 To listen to this in French, Frances, we have interpretation and portugueses, también. Thank you. Looks like we're about ready to start. I shall remove my mask now. I say union, you say power. I say union, you say. Union, tell me what democracy looks like. Tell me what democracy looks like. Tell me what democracy looks like. Tell me what democracy looks like. So you know you're at labor notes because it looks like democracy up in here. Yeah. Oh my goodness. From day one, there's been like a diversity of people here. It looks like the UN or something up in here. And I know you're all tribal makers. Any tribal makers in the house? I'm going to ask our interpreters to please come to the stage for a short announcement. And while they're doing that, let me tell you this. My name is Elise Bryant. My pronouns are she, her. I come from the land of the Apatik people, indigenous people, and the place that the Europeans call Maryland. I am a union woman, just as strong as I can be. I do not like the bosses, and the bosses don't like me. Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Tell me which side are you on? Which side are you on? Okay, okay, y'all, okay. I don't care if the Glee Club teach you not to sing. I don't care if the nuns told you to stand in the back of the room and just move your lips. I don't care if the rabbi threw up both hands when, I don't care if your children ran screaming from the nursery. No mommy, no daddy, don't sing again. Please don't sing again. As the brothers in the workshop, I don't care if you start singing. The shower water stops. This is not about whether you can carry a tune in a bucket. This is about calm union. Calm is a Latin word for with, union is a Latin word for one. Okay, got it. Here we go. Buenos dias. Asalaamu alaikum. Howdy. Are my interpreters coming to the stage now? Okay, come on, Gabriel. Good morning. Buenos dias. Si les gustaría escuchar esta presentación en español y no vamos a cantar como ella, para nada. What I said is that we would not be able to sing like you. And you do not want to hear me singing. Buenos dias otra vez. Allá atrás tenemos equipo de español. Si les gustaría escuchar en español, también tenemos francés y portugués. Si les gustaría escuchar en uno de esos idiomas, if you would like to listen this presentation in one of those languages, we are here and thank you and enjoy this wonderful day. Bye. Disfruten este día. Siblings, sisters, brothers, comrades, which comes from the French word meaning roommate family. I bring you greetings on behalf of the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Coalition of Labor Union Women, which I am the president of. It is an honor and a pleasure to be back here with my Labor Notes family. I am from Detroit, Michigan. I was there when it started Labor Notes. I want to thank my Labor Notes family for keeping this going and building it up and all of you being here. Thank you. Freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave. Y'all know this song. And before I'd be a slave. I'll be buried in my grave and go home. I want to thank the African ancestors, the ones who stepped off the ship, kissed the ground and willed me to be here, who brought us all together in this room because all life began in Africa. This month, this week, this day, we honor Juneteenth. And Juneteenth, as we know, first of all, tell me if you say this, if you agree with this, race is a political construct. Use to divide the working class. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves not because he believed in anti-slavery because he was making a political move to undermine the Southern strategy and the Confederate nation. Okay? So Juneteenth is a national holiday that Biden put in but had been celebrated for decades and it started in Galveston, Texas. Why Galveston, Texas? Because it was an island off the coast of Texas. I learned this at Labor Notes the other day. Okay, y'all? I didn't know this until Reverend D.L. Sutter in our workshop and told us, because he was from Galveston, Texas, that they got the information so late after Abraham Lincoln had announced the Emancipation Proclamation. So we celebrate Juneteenth in honor of all the ancestors who are represented in this room for all of us who are here to make a difference and to say that freedom is for everybody, not just for a few. I want to give... Thank you. I'm sending our love and light to my brother, Steven Pitts, who is supposed to be here in this place where I'm standing, but could not be here because of COVID-19 and for everybody here and all extended family, we're sending light and love and healing in this time of the pandemic. Harassment, I know you all agree that harassment of any kind is completely unwelcome among union siblings, whether union or not. If you're having any problems during this conference, see page two of our Bible, the handout you all have here. All right, page two, where it says respect, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me, or speak to any of the conference