all for things that are like I think there should be an app where you can make an obama care appointment It's like cool Shit, which yeah, she's great. What are your grand designs? Yeah, hillary hillary like the people that worked for her. Oh, totally. She got totally involved in their lives through all the yeah

And they loved her they like they can't get enough of mommy They can't get enough for I mean in true hillary fashion. She got deeply involved in people's lives And it was just couldn't have made their lives worse like telling humo like have I got the guy for you? But her heart's in the right place with them, right? Yeah, and who must still worship sir Yeah, and obama obama couldn't give a shit about the people who work for or work for him But he's at least like put on enough of the of an air and was charming enough and he's like, yeah, I don't even get married to whoever They're like this. I was like that changed my life. You are my father sir

But she just fucking hates everyone who works for her and it's awesome well, so There's the hubbing post and then like after everyone dismissed it and by the way Most of the reactions to this piece from libs were was indistinguishable from the way a maga person would talk about young people These snowflakes sound like they need a safe space But like the avi is like resistance mom like, you know, and it's just like some nice woman like smiling maniacally Uh, but no and then buzzfeed did a follow-up. There was a a little bit more detail than it says here This is molly hensley clansley writing in buzzfeed

Amy Klobuchar has laid the grounds for a presidential run on an image of minnesota nice Can you speak on that felix? What is minnesota nice? Totally real? It's not at all a joke You know, I mean minnesota nice is just like a joke among those people like they're They're the most passive aggressive people in america. I think it's the best state in america but they're insanely passive aggressive And shitty to each other and have the same like small petty grievances and Generational long feuds about like who is supposed to winterize a cow

But it's not the same thing as manners. It's that you have to be nice it's Like when jizak talks about You know ideology or whatever he says well I say to my son go see your grandmother because it will make her happy I don't say it's going to be great to see your grandmother and in minnesota They have this thing. It's like no, you're going to love it. We're all going to love it And that's why they shove their wives and woodchippers. Yeah. Yeah. No. I my experience of living there was just being

constantly uncomfortable, but also like Yeah, I guess this is good, right? Like but so let me explain How many how long did you spend there three years and it was you were three years of the town jew of all minnesota Yeah, how many wells did you poison while you were there? Oh, oh man, they're wide open No, but let me the typical minnesotan Like clobeshars people. Okay. They're they they grow up in a place like um, white bear lake or eden prairie or diluth and There are many generations removed from farming, but they still this sort of like bullshit

Not as bullshit as like a texan But bullshit like rural blue collar colorsy thing, but they mostly just you know Take the boat out on the lake and don't exchange more than three words with their very thick father over the course of seven hours and And they've never made a friend past 14 You make all the friends you ever need in your life in the first 14 years of your life and any new person that comes in just

You might work yourself up to like mutual hellos But that it's just not going farther than that. There are no outsiders. It's uh There's a very strict social immigration rate over there And you either just stay that forever and you become the tourist father on the boat Or you move to the twin cities and you become a twin city shithead who like your main activity is like going to sports bars And wearing a wearing a big hat and a three-quarter fleece and playing like meme songs at the Sort of digitalized jukebox like playing what does the fox say or robin thick and thinking it's the funniest shit ever

And then just like somehow just fucking the hottest women anyone's ever seen And that's you know, you're either that or you're both guy and that's just your life You've never met anyone new. You've never made any new friends. You've never Reduces a psychosis. It really does all your all your deep all your deep All your deep like discoveries of the human condition and like true feelings are just they're assumed in between Momentary glances of eye contact for all of his like, you know Nordic lutheran north country shucking and jiving I think garrison keeler really does have an understanding of the pure content

That all of these people have for themselves and one another at all times and klobuchar has merely Violated the social contract of not repressing it. Yeah, well, that's why she's the dragon But like so minnesot is just they Because they're midwesterners. They still like oh, it's two days out of the week. It's time to drink exactly 75 beers And then they just go we love the beers. They just go crazy. They just go fucking nuts Yeah, and they're all like we have a 36 hour period to have all of the feelings We've ever had and yes fathers and then we put it back back on the shelf

I just saw the most insane behavior from like you're used to like there's a type of place where you expect to see just awful debauched drunken behavior and Emotionality and it's like it's places in new york or chicago like Like party areas, right? But there is a certain hour that hits everyone in minnesota where they just all get so fucking drunk And they're just it's just all these like white 35 year old contract lawyers who are just during the day like Oh, I don't get involved with politics, you know, and then at night they're like Kodak black is the only person I relate to I swear to fucking god. You're so beautiful

