The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3608 - Meatpackers Strike; Trump's War On 'Antifa' w/ Lisa Xu, Caitlyn Clark, Xavier de Janon

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

It's Hump Day on the Majority Report   On today's program:   Donald Trump is trying to find a way out of Iran that he can sell as a victory but in reality, it seems that he is just sinking us into a quagmire.   Caitlyn Clark and Lisa Xu join Sam to discuss the first meatpackers strike in the U.S. in 40 years. Caitlyn is a national organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, an organization dedicated to rank-and-file member education and empowerment for workers in grocery, meatpacking, and retail and Lisa Xu is a staff writer and organizer at Labor Notes. Here is a GoFundMe to help striking workers on the ground Support Colorado Meatpacking Workers on Strike! Or check out the official Local 7 strike fund here. Xavier de Janon, Director of Mass Defense at the National Lawyers Guild on to discuss the 9 people convicted of terrorism related charges after a protest on the Prairieland Ice Detention Center.   For various ways to support the Prairieland Defendants check out their website here.   In the Fun half:   Ryan Grim pieces up some Newsmax doofus over the siege in Cuba.   Rick Scott says we need to destroy Iran before they destroy us.   Markwayne explains that the TSA are working free because of political politics.   Janet Mills holds a town hall teleconference in a half-empty church where the few people who did show up came to express their frustrations with her.   all that and more   No Kings Protests across the country this Saturday, March 28. Check out NoKings.Org to find the protest closest to you.   Check out longtime MR listener Jim Di Bartolo's new graphic novel F*ck Billionaires   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: SELFAST GROWING TREES: Get 20% off your first purchase.  FastGrowingTrees.com/majority SUNSET LAKE: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com

You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. To support this show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to majority.fm. Please. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday. March 25, 2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report.

We are broadcasting. live steps from the industrially ravaged Guana's Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Lisa Zhu and Caitlin Clark, writers from Labor Notes, on the first meatpacking strike in 40 years.

Then Javier de Hano, director of mass defense at the National Lawyers Guild, to discuss the nine people convicted of terrorism-related charges and the attacked on the Prairland Ice Detention Center. Meanwhile, also on the program, Iran rejects Trump's 15-point

peace plan, girds for some sort of U.S. ground attack as thousands of U.S. troops, including at least 3,082nd, Airborne, and their commander, head to the Middle East. Partial DHS of funding deal collapses

as Democrats insist on demanding for ICE reforms. Good for them. We'll see if it lasts. House Democrats looking for a second bite at the War Powers Act vote. They have

locked down, apparently, their four dissenters, timing to be at least two weeks off as the House and the Senate are about to recess. Meanwhile, in Florida, Democrat flips a Republican statehouse seat. In Florida's 14th, this is Donald Trump's home district. Now, of course, he voted mail-in, so maybe the ballot wasn't counted. Meanwhile, there was a second Democratic win in the, I'm sorry, in Florida's

14th, which went Trump by seven. The first district is the eight. Apologies. Trump endorsed longtime North Carolina Senate leader loses his primary race. RFK's vaccine panel is imploding in the wake of a judge finding most of them unqualified. Minnesota sues Trump administration for investigative info into those ice killings of two American citizens. And 59% of Americans say the Iran war has gone too far. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is Humphi, as Emma Vigland would say.

But, of course, she's not here. I don't know. I think she's still sunning in L.A. She's going to come back very tan. I'm just, I just want people to know. That the Kalshi market says. That's what the Kalshi. That's what the polymarket bets on Emma's to come back very tan.

She'll be back tomorrow. Just want to remind people that Saturday, March 28th, this Saturday, there is another No Kings rally. I think if you go to Knowkings.org, is that what it is? We'll put the link up there. You can find a location. near you. Important to go out there. Of course, it's also

there's plenty to protest these days, particularly in terms of the war. I mean, look, Donald Trump is not going to be responsive to protests. However, the more that people go out and protest, the more that it probably emboldens

people like Democrats to take more of a aggressive posture with Trump, et cetera, et cetera. So it's no kings.org. You can go and find your location. And plus, it's also a great way to sort of network. You know, if you meet one person at a no king's protest who you can organize with in the future, that is a huge boon.

Yeah, I know DSA is taking this tact. But if you're in any kind of political group and there's a no king's rally, in your area, you should have that group seen at that no king's rally? 100%. It is a good opportunity to find like-minded people. And, you know, there's every reason to believe regardless of what happens with the midterms that we haven't seen the end of these ice raids and that there is just more of, a crap show to come. I don't know how else to put that and also try and stay positive.

But it is something to anticipate. It's a very good, it's a good idea. Remember, you know, like that old joke about the lawyer, the best time to get a lawyer is when you don't need one. The best time to start to network and organize is when you don't have to. So much of what happened in Minnesota. And apparently, Springsteen's going to be at the, I don't know if it's the Minneapolis, no king's rally, but he's going to be at one no king's rally in Minnesota. This is just coming off of him performing at the Riverside Church for the 30th anniversary of democracy now. But the reason why Minnesota, among other reasons, but I, I think a very important one. The reason why Minnesota was able to respond the way it did, and really, in many respects, break ice for at least the time being, is because of all the organizing that it happened during the Floyd protests.

