Feb 26, 2023
From unions in the United States fighting to save our supply chain from the destruction wrought by corporate tycoons, Wall Street vampires, and bought-off politicians, to the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) leading the fight against austerity politics and ruling-class union busting in the United Kingdom, to rail workers with the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) in France joining their compatriots in the streets in a general strike against President Emmanuel Macron's neoliberal attack on the country's beloved pension system, rail workers around the world are fighting different battles in the same war: the class war. In this special international episode, we bring together a panel of rail workers from the US, UK, and France to talk about what they are up against, what the struggle looks like in their corners of the world, and what we can all do to connect those struggles and build international worker solidarity. Panelists include: Ross Grooters of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and Railroad Workers United in the US; Cat Cray and Clayton Clive of the RMT in the UK; Matthieu Bolle-Reddat of the CGT Cheminots Versailles in France.
Additional links/info below...
- Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- Ross's Twitter page
- Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Rail Worker EXPOSES Ohio Disaster COVERUP"
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "“This Was Preventable”: Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St Caused the East Palestine Derailment"
- Working People, "East Palestine, Ohio: A Hell of Wall Street's Making (w/ Matt Weaver)"
- Mel Buer, The Nation, "The Ohio Derailment Catastrophe Is a Case Study in Disaster Capitalism"
- Kari Lydersen, In These Times, "The Case for Nationalizing the Railroads"
- RMT Union National Dispute Fund
- Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads"
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The Supreme Court Is About to Drag Workers’ Rights Back by Centuries"
- RMT Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page,
- Clayton's Twitter page
- Manchester South RMT Twitter page
- Cat's Twitter page
- Working People, "RMT Strike (w/ Mel Mullings, Clayton Clive, Cat Cray, & Gaz Jackson)"
- Rupert Pickering, Tribune, "Defend the RMT"
- Karl Hansen, Jacobin, "Britain’s Rail Workers Are Poised to Strike Against Austerity"
- Venda Premkumar, Maia Khan, & Rita Mahli, Tribune, "Why We're On Strike"
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "New Anti-Union Law in UK Takes Aim at Strike Wave"
- General Confederation of Labour website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "French Workers STRIKE Against Neoliberal Pension Reforms"
- Tomek Skomski & Marion Beauvalet, Tribune, "Workers Against Macron"
- Working People, "The French General Strike (2019-2020)"
Permanent links below...
- Working People Patreon page
- Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
- Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
- Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song