I'll go. Oh my god. You're the fucking nicest person. I've ever met in my life Just weeping and fighting each other. You're my best friend and I hate my father. Yeah. Yeah, uh, And then they're just Monday morning back at it. Well, I want to go in a few examples of uh, you know, the minnesota psychosis Or at least how it explodes behind closed doors It says here, you know running the grant laid the grounds for a presidential run on an image of minnesota nice Uh, but behind Behind the doors of her dc office the minnesota democrat ran a workplace controlled by fear anger and shame according to interviews with eight former staffers

One that many employees found intolerably cruel She demeaned and berated her staff almost daily subjecting them to bouts of explosive rage and regular humiliation within the office Uh, that anger repeatedly left employees in tears for former staffer said she yelled through papers and sometimes even hurled objects One aid was accidentally hit with a flying binder according to someone who saw Someone who saw it happened though the staffer said the senator did not intend to hit anyone with a binder when she threw it It was a warning shot. Yeah, and then it just says here quote. I cried. I cried like all the time said one former staffer um When staffers made mistakes the email show she reamed them out and sometimes email show threatened to fire them

Over threads that included many of their colleagues Uh, there was one example in here of she made someone who worked for her Either call or show up at a meeting She was late to to say to the the person who she was supposed to be meeting with Amy is late because i'm stupid and and bad at my job. Your name is reek twice But uh, I want to read that. I really like this. Um Obviously like these people are not on record because they still want to have a job in dc and you know, they fear for their lives

For their fucking lives and they don't want to be govaged with ludifest Oh man, imagine Amy Klobuchar using her valerian steel blade to behead 30 staffers at once in one fell swoop I am with her but the um the the ones who all went on record, of course are saying things like Amy was one of the best bosses. I've had Uh, I found her to be incredibly fair and extremely effective. The senator cared. I by the by the way, I just fell down I'm really clumsy that don't pay attention to this The senator quote cared deeply for me as her staffer said callie cruise who worked for her during her first term in the senate That's why she hit me because she care when I was pregnant with my first baby. She threw me a baby shower

I just saw the phrase she threw me down the stairs She threw me that baby That baby was holding me back And then I said some former aides however said that klobuchar's behavior as a leader didn't just affect her employees But her limited but limited their ability to conduct senate work creating a chaotic environment Where staff were forced to devote as much time to managing their boss's unpredictable anger as they did to governing She can be just as mad about a crisis with facebook as she was about being given the wrong clothing for an event And said a former a second former staffer pointing that the sent to the senator's work on issues surrounding facebook

It will take you just as much staff time and energy to put out that kind of crisis as you spend on facebook I think she should own it. Yes. I think her campaign song song should be like crazy bitch by buck cherry Yes, like she should just walk out to that just waddle out to that and her one and a half inch kitten heels I uh That doesn't have my favorite tidbit, which is that she would berate staffers for not charging her ipad chaotic evil boomer Uh, here here here's here's the real turn though Some staffers including seas said they felt that sexism was at the root of rumors and negative coverage of klobuchar as a boss

Quote women shouldn't be expected to nurture their employees or colleagues more than men And they should be no less entitled to challenge them as a strong woman It was inspiring to work for another strong woman that was direct incredibly smart and a leader Other women who work for klobuchar disagreed I knew her reputation going in and I rationalized it because I thought that was what was going on I thought people were saying that because she was a woman said her the first former staffer. I regret that now Uh, now there is one story That I've heard about klobuchar that has not showed up in any of the news coverage of this yet

I I hope and pray to god it will come out and someone will go on the record But I have heard from multiple people that she did make her staff shave her legs in the office Alex allegedly Alex nickels come to the front of the class and explain bending reality in this way. How dare you? Oh god Yeah full support maxing out my contribution now. That's awesome. I hope that's true I mean yet it it sounds like a lot of these jobs are our nightmares in tc And you you are working of course these tyrants or whatever but

You know, I mean again, I am I am amazed by the reaction from you know A sensible liberals who just all seem to believe that it's perfectly normal and natural to be abused that way in a job Or that like if you're crying about this you should like toughen up or something And I always think like these kids should toughen up because yeah to me It's always the a mark of truly being tough Is accepting any amount of abuse possible as long as the person doing it to you is more powerful than you are Yeah, being tough is being a doormat And uh, yeah, a lot of the comments are just about kids being snowflakes and that you know