And so, you know, there was a base, there was a basis there. and a sort of almost an institutional memory. So very important. Get out there. Show yourself out there. Don't anticipate that it's going to change the world. But it's tiny steps. And that's the important thing.

So Donald Trump, what are we, in day three of his five-day? Or maybe we're in day two? I've lost track. Day three. It does not seem like the Iranians are taking Donald Trump's negotiations seriously. They have been screwed over at least twice by the Trump administration when they thought they were negotiating in good faith. And it was Trump just teeing them up for an attack. And apparently the Iranians have said that,

that they will no longer negotiate with Steve Whitkoff or Jared Kushner. Those are the two who led the nuclear negotiations with Iran before this war started. We already know from the foreign minister of Oman that he believed that Whitkoff and Kushner did not understand, simply did not understand. We're too stupid to understand. too stupid to know their limitations and bring experts with them so they could understand, which is probably worse. I don't know that I could understand nuclear negotiations, but I would know that I couldn't

understand that, and I would bring an expert if I had one at my ready, which, of course, if you are the envoy and these things, of course you do. So they won't speak to Witkoff or Kushner. The Pakistan, which appears to be the country that will, according to them, facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks to end the war, have said that J.D. Vance is being put forward by, I think, the Americans, to sit down with the Iranians. he needs something to do he's been in hiding he would love to be able to come back and say that

he had negotiated a peace with Iran but it's unclear whether this is anything other than a way for Trump to buy time to get 3,000 at least 82nd airborne

personnel into the region apparently their general is also coming, which is rare for the commander to be in theater unless they're actually going to get on the ground. And, you know, everybody is assuming that it's going to be attacking Karg Island. And then I guess the theory is that Trump will say, I got Karg Island, I can go now. and but we'll hold on to it just to make sure that Iran doesn't charge a toll through the straight-ahor moves.

I mean, this is where we are. This is how supposedly you don't really want to get too involved, and this is how you sink into a quagmire. We're just watching this. It is in complete slow motion. And the, I mean, none of this is interesting in the sense that, like, you know, we're living it. It might be interesting for people to study this. history in 50 years or 20 years. But now it's just a disaster. But it is sort of fascinating to watch this happen in real time where 60% of the population is like, why the F are we doing this?

But here is Pete Hegseth. It is honestly, if you were going to draw this as a cartoon, you would put his, put this up, his American flag Hanky in his, his suit because of all that it represent, like I want to see him pull it out and blow his nose on it. It's just for us not. But this is, I mean, this is exactly how you would draw the whole thing. Listen to the Higgs, if let's play it once. Brian and I both saw this. And it's juvenile and pure aisle, but let's play this.

As viciously as possible from moment one. And that's why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs. You have a choice as we loiter over the top of Tehran, as the president talked about, about your future. President has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees. Our job is to ensure that.

And so we're keeping our hand on that. throttle as long as as hard as is necessary to ensure the interest of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield. Okay, I know this is juvenile. This is juvenile. I mean, this is Pete Higgs, this is the Secretary of War, talking

about how when they negotiate, as opposed to the negotiators, we negotiate with bombs. And watch Trump as as Hegseth puts his hand on the throttle. and watch as he talks about what happens when he puts his hand on the throttle.

So we're keeping our hand on that throttle as long as as as hard as is necessary to ensure the interest in the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield. I don't know. Okay, pause it. Okay, there it is. All right, yeah, the hand on the throttle. Okay. Nice.

Yeah, Pete's going to keep talking. I'm going to run. I'll excuse me for five minutes. You guys, continue on without me. I've just got to go to the bathroom for a second. And then I, you know, maybe this is, I don't know. Maybe this is related in some fashion. I don't know.

Later in this press conference, Trump starts talking about. And I guess like this is Trump thinking he's being clever. Like we already reading news reports that the Iranians don't. trust the peace plan they don't trust this five day they don't trust any of it they know there's a very good chance that this is just being set up for an attack but trump i don't know i don't know if he thinks he's being clever here and like oh they offered something and it really moved me look at how i'm acting all moved um and i'm so impressed with them uh i just don't know like it's impossible to get into the mind of this psychopath.

But here he is. Because they're going to make a deal. They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. And I'm not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize. and they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it.

So that meant one thing to me would deal with the right people. Is that nuclear-related? No, it wasn't nuclear-related. It was oil and gas-related, and it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people. Because, you know, you don't know, because the leadership was... Let's just hear a little bit. That's it, but he basically says, like, the leadership has been killed by us,

so we don't want to say explicitly who we're dealing with in case they get killed too by our allies. exactly. That's actually a good point because Israel at this point, if they, Israel had any sense. I mean, let's for a moment pretend that Donald Trump is being sincere here. And I don't, I don't think he is. I think the decision has been made that we're going to go on the ground that he feels like he needs to walk away with something. And frankly, as Mad Dog Mattis, this was the reasonable guy in the Trump, first Trump administration, was at an event, I guess, maybe Monday, saying that he thinks it's almost like we're past the point of exiting, that if we were to leave now,