staff. Please raise your hand if you're a conference staff when you're in the room, or stand up so people can see you. So if you have any problem, please contact the conference staff. Thank you very much. And they're the ones with the yellow badges. Mass, you also want to keep everyone safe from COVID and Jane had to remind me to take off my mask before I came to this microphone because I'm into the mask thing, y'all. I don't want to give anybody anything. I don't want to take anything from anybody else except love, spirit, and solidarity forever. Please wear your mask at all times except when you're actively positioning in a workshop or eating. We have extra masks, y'all know that, at the desk all over the place. If you need one, if you start to feel sick, stay in your room and take a COVID test. See page three? In the program for more instructions. The hotel staff, whichever hotel you are staying in at, unite here. Are you in the house? Unite here? Yeah. So that's that you ask the daily housekeeping staff to clean your room because they're trying to cut down, right? They're trying to cut back. They don't really give a damn about COVID. They just trying to pay less money. Oh, you don't want any housekeeping check? You don't get any work today. You don't get paid. That's the minimum, okay? $5 million is not the maximum. A day! Or more! That's just the minimum, not the maximum. That's because the hotel companies get away with eliminating daily room cleaning. It can eliminate 39% of the housekeeping jobs. It also places a tremendous burden on the workers cleaning the rooms who are overwhelmingly women of color. I know because I was made in a hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They've already made their request. I'm going to slow down just a bit because they've asked us. They got the hardest job this weekend, our interpreters, who are simultaneously translating what the speakers say in Spanish, French, and Portuguese because this is what democracy looks like. Please give your attention to one of them. Right down front here we have Barbara. Barbara, you want to stand up, please? This is really more for our folks on stage. This is our timekeeper. Gabrielle Rivera is our interpreter head. Dinner tickets are on your badge for tonight's dinner over here in the corner. That's a symbol that you have bought your tickets. It is sold out. You can't get any more. But dinner starts at 7.30. If you can't get to dinner and you don't have a ticket, at 8 o'clock we're going to have a concert of labor music. So if you can come to the concert, go have dinner with what you're doing and come on back for the concert. If you have a B on your badge, that is the ticket into the dinner. If you think you have a dinner ticket and there's no symbol on your badge, go to the registration table and they'll figure it out. There's some smart people over there at the registration table. If you're not coming to dinner, check out the Great Labor Arts Exchange concert. Speaking of which, International Ballroom A. Y'all know where that is? One more level down. Come off the escalators, turn right, turn left, go through the double doors. The first left is International Ballroom A. We're going to announce right now the winners of the Great Labor Arts Exchange Song Contest. They are Jacob Chaffin, Anita Mathias, Julia Wallace, Pam White. Want to miss this one, folks? We don't have nothing but fun. And speaking of fun, let me bring on our first performer, guest this morning to kick this off. Lynn Marie Smith. Detroit's very own Motown Diva. The interjecting, effervescent Lynn Marie Smith, affectionately known as the Motown Diva, is a native Detroiter and board-charting record artist. She was a lead organizer for Unite Here and for the Teachers Union. Notching, yes, Michigan Teachers Union. She's notching victories for casino workers and for adjunct faculty members. Her recording, Lynn Marie, the part-time worker received rave reviews and allowed her to travel the country as labor's cheerleader for change, pom-pom person for progress and interpretation of Tina Turner. Please welcome Lynn Marie Smith. Thank you. Good morning. So I have some instruction for you. I need your help. So when I say we're Union Hallelujah, you'll say woo. So let's try it. We're Union Hallelujah. And when I say we're too hot, you say hot damn. We're too hot. I love it. My straw. Can you turn it up, please? Do. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Thank you. Jamoni. Okay. Lynn Marie Smith. Lynn Marie Smith, Motown Diva. I met Lynn Marie Smith at the Great Labor Arts Exchange. And I got to the Great Labor Arts Exchange because Jane Slaughter invited me to come to Labor Notes. And that's where I met Saul Shiman. He came together. Labor Notes and the Great Labor Arts Exchange. Thank you, Lynn Marie. Thank you very much. Alrighty. Next up, let me put my spectacles on. I know, get ready. Another treat, y'all. You warmed up? We're going to turn up the heat a little bit. Victor the Mixer Boozy. Well, uh-huh. Vic Boozy works in a sound production in LA. He's a member of the International Alliance for the Natural Stage Employees known as IA or IS IOTC. Like our sister Marsha over here, Vic has been active on both the labor and community sides of the fight for racial and economic justice. Fighting for a better contract during last year's battle with the Hollywood Studios and being active in the Democratic Socialists of America chapter in Long Beach. And he told me this morning that he came here to Labor Notes this is his first time and didn't realize what a history lesson he was going to get. That is being an active in the community. He didn't know our roots because who's teaching it out there? They are teaching it, but you just don't get to hear it. I want to thank our labor educators out there who are teaching labor history because a tree that's cut off from its roots will die. Please, Wector, welcome Victor the Mixer Boozy. What's up, y'all? How's everybody doing out there? Y'all know how this goes. Black lives, they matter here. Black lives, they matter here. Black lives, they matter here. This is the point from which I could never return. If I back down now, then forever I burn. This is the point from which I could never retreat. Because if I back down now, there could never be peace. This is the point from which I die and succeed. Living the struggle, I know I'm alive when I believe. From now on, it could never be the same anymore because the place I'm from doesn't exist anymore. That's the hook. AKA the chorus from a 2003 song called The Point of No Return by Immortal Technique, an underground rapper from New York City. Alright, we'll get back to that. So, back in like 2014, I was living my life, enjoying my life. I was working in Hollywood following my career as a production sound mixer. I found myself on set in a place where I didn't see a lot of other black people. So, I was living my life making good money. Other mixers told me by being in a union could afford me to make even more money. So, I did that. I got into the union. I started making even more money. And everything was going great. Everything was fine, living my life. I had a lot of conflicts and challenges. But Bernard Sanders ran for president in 2016. I said Bernard Sanders ran for president in 2016. Come on! Alright? The reason that's so important to me because that activated me, Bernie spoke in language that connected the dots of why society's not being addressed. I knew growing up shit was fucked up in this country. I knew it. We all knew it internally, but I didn't have the link to understand why and I couldn't tell other people why shit was fucked up. I was a hope and change democrat. So, after the 2016 campaign Bernie inspired me. I was holding phone banks in my apartment. I was canvassing in my neighborhood for Bernie Sanders. And doing that, like literally doing the work changed me. It made me a different person. I was able to articulate things to regular quote-unquote normies and people in my community in ways I couldn't do before. Right? So Bernie happened, 2016 happened. Bernie ran again. Of course, I again got activated, right? So in between 2016 and 2020, I had to do something to keep up my political education to do something with this energy. So I joined a democratic socialist of America Long Beach. I, I, I and at DSA I was able to get that political education. The history about the labor movement and what that really meant and how to bring the theory into reality praxis. And again, doing the actual work changed me. Right? Okay. So now, I'm in DSA, 2020 happens again. Bernie, so even this time again, I do more volunteering, more phone banking and this time the campaign notices and you know, they're calling me like a campaign captain and checking in on me and I feel part of that organization. 2020 COVID hits. Everything gets shut down in my industry. I was working on a movie and that got shut down and all of a sudden we were all alienated as a country. My industry especially we, we are known to be recession proof. We make good money. We choose to when we want to work as freelancers. All of a sudden all that was gone. So when I'm not working, I like to socialize. I couldn't socialize. None of us could socialize. Right? So the alienation was even higher. You can't go to where you wanted to go. You can't go see your friends. You can't work. You can't make money. We're all stuck watching screens. Indoors watching screens. Watching screens. Watching screens. And then we see the murder of George Floyd on those screens. Again, that changed me. Like that murder changed me. It changed a lot of us in here. And we saw it. We all saw it in the streets of our planet. People were marching for black lives. There was a racial reckoning happening in this country that none of us have seen in our lifetimes. Point blank period. We've never seen anything like that. So my union puts out a statement about George Floyd. My local does, right? And then they start to get a little pushback from members like why is, why is this