If you want to get stuff done you you have to you know, make someone cry because your ipad wasn't charged No, that's it. That's how you get results fire and ice So the the last thing I want to talk about today is something I've Been seeing cropping up in a lot in the forms of you know op-eds and various opinion pieces Uh, and I want to talk about something. This is sort of a similar take that um to what to amber's piece about uh, bernie that was mysteriously disappeared from its original You can find it at jack been now, which is a 501 c3

Uh, but amber your point in in your piece about bernie is that we all need to sort of toughen up and prepare ourselves for the like You know endless delusive bullshit that you're going to read over and over again That is going to essentially gaslight you into uh going against what you're you know, you're right and proper instincts Naturally are And i'm talking of course about our friend overseas the absolute boy jezza may No, i'm talking about the the boy corbin and really over the last couple weeks or so I've seen almost a dozen articles all coming out at the same time about You know, it's time to get serious about jeremy corbin's anti-semitism. Yeah now

They've been doing this in the uk basically Since corbin became a national figure and probably even before that corbin sexism Didn't stick and I think we should be very clear the journalists who were doing that in the uk Are 100 cynical and evil 100 this is just their job is to do this They're no no 90 of their job is to cover up pedophilia. The rest of it Is to attack socialist, but it's mostly the pedophilia. There's no they're all they're all totally self aware about that And like they're cynical. They don't believe any of this shit Right, there's no there's no british chrysaliza who's like oh boy another day of politics

They're just all self hating disgusted. They're they they look like evil manatees They're all they're just fucking sickening cynical creatures who've never experienced joy or at least not since like They made a Welshman stomp on their ass at boarding school And their lives are shit, but and they're just they hate themselves. They hate you, but they have a sense of duty to the queen Yeah, and duty is the only thing that's kept them from killing themselves. Yeah Yeah, well and also they're not sure they could die because they have very thick skin from all of the inbreeding So it's very hard. They couldn't like kill themselves Yeah, no the distinction should be made the people who have been doing this forever in the uk about you know

Corbett labor's anti-semitism problem 100 cynical. They know it's bullshit. They hate themselves. They hate you. This is their job American journalists, however, are just stupid and gullible. Yeah, and I am. We're real dumb. We're real dumb And I'm going to implore you now for some reason as you know, uh socialism becomes more popular in America Mm-hmm. Jeremy Corbyn being one of the most, you know, an international being the international Uh, guess what they're gonna do it here and I would just simply implore you Uh, that if you no matter how many op-eds you may read on this Uh, if you give even a moment's credence to this, uh, you're a sucker

Yeah, and you need to fucking toughen up because Like if if all it takes is an op-ed to make you be like, hmm Well, you know, he doesn't seem anti-semitic to me. But you know, like a lot of you know, these people are very upset about this They seem concerned. It's just there's something there. I think that we should have to take seriously And I'm sorry even AOC, uh, kind of she didn't outright say, oh, I agree with this But she was like, yes, let's have this conversation. She buckled because she's a very nice person And we need to be tough and not nice right now How do you live in new york your whole life and a haci to cost you to talk about something?

And you don't just brush them off honestly I'm sorry, but it's true. No. Yeah, especially, uh, they will definitely approach you to ask if you're jewish or Well, that's not why they approached me They approached me for a different reason. No, but it is I mean again, and if you go back and look at this They really tried to do like a bernie bro kind of attack on corbin early on where they were talking about like You know, why did Jeremy Corbyn rape a woman at gunpoint and people are like, I don't think that happened

So what did work? However was the anti-semitism thing because We'll say europe has a different relationship historically with the jews. Yeah, leave it at that And this stuck so they've been running after it because a bunch of nice well-meaning progressives are completely buckling to like Three fucking tori jews that don't represent anyone at all Who are saying look this man is uh, you know, he supports hamas and also he's doing he's doing holocaust He's he's gone to garden But he's doing holocaust while he's doing it and people are just so fucking gullible. It's ridiculous