Iran will necessarily charge a toll on all the ships coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, because they will have proven that there's no one to stop them. Right? Like if we stop at this point and that we will have shown ourselves to have been a paper tiger in Israel as well. And if Mattis is saying that publicly, I imagine there's a lot of people saying that to Trump and that you're going to be responsible if you don't do something more, you're going to be responsible for oil prices. going through the roof. And when you think about it, is there anything outside of like,

um, uh, racism and misogyny, uh, and xenophobia that Trump talks about more than gas prices over the past like, uh, year? And all of their, uh, let's go brand in MAGA stuff was about gas prices. Gas prices and egg prices. And I think he got, uh, I think he got, I think he got, I think he's been convinced. And so it's quite possible the Iranians said, we will give you this oil field or we will give you that oil field or whatever it is. And it's his way of saying like, oh, now we believe we're dealing with the right people, therefore we won't attack. I think it's not. I mean, I think honestly, we're now like at the point where they're adults. They get it. But we'll see.

In a moment, we're going to be talking to Lisa Zhu and Caitlin Clark. They're from Labor Notes. Caitlin Clark is a national organizer at the Essential Workers for Democracy. And Lisa Shue is a staff writer and organizer at Labor Notes about the strike happening. The first one in about 40 years at a beetpacking plant. plant in in Colorado. First, a word from our sponsor. Did you know that fast-growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with

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Terms and conditions may apply. We'll put the information in the podcast and YouTube description. quick break we come back we're going to be talking to lisa shoo and kately clark about this first uh meatpacking strike in 40 years we're right back after this we are back sam cedar on the majority report emma viglin is out today uh want to welcome to the program Lisa shue she is a staff writer and organizer at labor notes uh and kately clark national organizer at essential workers for democracy, which is a caucus, a reform caucus,

in, I'm sorry, which union was it? The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the UFCW. And you're both writing about this strike that's happening in Colorado. Lisa, let's start with you. Just set the table for us here. This is the first meatpacking strike in 40 years. Why is it, A, why that, why has it been 40 years?

That's such a great question. So this, the last meatpacking strike of the scale was the strike against formal foods in Austin, Minnesota, which was in 85, 86, you know, the decade of kind of, you know, a new offensive against unions. under Reagan, right, just five years after Reagan busted the Paco Air Traffic Controlers Union. And that fight really galvanized so much support from around the country. They, I think they were out on strike for like 13 months. And in many ways, you know, ended in defeat, even though the worker is so courageous. And since then, the meatpacking industry has only consolidated further. They had a particular union-busting strategy of, I mean, common in other industries too, of closing unionized plants, you know, citing, you know, various factors, only to reopen surprise, right, in non-union plants.

And through that process, they've really eroded the unionization rate in the industry. As I think many people know, if you've read our story, another coverage, this is very vulnerable. workforce, increasingly so. A lot of new immigrants, refugees from a lot of different countries. And so over time, I think the industry has just made it really hard for workers to organize and to fight back with, you know, through waging these campaigns of fear. And so I think that alone, I think explains a lot of it. And we're seeing now, you know, you know, you know, a local union in Colorado that is really determined, and these really brave workers who are really determined to show

that it is possible for meatpacking workers to organize and fight back. Yeah, I think you guys wrote that following World War II, and, you know, presumably for some years well into the 60s and 70s, up to 90% of meatpacking workers were unionized. And by 2019, we're at 15%. I imagine that may have probably even shrunk since then because of the consolidation. We have four major meatpacking companies that control about 85% of the industry. So, Caitlin, what was, what are the circumstances in which this strike is taking place?

And we should say, my understanding is it's a planned two-week strike. And I want to ask you about that after this. But what were the circumstances of this particular strike? Because my understanding is that the broader union outside of this local had sort of come to some terms. Yeah. So this contract has been expired at the JBS Greeley plant for over or almost a year now. They've been expired since, I believe it's July of 2025. So they've been fighting for a new contract for over a year.

And on last Monday, March 16th at 5.30 a.m., all 3,800 workers walked off the job. So they're entering or they're in week two of the strike this week. I've actually been here in Greeley on the ground for the last week or so talking with workers and being out on the picket line. And I wanted to say that just being on the picket line has been incredible. It's hard to put it into words. I wish that everyone could experience what it's like being like. out there. The picket line has stayed really strong. They've brought together workers

from all around the world who are speaking different languages. And normally the bosses and the plants across the meatpacking industry really depend and rely on these language and cultural barriers to divide workers and to prevent them from organizing. But on the picket line and Greeley

we're seeing workers dancing together, sharing music and food and chanting in each other's languages from Spanish to Burmese to Haitian. We have a clip of this. Let's play this. Let's play this is about 25 seconds long. It really is fascinating. I want to get into the sort of like the diversity that's there and into how that may cut both ways in some ways. But here we go. So, I mean, there's there's a lot of different like immigrant nationalities, I guess,

that are represented there. How much of like, in addition, and, you know, we have other footage I mean, there's a lot of people who are out there on those picket lines. And you hear, you know, Cici Pueira, but you'll also hear other languages being, how much is what's going on in terms of like ICE and the assault on immigrants impacting the solidarity that these folks feel with each other in this context, Caitlin? Yeah. So across the meatpacking industry, which is an industry. that has a predominantly immigrant workforce across the country, the meatpackers tend to want to rely on immigration and the threat of immigration enforcement to scare workers, regardless of their immigration status, out of organizing and into accepting the conditions that the meatpackers want

