Red Clay Comrade

Ansley Mall Starbucks Strikes on National Coffee Day

Ansley Mall Starbucks workers strike in protest of corporate’s refusal to bargain.

Since their election victory on June 22, unionized workers at the Ansley Mall Starbucks in Atlanta are still waiting on Starbucks corporate to meet them at the bargaining table. Despite over 200 Starbucks locations voting to unionize across the country, including two stores here in Atlanta, Starbucks has refused to engage in good faith to reach a bargaining agreement with Starbucks partners. As of last week, only 3 of the 240 unionized stores have begun bargaining sessions with corporate.

Google Culinary Workers Demand Better Wages and a Union

Atlanta Google cafeteria workers petitioned management for higher wages and the right to unionize!

Wed. August 31, 2022 – With Labor Day just around the corner, nearly 30 culinary workers at the Google office cafeteria in midtown Atlanta walked in on management, petitioning for higher wages and the right to form a union without retaliation.

While Google is known to be an employer that offers comprehensive perks and benefits, this is not the case for the thousands of Google cafeteria and service workers contracted through a third party. Over the course of the pandemic, over 4,000 Google cafeteria workers across 23 workplaces nationwide have voted to unionize, securing not only higher wages, but retirement benefits, improved health plans, and more.

Rallying Against Misclassification

IUPAT, GLAHR, and others rally in support of misclassified workers at Specialty Finishes Inc, construction site on Emory University Campus.

August 17th, 2022 – On Wednesday morning, members of the International Painters Union (IUPAT) DC 77 gathered at the construction site of a new development project at Emory University. IUPAT was joined by Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council, Atlanta DSA, and other community members and organizations to protest the misclassification of workers by the project’s contractor, Speciality Finishes, Inc – one of the largest painting contractors in the Metro-Atlanta area.

Building a Socialist Labor Movement

The 2022 Labor Notes conference was attended by over 4,000 labor organizers & union members.

The 2022 Labor Notes Conference, a gathering of “troublemakers” and labor activists from across the United States and beyond, took place in Chicago during a mild mid-June weekend. Attendance was a jam-packed whirlwind of panels, workshops, training sessions, and socials. Over 4,000 organizers and activists commingled – including educators, baristas, newsroom workers, Amazon warehouse organizers, and Teamsters.

Labor Notes marked an unforgettable four days of learning, connecting, and building solidarity between wildly diverse groups, and the lessons I learned from comrades across the country will stick with me for years to come.

Fighting Their Court From Below

Try to gain some insight into the size of the court organism and how, to some extent, it remains in a state of suspension, and that even if you alter something in one place you’ll draw the ground out from under your feet and might fall—whereas if an enormous organism like the court is disrupted in any one place, it finds it easy to provide a substitute for itself somewhere else.
Franz Kafka, The Trial

At the Monday August 1st, Atlanta City Council meeting, Atlanta DSA members joined reproductive justice organizations to defend the right to abortion and the creation of a city abortion fund.

The Supreme Court’s last term ended with a batch of extreme right-wing opinions. The Roberts Court has lurched sharply to the right, but the Supreme Court’s fidelity to conservative elites is nothing new. Of all the counter-majoritarian mechanisms in our constitutional system (Senate, Electoral College, etc.), none has protected the minority of the opulent as reliably as the Supreme Court has. The only way to protect our rights is through mass mobilization outside of the legal system.

No Contracts, No Coffee!

Howell Mill Starbucks employees strike against unfair working conditions.

July 17, 2022 – Barely one month after winning their union election, Starbucks workers at Howell Mill are still fighting to have their voices heard by corporate. Early Sunday morning, partners went on strike against management’s refusal to respond to bargaining requests, retaliation in the form of cut hours, and unfair working conditions.

It’s Prime Day for a Walkout!

Amazon warehouse workers in Dunwoody, GA walked off the job on Prime Day.

July 13th, 2022 – As the clock struck 7:00 AM early Wednesday morning, 15 Amazon warehouse workers walked out of the DTG5 Amazon fulfillment center in Doraville, Georgia just halfway through their Prime Day shift. Workers exited the facility in protest of management disregarding a petition signed by 60 warehouse employees demanding a $3 wage increase, more paid time off (PTO), and extended break time.

As workers gathered in the parking lot, they were met by excited supporters from Atlanta DSA, Unite Here, and Atlanta Starbucks Workers United—who recently won their own union victories at the Ansley Mall and Howell Mill Starbucks locations. Music blared as workers chanted and made signs calling for fair pay and dignity at work, while supporters set up breakfast and coffee on a folding table out front of the building.

Juneteenth And the Capitalist Origins of Slavery

Yesterday was Juneteenth, a day that is properly celebrated as the true day of liberation for black peoples in North America from the scourge of chattel slavery. Originating in Galveston, Texas, on June 19th, 1865, the holiday commemorates the emancipation of black peoples held in bondage across Texas, years after the Emancipation Proclamation was actually ordered. Though chattel slavery would persist in two union states for several more months, the people of Texas were liberated from those slave owners who sought to preserve their property and profits—taking advantage of their remote location to withhold information from enslaved people about their legal emancipation. Along with this day comes the tried and true profiles of the Black Wall Street massacre, Maroon rebellion in the Caribbean, white supremacy’s permanence, and Nat Turner—as he and his comrades barnstormed from one plantation to another, liberating those in bondage with a bloody vengeance. That sense of vengeance has given new fire and breath to certain corners of the black population, and I’d beg to state that that sense of racial vengeance—being reminded of the cruelties and inequities overcome by our forebears—is the dominant way in which we as a nation consume and internalize this newly official national holiday. From this comes flarings of cultural nationalism and entreaties to buy black to support black businesses, regardless of whether that business empowers their workers or even provides a living wage.

Banning Abortion is Class Warfare

Atlantans rally for abortion rights outside the Georgia State capital.

Tuesday May 3rd, one thousand working-class Atlantans took to the streets in defense of abortion rights. Below is a transcript of a speech from an Atlanta DSA organizer outside the Georgia State Capitol building. To stay up-to-date on DSA’s protest mobilization efforts, follow us on social media at @atldemsoc and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Become a member and organize with us at atldsa.org/join.

The Training of a Long-Distance Runner

I am taking on the challenge David Duhalde laid out in the Spring 2021 issue of the Democratic Left “Socialists Across Generations: We Need to Talk.” Duhalde contended that a vibrant DSA needed discussions and exchanges between younger and older comrades. In such a dialogue, newer members would learn from veteran comrades what it takes to be long-distance runners and older comrades could learn about new styles of organizing from younger activists.