You have to get tougher. You have to not buckle you have to stick with good people And any attack you see on them be like fuck off I know what you're doing and it doesn't fucking work on me. That person stands for what I stand for in your liar They let lord sugar guilt them They let this fucking pay someone who should be pattington bears enemy Guilt them using just the most the most cynical deployment of idp all so I've seen you know Since like the rathion ad where the girl builds the uh digital camouflage toy. It's incredible. It's it's incredible I I see you have a four you have an article from my favorite publication up and I was gonna I'm gonna read this one

because I think it's a perfect example of The the angle that they're gonna take on this which is the it's the headline is aoc. I love you. No, you don't pause Okay, yeah, no, there's no fucking way this person is Is a political ally or friend of aoc or anyone who uh enjoys seeing her in congress Do you just like they bought the gnar's lipstick? That's what they mean. So it says aoc. I love you Jeremy Corbin is no ally. This is by Gabrielle Dubinsky writing in the forward And it says here congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rapid fire burst on the political scene was exhilarating for me As she spoke with verve of overlooked women in marginalized groups. I felt drawn to her charm in a visceral way

I agreed with someone for policy proposals and diverged from her on others Okay, I wonder what they are. Yeah, I wonder what yeah, I wonder what they are Um, but all in all you can bet that I was rooting for her success I still am her undeniable decency and civility all the more stark against a political backdrop of rudderless Indecent leaders many white and male have only made her more inspiring. It's because that I'm such a fan I felt that I felt so deflated when I perused miss Ocasio-Cortez's weekend twitter exchange with british labor leader Jeremy Corbin A conversation the congresswoman lauded as lovely and wide-reaching and nothing short of an honor By all indications

She did not know that for many british jews the mere mention of Corbin's name is triggering And I suspect and I suspect I suspect it's probably news to her as well that in last year's snap election in that country 87 percent of poll jews said they could not vote for a labor party headed by a leader with a prolaclivity for anti-semites not to mention his failure to rid the ranks of his own party of this scourge Okay, a little little note on that poll there about 87 percent of poll jews in england Jewish people as a group in england already 70 percent vote tori in every election no matter what so It's like an inverse of america. Yeah, it's the exact inverse of

Exactly as the granddaughter of an 87 year old woman who still wakes from nightmares of nazis coming to take her away End of a man who spent his post holocaust life painstakingly searching the globe for even one relative to make him feel wanted I take this all personally. Yeah, jeremy corbin is making your nana wake up at night screaming because of uh, He did the holocaust. Yep. This is this is another inverse This is the inverse of like the parent who forces their kid to watch trump state of the union and yell at them He's like look my kid's crying when he sees trump now This is do you think this woman is waking up her grandmother to tell her about jeremy corbin and how he's friends with him Moss and all this this is he's abusing her elderly relatives doing like the clockwork orange thing at the end

Where she's holding up her eyelids, but it's just like jeremy corbin holding up like a large zucchini Harmlessly and she's like this man wants to hurt you. Do you see? Do you see now this your witness to a great anti-semitic becoming this is just like I did not expect the author to just plop out the holocaust that Brutally, yeah, this is like the second paragraph. This is this is fucking amazing This is like this is very ham-fistedly done, but it's you know designed it doesn't matter how fucking sloppy it is Right. It's designed for like the uninitiated to read it be like Oh, um, oh

If you are if you are listening to this and you feel the need to reply with a hearer The reasons why this person is incorrect and like an itemized well actually don't do that either Just be like fuck off. You're lying. We know you're lying jeremy corbin Is in no way racist anti-semitic whatever he is a 100 percent working class endorsed candidate And that's why people don't like him. She goes on to write to be clear Whether corbin is himself an unapologetic anti-semite or has a high threshold for anti-jewish bigotry is Frankly potato-potato at this point. It's one of those two things. It's definitely one of those two things And not something a 50-50 shot and not something I wish to relitigate for in this day and age

It seems soft approaches to bigotry are permissible when the bigotry is directed against jews to be matter of fact While some praise the congresswoman's retort on twitter to me. It seemed lukewarm. Well, I generally recoil from what aboutery I couldn't help but wonder if another minority group muslims immigrants transgender people Repeatedly called out a noted leader for islamophobia anti-immigrant rhetoric or transphobia Would orcasio-cortez have taken his phone call? Uh, guess what? Uh, no, probably she wouldn't because are we are we gonna get into By the way, are we gonna get into the author who they're a research assistant for? Okay, so if you've got some got some tea I'd like a dish. I we would like some tea You hate to see it