to force onto them. In this particular plant, the vast majority of the workers, you know, have either temporary protected status, their permanent residents, many of them are citizens, although they may have been born in a different country. And when these workers went to vote on their strike authorization a couple months ago, JBS had several ICE officers stationed outside of the plant as an attempt to intimidate these workers out of voting. But these workers ended up voting 99% to authorize a strike. And it's just really incredible to see this amount of bravery and courage in this particular political moment. That being said, on the picket line, there has not been any ice activity. And workers generally feel that they've been

supported through their local union, UFCW Local 7, to know their rights, to feel confident to be out on the picket line, to not be afraid. And what we've heard from members being on the line is that the experience of being on strike has stripped away some of the fear that people experience, whether that's with regards to immigration in the current state of the Trump administration, or with regards to their employment and to the bosses, which kind of work hand in hand, which in very kind of specific ways to try to repress workers organizing in the meatpacking industry. So, Lisa, let's talk about what the issues are.

One is the line speed. What does that mean? and why would that be an issue? Yeah, so this has long been an issue in the meat packing industry. It's kind of what it sounds like. You have workers who are placed fairly close together on a line where they're doing various tasks, right? Like it could be deboning parts of the animal. It could be, you know, cutting up other parts.

And there are, this is something that's negotiated between or subject of negotiations between the union and the company, how fast, you know, how many parts, how many animals are meant to be processed at a time. And the companies have an interest in speeding up as going as fast as possible in spite of the danger to the workers. you know, I think these injuries are described in the article and others, you know, cuts, just the actual conditions are very hazardous. So this is something that, again, like the workers are always locked in the battle with the companies to around line speed. So that is definitely an issue here. And in terms of safety, the other thing is that, I mean, these guys, they're all, working with knives, obviously, and they've got to move very quickly. I literally, I get my knees go weak over this. I worked in a deli once and cut myself on the, on the, on the deli slicer,

and it's just, I can't even think about it, frankly, now. But they're, when you're working in these, on these lines, there's equipment you can wear that will offer you some protection. Obviously, you can't be completely protected, but like a mesh vets. and arm guards so that, you know, if a knife hits your arm. And apparently, according to what you've written, the workers have to pay for that. Yeah, yeah. Shame on the companies. They've been garnishing workers' wages to help to pay for their own protective gear.

You know, they claim it's only when it's been, like, maliciously. damaged or something, but this is really kind of, I don't even know, not even icing on the cake. Yeah, this is, you know, meanwhile, the company is trying to make, almost seems like they're trying to make the conditions as dangerous as possible for the worker. And if I could jump in here, this personal protective equipment can cost up to $1,100 per worker out of pocket. And so workers are provided PPE when they first get hired, but that PPE very quickly wears out through just regular wear and tear. People might lose it or it could get stolen. And any time it has to be replaced, whether that's the cut gloves, the mesh vests, even a knife sharpener for, you know, the knives that people use on the line.

If that gets worn out, you have to pay. And that money is taken out of your paycheck, basically without your consent. The requirement of your, you know, safe working conditions that you have this PPE, you have no choice whether or not to have it. but the company can just take that money right out of your paycheck. How do they justify that? Like, I mean, it's not like, oh, you know, people are probably taking their mesh gloves home and they're, you know, wearing them out to parties or something. Like, I mean, this is clearly safety equipment. And it's just insane to me that they can garnish it.

Like, I don't even know how they, are other workers at other plants? Did they get their wages garnished too? or is this like a sort of a unique feature here? The answer to that question, I'm actually not sure 100% what that's like at other plants. I know this has been a specific issue they've been focusing on at the Greeley plant. But, you know, to your question of how the employers justify it, the truth is these employers are criminal operations. They operate like cartels with each other in the meatpacking industry.

I think we mentioned maybe earlier, 85% of things. the country's beef comes from just four meat packers. Between five and seven percent of all beef produced in the entire United States comes just from this JBS Greeley plant on strike. And these employers have, you know, spent, JBS alone has spent $100 million in court settlements just over the last year over industry collusion to repress worker wages, increased prices for consumers, child labor violations at the JBS Greeley plant that's currently on strike. And, you know, they've been held up from their IPO by regulators up until very recently from going public on the New York Stock Exchange until a convenient $5 million donation to Trump's inauguration fund quickly waved through their, you know, going public on the stock exchange just a couple months later. And so, you know, these companies, JBS is a Brazilian-owned company and the owners of the company had gone to jail for insider trading back in 2017.

Like these they there's no justification that these meatpackers need. And I think that's part of what is so inspiring about this strike is that workers are standing up against some of the most powerful and some of the most greedy criminal operations in corporate, not just corporate America, but around the globe. It's it's shocking how they have been able to sort of layer that type of. of law breaking together, like the bribery, the, the, um, uh, worker abuse, all of it. It's like, uh, it's like some type of parfe. Um, what, what, okay, so, um, it's two weeks long. What's the theory by sort of like starting out and, and saying, we're going to do this for two weeks. Caitlin, what's a, what, uh, like why, what was their theory that, um, we're going to do this for two weeks and then call it in? Are they, are they hoping to build more solidarity? Are they hoping to get other sort of locals at other plants to sort of join in maybe down the road? What's, what's the

strategy here? Yeah, this would be a great question for your CW Local 7 leadership, who would be a great guest on the show. I don't know the whole answer to that question. But I, to my understanding, the local announced that the strike was planned for approximately two weeks, although the strike could end earlier if JBS agrees to come back to the bargaining table in good faith. There's, yeah, there's a lot of different ways that this could end up, but I would have to kick that question over to the local leadership. Oh, let me ask you this, because the National Labor Relations Board, obviously, is essentially, you know, dysfunctional at this point by design by the Trump administration.

But my understanding is that some of the regional national, some of the regional labor boards are still sort of like functioning in some ways. So is this a way in which it draws attention to the unfair labor practices and maybe puts more pressure on sort of like regionally, I guess, or no? I mean, I sense a little bit of skepticism on your part for saying it's going to be too weeks, but maybe I'm projecting. But what, I mean, is that one of the ideas? We're just going to raise awareness of what's going on in these plants with the hopes that

the local representative of the National Labor Relations Board will be more active? I think, in truth, you know, the labor movement has existed long before the National Labor Relations Board even existed. And while it's really unfortunate that, The Trump administration has been attacking the National Labor Relations Board and has kind of really undermined that legal pathway. I think what we're seeing with the JBS Greeley's strike is one of the most powerful tools that workers have ever had, which is the ability to withhold their labor. And the worker power and people power that is behind this strike, in my opinion, is more important than what's going on at the NLRB. And we can see this as a great example of how organized workers when they're united and when they're together around a shared fight and when they're able to come together across different barriers that they might be facing can really take on some of these corporate giants and make a huge difference.

And I think to your point about raising awareness, we talked earlier that this is the first major meatpacking strike in 40 years. And so I think this has the potential to have a ripple effect across the meatpacking. industry and to kind of break the pattern that we've been in of, you know, no strikes in the meatpacking industry. And so this is really a kind of path-changing event in the meatpacking industry, which is why it's really exciting. And as you point out, it's happening in the midst of a really crazy time for labor law and for the National Labor Relations Board. And so I think it points to, regardless of the legal systems that we have in place or what laws we're using, to support worker organizing, the power that we have comes not from the law, but from workers

uniting together and standing in solidarity with one another. If I could add to that, I think building on what Caitlin said, yes, of course, we would love to have an NLRB and labor laws actually enforce in this country. But the public also had the role to play in supporting the workers in terms of like thinking about our power beyond just what's going on with the law right now. I don't know if in the show notes you'd be able to share a link to the... That was actually the next question I was going to ask you is how can folks support what's going on there? Yeah. The local has a hardship fund. Essential Workers for Democracy has also set up a strike support fund that will go to the local seven fund as well.

So and for media support on the picket lines. If anyone's able to, it will be able to, it will, to drive up to Greeley, you know, one of the simplest ways you can do, you can support any strike anywhere is just to show up to the picket lines in solidarity. That means so much more and shows the employer too that there's public support and there's public eyes and what they're doing. So, you know, I would encourage everyone to feel empowered in this moment, you know, the public and the rest of the labor movement has a role to play. All right, well, we will put, we will share those links in the show notes at majority.fm and in the podcast and YouTube description, and folks can show up there. Bring a pizza. I don't know, bring some tacos or whatever, bring whatever kind of food.

I'm sure the folks on the picket line would appreciate it and any type of support. And also, people love it when you honk your horn when you go by. I'd notice that too. Caitlin Clark, Lisa Shue, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having. And we'll check in as this goes on and see if there's any more developments. All right, we've got to take a quick break.

When we come back, we're going to be talking to Javier de Honan, director of the mass defense at National Lawyers Guild to discuss the nine people of convicted of terrorism-related charges in the attack on Prairie Land Ice Detention Center. I don't even know if it was an attack, but I guess we'll find out right after this. We are back, Sam Cedar, on the majority report. Emma Viglin out today, back tomorrow. Joining us now, Javier de Janon, the director of mass defense at National Lawyers Guild, to discuss nine people who were convicted of terrorism-related charges in what some have characterized as an attack on the Prairland Ice Detention Center. but I'm not quite sure that it could be characterized as an attack until the protesters were attacked.

But Javier, welcome to the program. Tell us what was the situation, like what was going on on that day? Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. So as you mentioned, there was a three-week federal trial a couple of weeks ago in North Texas. And so, you know, before the trial, we would say it seems to be. it appears, we believe, but now after the trial, we can say we know what happened. And what happened is that on July 4th, people organized a noise demonstration.

This is a very common form of protest where people go to a jail, a detention center, a prison, and make noise. And that was what was happening. You know, July 4th was picked because it's Independence Day, and the goal was to make noise in solidarity with people in silence. inside an ICE detention center. So people went, made a lot of noise. They had fireworks.

No, the fireworks didn't damage any property, didn't damage any fences. And it was a success. And this was on July 4th. Correct. So it's basically just saying, like, we want to make you feel like you're part of a July 4th celebration so that you don't feel so isolated and you feel like people have forgotten you. Correct. And it was a success.