You you you would condemn it at all sides and yeah It's obviously soft-pedal here, gabriel, but you know as a former research assistant to professor amaretis ellen der schwitz Well, there you go, I mean again not even gonna read the rest of this article I mean yes, you didn't know oh director of media relations embassy of israel before that Oh wait, oh wait, wait, but I thought this person really liked aOC and was sympathetic. Oh, no, it was just some of the some of the thing Yeah, she liked the lipstick. Uh, just this is another headline in the foreword I am a holocaust survivor the left poses a huge threat to jews and

I think there are probably something like 12 articles published in various places over the last two weeks or so Hitting this exact theme and a corbin, of course being the centerpiece of it Even if you are someone who is you know generally soft-hearted, which is a good thing and you you you don't want to certainly ever be seen as supporting bigotry or Uh, you know insulting anyone's ethnic or religious heritage. Obviously no good person should want to do that Here's the other reason you have to harden your heart to this What do you think they're going to do to you or your preferred candidate if they get even a sniff of power? Better get used to it now And if you don't fucking defend uh the people who are good and stand up for the things that you believe in

Against this kind of bullshit. They're gonna do it to you get tough. They're gonna do it to you over and over again for the absolute boy Yeah, well, you better say something and i'm sorry like i mean We talked about it on the midweek show, but like you know, venezuela They're gonna try to convince you that like oh, maybe you know, maybe the situation there is more complicated than it seems And you know like maybe america, you know should support the people who want a new government because you know, they're really You don't know those people. Nope. Even if situations are complicated Their solution is not it never will be their solution is simple and shit And you never have to support it. You never do they can't make you do anything and don't

And yeah, again, and it's all Going to be presented to you by like well, no No decent person would ever want to support bigotry and it's just like obviously not and you don't so don't let these fucking assholes Make you question what you know to be true the kind of uh academic manifestation of what We call the left but is in no way connected to any left tradition has taught people to be constantly morally and politically insecure So you have to get morally and politically confident

You have to you can or they will bowl you over You have to get your shit together. You have to figure out what you believe You have to stand for it ruthlessly unapologetically and call people out when they try and I don't know Morally blackmail you with some bullshit and let's be honest Like the vast majority of their dossier about why but Jeremy Corbyn is you know, this ruthless anti-semite is all because he is staunchly anti-zionist and supports the rights of Palestinians to you know, have a state and have political rights You know in the country that is theirs. Yeah, and you know, and they're gonna try the other thing they're gonna do They're gonna try to say, you know, now. I'm not saying that, you know

anti-semite anti-zionism equals anti-semitism, but and that's exactly what they're gonna do I read in one of these pieces Uh, one of their briefs against Jeremy Corbyn was he said that the bbc Has a you know a bias towards the Israeli government's point of view and what they said which is true What they said is like it's not that he's saying that um, you know Media is biased towards an Israeli point of view. It's anti-semitic because he's implying That jews have control over corporations and their messages So again, they're just going to try to like fool you and convince you that that is what that of what you're seeing plainly in front of

You is not real and meanwhile using a weird like racially deterministic understanding of what? constitutes Jewishness yeah, where you're saying. Oh, well, you don't understand. It's an ethno state. This that's fucking ridiculous. That's racist That's insane. So it's pretty simple And I am just I'm just gonna put data that you're gonna see more of this and forget forget Jeremy Corbyn You know if you if you live in America or this seems very distant or remote to you or just sort of You know like a sort of baroque argument. It's not worth getting involved in It doesn't matter because they're going to do it to you and your favorite if they get even a sniff at power if someone

if someone outside the foreign policy or economic consensus of what is considered realistic or objectively true Who represents what you believe in and what the future you want? Uh, they're going to do it to them and this is the way they're going to do it. So As amber said before get tough so I don't know. That's a bit that's about it. That's all I have to say boys

So get tough put a ribbon on that one Uh, thanks again to brace Belden and the every all the anchor steam workers who are trying to form a union Uh, please support them and uh, get the get those hashtags popping and consider doing the same in your workplace Solidarity get drunk. So cheers guys till next time. Bye. Bye. There is power. There is power in a man to work in folk when we stand and in hand There's no power. That's the power that must rule in every land run in dust Union grab if you got that again You understand of course everybody got it now. All right Oh, would you have freedom from weight slavery and unjoin the grand industrial band?

Oh, would you from misery and hunger be free? Come on. Do you share land to hand? No, there is power. There is power in a man to work in folk when we stand and in hand There's no power. That's the power that must rule in every land one industrial union