We heard during the trial that immigrants inside of the detainees, inside of the detention center actually went to the window where the fireworks were, you know, and were cheering on and it was a big success. But what happened next really changed everything for these people's lives. While the protest was happening, one of the people actually went out of the protest and started destroying ICE vehicles' tires, destroyed a surveillance camera, and so on. it turned out that that person didn't even know any of the defendants. They kind of just did it on their own.

And that person actually ended up being cooperating with the government. So that person actually testified during the trial on what actually happened. And so after all this goes down, you know, they call 911. A police officer arrives. And the officer was actually responding to a report that someone was breaking into the ice facility, which was not happening. I mean, all of it is miscommunication, misinformation. But when the officer gets there, he gets out of the car and sees some protesters running.

I mean, you know, the sirens are there, so people are leaving. The officer pulls out his firearm, aims it at the protesters, and that's when shots get fired in his direction. And then the cop shot shoots back. How many protesters were there on that day? It's hard to say, and this never was clear in the trial, but it seems that it's about a dozen or so or maybe more. Okay. And who was it that shot, once the cop pulls out his gun, who was it that shot from the, it wasn't the same person who had messed with the ice vehicles, was it? No, not at all. And in fact, where the shooting happened was at the parking lot, the fireworks happened somewhere else. It was near a fence.

But the jury did find last name Song, Champagne Song, guilty, of basically discharging firearm. So that's who the jury determined shot at Lieutenant Gross is his name. And was that individual who shot the weapon? Would they part of the protest as well? And presumably they were leaving if they're in the parking lot at that point. Yes. So the understanding is that everyone who went was there for the noise demo and then things went south. Um, am I wrong to be a little suspicious about the guy who freelanced going and vandalizing the ice vehicles, uh, based upon like, uh, stuff that we've seen at some of these protests in the past?

Am I, um, am I wrong to like, and that person just happens to be the person who testifies on, um, I mean, how, am I wrong to be suspicious about that? Not at all. I mean, you know, co-intel pro happened in this country where federal agents would infiltrate movements and entrap people and cause different bad events to happen. I mean, there was no indication that this person wasn't informant, but he did drive from very far away to get to the protest. No one knew him. To this day, I remember we didn't, we don't know who that person's family. is. And he wasn't the only person who cooperated, unfortunately. But of all the cooperators, I would say it was the one who was distant, right? The unknown random character.

Okay. And so how do we get from an individual firing on a cop who was drawn a gun, which is not something I would recommend people to do? How do we get from that person firing that weapon to people who were. obviously the guy who slashed the tires is responsible for slashing the tires but how do we get from there to nine people get convicted for being terrorists yeah i mean the what i would describe it we get there because the federal government wanted to pursue this huge prosecution um after the uh gunshots the last name song champagne

song did go into hiding, it seems, and this created what the government calls the manhunt across the whole state. They were looking for song. You know, there are reports that, you know, how you can get a text that says, you know, Amber Alert, missing child. People in Texas got, you know, alert looking for this person. And through that incident, a massive investigation opened. Phones were being surveilled, cars were being followed, and people start getting arrested and houses get raided in what the government imagines is the quote-unquote North Texas and Tifa cell. So the government, I'm going to say, created this group. And then with that justification, with that reason, they expanded this investigation. There's actually, sorry, a total

of 19 defendants. So nine got convicted federally a couple weeks ago, but there's more across And are they waiting trial or were they exonerated at that trial? Three of them have only state-level charges. So it's the same incident, but only in Johnson County. The rest of them have state-level charges that are still pending. So even the ones that were federally convicted have state charges. And are these people, were these people all at the protest? Or were none of them at the protest?

Or is it just that they belong? or not belong, they just are in contact. Yeah. So two questions. One, how many of these people were at the protest? And then two, like, what is the characterization? When do I belong to a non-existent group, you know, North Texas Antifa? When do I belong to that group if I'm texting people who are texting other people?

Yeah, so for the first question, at least, this is where it gets so crazy, eight of the defendants convicted were at the protest. There's a ninth one, Des Sanchez, who didn't even know a protest was happening. He was just married to one of the defendants, and he moved a box of pamphlets, of zines, and he got charged and convicted of concealing evidence. But there's a very smaller number of people who were at the protest. The rest were not. And so either people got charged with what they call the manhunt cases, right, like helping someone escape. But the majority of them have these concealment of evidence, destruction of evidence charges, mostly having to do with signal messages, that people deleted each other from group chats,

or that they left group chats or that they told people how to delete group chats, essentially. And that really is to your second question. how does the government find you to be a part of a terror cell? Apparently, it's being on a signal group chat. That this is the government's theory. In fact, in California right now, there's a case called it's the Turtle Island Liberation Front. And the entire theory of the Turtle Island Liberation Front is based on a signal group chat. That everyone who was in that group chat is a part of this cell, of this organized crime group.

but I know as someone who supports the right to protest across the country that people join signal group chats randomly you show up to an event you know a group of friends are planning something and now I mean even government officials you signal to for their own work would they would they be able to do this if you joined a WhatsApp channel I mean like what's the difference between joining a signal group chat, which is designed, you know, it's not like, you know, a group chat that I have with my, you know, let's say my family, where we all have to sort of like, it doesn't exist except for within relationship to us, whereas a signal group chat is a, is a bigger thing.

It's like almost like an email. It's like an email list on some level. It's a distribution platform in many ways. I know that like even my kid in junior high, they have other apps where you can join like the class group chat. So what what is it about signal? And obviously I think probably everybody is sort of thinking the same thing right now, which is that's how everybody communicated Minnesota.

And they weren't part of, you know, Antifa, Minneapolis. they were just, I'm in touch with my neighbors because we're coordinating protest action. Yeah, I mean, the difference that the government would say about Signal is that it's encrypted communications and there are abilities on the app itself to delete messages and it's pretty safe. But WhatsApp is also encrypted communications and more and more what you describe Discord and other online platforms also have encrypted. and encryption isn't because people are doing bad things, it's because the government surveils everything.

I mean, that really is why people seek these things outside of SMS, right, outside of text, because people value their privacy and their security. I mean, Twitter encrypts the DMs now. Like, I mean, does that mean that it is prima facie evidence of a crime being committed? This federal government would say that if you have an encrypted communication channel and the title is, you know, we're going to do something bad. You're part of the we're going to do something bad terror cell. I mean, this is the extent that the government is going to criminalize dissent, really.

How did they, I want to first know, like, what was the relevance of them claiming there is an Antifa organization as opposed to Antifa? being sort of a disposition? It actually had nothing to do with the federal case. None of the federal charges required a criminal organization or a terror organization, none of them. The injection of Antifa into this case was, for my perspective, purely political. In fact, after the so-called Antifa expert of the government gave his testimony, even the judge was asking that same question, what does this have to do with anything?

You're trying to prove riot, attempted murder, discharging a firearm. What do their beliefs have to do? And, you know, the government would say, well, it shows intent and it shows disposition, and it shows a plan. But, no, I mean, this case could have happened with no mention of their political ideology.

And some people would say that maybe that was the right way to handle this case for a government. right talk about the offense talk about what you're charging not all these um very contentious controversial words like antifa like you know free them all free the immigrants and so on um and how did the government find people on how did they find the the the group chat was it that some of the members of the group chat basically said i'm a member of this group chat here look at my phone and here's how you find the names of these people? Unfortunately, very quickly, defendants gave over their phone. And so people cooperate it really early on. And when the government grab

has your actual phone, I mean, they can access everything there. You put your password in. So if you're a part of any group, of any, you know, your bank account, your secret folder with secrets that you possess, when you give over your phone, I mean, everything is handed over. So That's what happened. And then making matters worse, some of the cooper cooperating defendants also told the government, you know, this person is that person. This face is this other person. So the cooperating witnesses basically gave the government their whole case. And so where does everything stand now? These people, have they been sentenced? Yeah. So, yeah, that's a good question. So the federal trial ended. There might be more motions that get filed. Sentencing is actually June, so there won't be a sentence till June. And then I suspect there's going to be a long appellate journey, right? Court of Appeals. But while that's happening, there are three state-level defendants that do have their cases moving on. And one of them, Dario Sanchez, all he's accused of is of removing someone from similar, a signal group chat or a Discord group chat. And the state of Texas is accusing him of essentially aiding terrorism by destroying evidence.

And he was able to get a bond, but his trial will be set soon. And there's two other defendants, Janet Goring and Lucy Faults, with identical accusations, these signal accusations. And so how long can you go to prison for deleting your name from a group chat or deleting somebody else's name from a group chat? In the state of Texas decades, it's a felony, and the state of Texas has really strict and punitive sentences, you can imagine. Does the state not have to prove that the underlying action of the people on this chat was illegal, or just that you were deleted from a group chat? Yeah, the government will need to prove intent, knowledge, right? But I'm talking about the, yeah, I'm talking about. if we have a signal chat here for, hey, guys, we got to coordinate a live show that we're doing.

If the live show is not a, is not found criminally, we're not criminally liable for the live show. Can we be liable for, I mean, don't they have to prove that something illegal happened at the protest? This federal government would say that if the live show is about anarchism, anti-fascism, and freeing immigrants, the live show is a crime. I mean, this is the reality we find ourselves in. What they would have to prove, however, is that the person removing or deleting had knowledge of whatever, like, criminal plan or criminal intent. But the way that these cases are evolving, it seems that you just being there is evidence, at least for the government, that you're up to no good and that you're up to, I mean, terrorism is what they say. What about on a state level? I mean, the state charges, do they also say that, like, if you're protesting out in front of an ice facility, that's a crime relative to deleting evidence that you were there?

In many ways, the people running the state of Texas are even more conservative than the people running the federal government. And the attorney general of Texas and the governor of Texas has actually made public announcements that they are infiltrating leftist organizations, that they are going to be prosecuting this type of case actively. So, I mean, in many ways, it's even worse. I mean, the laws are, you know, there's First Amendment protections and the right, you know, you have to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. These constitutional protections exist. But often, you have to wait until trial or to appeal to get there. So a lot of these DAs and prosecutors, you know, charge, find a conviction, and then years later, someone gets justice. If folks want to support these Prairieland defendants, how would they do that?

Yeah, so once stop shop, Prairieland Defendants.com, if you want to donate, there's a fundraiser. If you want to write to the defendants, there's letter writing. And importantly, if you're in Texas, there's many court dates that people can go to physically and learn more. What I will add to, you know, in terms of the extreme nature of these cases, lawyers are very expensive. And so the support committee of these defendants will always need more money. It really is a really challenging situation. And I hope that as people learn about it, they help them so that there's no more prairie land defendants, really. We will put links to that site in our podcast and YouTube and at majority.com.

Javier Jinnon, Director of Mass Defense at the National Lawyers Guild. Thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right, folks. We're going to take a quick break, head into the fun half of the program. I feel like maybe we should have started with that one and done the union stuff.

It's a little more fun. I know. That was disappointing. Are we doing crimes right now? Crime, crime. podcast crime well folks happy Wednesday

unbelievable um I'll just note that in when the Dakota access pipeline thing happened in North Dakota there was a gun there

then somebody got arrested for it the gun it turned out was brought there and given to the person who was arrested for it by a government informant so

I mean at the very least the random guy who shows up to do to attack ice vehicles sounds a little suss to me well and i mean fred hampton actually has a great quote when he was like 20 years old when he's like we don't support those kind of tactics they calls them custeristic because it basically provokes a violent and a response in an undisciplined way and so even if that person wasn't doing it to eventually being informant that's an undisciplined act and And it's not a surprise that they turned immediately into an informant because they weren't coming from a place of discipline. And one battle after another is kind of a story about that.

Yeah. Imagine being 20 years old and saying custeristic. That's the crazy thing about Fred Hampton is the Mozart of politics. Yeah. Well, good lesson to be learned. And really important when you're on these protests, I mean, that if you see, somebody who's a suss called them out i mean i just remember there was uh footage in was it in minneapolis i think where the guy had shown up with where he was burning the flag yeah and then somebody

a couple of people followed him and go like where you going to what like where are you from why are you leaving the protest right after burning the flag you just sort of walking away like that was your job the jeans and shoes i must always give it away i've noticed that approach I'm dead serious. Who wears jeans and shoes to a protest? It's like these kind of police boots, like steel-toed work boots that are very, like, I don't even know where you get them. No leftist has ever gotten from police, yeah, like overstock. Dave from, Daniel from Virginia says, Sam, some amount of caution for the American paw-paw.

It is slightly neurologically toxic. We need you functioning at peak performance. You're going to derail the show with this kind of. talk. Well, I'll be careful. I have the fast growing trees link to pop-pop pull-up right now. It says it tastes like banana custard pie, and I was like, all right, I'm in. Oh, my God.

I've done worse things for my neurological system than heat of pop-paw. Without a doubt. I mean, frankly, just showing up at work every day these days is like doing enough. Folks, it's your support that makes the show possible. If you want us to be able to deliver depressing news on a daily basis. Maybe you have too much serotonin. Maybe you have one of those overactive serotonin producing brains. Do you have a friend who goes through life just completely too joyous?

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They are completely free. And here's the best part. we don't sell your F and data to, with some SDK packet to a private equity so they can figure out where the best place to put a, you know, a Starbucks is or whatever it is. We do not do that. We tried to figure out how to do it, but we couldn't figure out. It just involved too much effort. No, we did not do that. We will never do that.

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Majority Discord.com. We got what, how many thousand? 15,000? Over 15,000. It was 18,000. It could be 20,000 at this point. Majority Discord.com. It is a great resource.

Are you organizing? Do you want to have tips on how to organize? Do you want to talk about moving? You want to talk about the current news. I mean, on and on and on. It's a great place to go talk to our chat with like-minded folks. And, of course, AM Quickie, theamquicky. Theamquicky.com.

Top news stories in your email box every morning at 9 a.m. by two great writers, Cory Pine and Whitney Wimbish, who will bring you the top stories of the day for free, three days a week for a couple bucks you get a five days a week am quickie dot com and also just coffee co-op fair trade coffee hot chocolate use the coupon code majority get 10% off you can buy the majority report blend check it out matt what's happening in the matt lecky and media universe uh yeah yesterday a new episode of left reckoning on youtube and twitch uh with max alvarez of the real news and the working people's podcast talking about uh east palestine uh the current state

of the poisoning there, what actually happened, and where we are as a country in terms of environmental protection, which is not in a great place, turns out. So for more bad news, check out some yesterday's left reckoning. Folks, see you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now.

But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look. back and go like wow what what is that going on it's nuts wait a second hold on for hold on for a manma welcome to the program hey fun pack matt what is up everyone fun no mckee you did it let's go brand let's go brandon bradley you want to say hello sorry to disappoint everyone I'm just a random guys. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, uh, you want to smoke his, uh, seven, eight? Yes. Yes. There's you. Oliver's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single

freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to go to life. Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense. says, of course. Gobbled Egook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge men. I'm positively clovery.

I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210. 35. 501. 1 half. 3-8. 9-11, 1300, $1,900.

$1,900. $6.5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making think less. But let me say this. Poop. You can call satire.

Sam goes it. On top of it all? Yeah. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. Obviously. Yeah.

Sundow guns out. I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Wow. I love it.

I do love that. Got a jump. You got to be quick. I get a jump. The clock. We're already late. and the guy's being a dick. So screw him.

Sent to a gulaw? Outrageous. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you, bye. Love you. Bye-bye.