local talking about black lives? And they're not part of what this local does. So the leaders in my local reached out to the loud socialists in the room and they were like we need to do something. We don't want we don't like the pushback but we don't know what to do. My union is 80% white male. So they literally had no idea how to handle it. So they reached out to their black members and they asked them we held a couple town halls to express ourselves to be like these are the problems that we're dealing with. And to put on those town halls I had to organize. I had to reach out to other black sound mixers and come to realize after me too there were the sound sisters who were organizing within my union and I had no idea. So it's like these points of crisis that keeps happening in this country is an opportunity for us in the union to step up like the world was changing around me and step by step by me being in a union and gaining new skills new relationships I was able to put on the town hall for my union express to the leaders in my union that I have value the loud socialists in the room who was screaming about Bernie Sanders in 2016 who was telling y'all about the teachers union and what they're doing and we need to be that active finally these people were listening to me right and it was around the issues of racial justice so be it cool so now we come to 2021 this strike authorization vote my union IOTC is in negotiations with ampta which is the producers the face of the producers versus us the workers right during that in 2021 we had a meeting and in my union meetings is usually like 30 40 people in this meeting in 2021 they were 500 members so COVID lockdown now we're at union negotiations again the mixers the people in my union were changed they were pissed off they didn't know what to do but they were in a union and saw the union as a way to express themselves politically that had never happened before so like that's my story from Bernie to DSA to organizing around racial justice in my union to now contract negotiations within my union and again I was the person writing the scripts writing the phone banking scripts and telling them I told y'all I told y'all this is what we need to do to be active to push back and now they seem to get it so I conclude this is the point of no return right the liberation of black folks this is the point of no return like climate change this is the point of no return to work the liberation of black people comes through organized workers to push back against the system and that's just the way it goes alright so y'all I'm not looking but I'm looking for a revolution a revolution that's going to change a revolution that's going to be led by workers alright so last time black lives they matter thank you thank you very much Vic I say teachers you say power I say teachers you say teachers teachers teachers next guest Marsha Howard knows something about teachers power yes Marsha teaches English to high school students in Minneapolis and is the newly elected vice president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers she took a leave of absence in 2020 to help lead the occupation of George Floyd Square ah yes yes she did and turning that intersection where he was killed into a memorial and a protest site she's back to teaching now but still maintains a fire in the square every single day Marsha was part of the three-week winning strike by teachers and paraprofessionals in this march which she saw as the continuation of the fight for black lives matter please welcome Marsha Howard teachers power who's got the power we got the power who's got the power who's got the power y'all listen not on drove overnight to get here overnight to get here straight from George Floyd Square in Minneapolis Minnesota y'all are hard act to follow how did I get here on May 25th 2020 Minneapolis police lynched a black man 263 steps from my front door I'm five houses in and it was filmed by my former student Darnella Frazier hold up having a student film the lynching of George Floyd steps from my home shifted something in me that memorial day altered the course of my life altered the course of this nation and hopefully it will alter the course of this world and this is why that week I got on snapchat and I said to my kids y'all got credit we done here go seek justice and I stayed at 38th and Chicago ever since 38th and Chicago is not just the site of death it's not just a memorial it is an active site of protest against anti-blackness against systemic racism against the heteronormative patriarchy capitalism all of it all the isms because black liberation is for the liberation of everybody black liberation is for the liberation of everybody my name is Marcia Howard I've been a member of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers for the last 23 years I have been a proud union member for the last 23 years but I'm going to tell y'all something what happened at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota set off a spark that lit a fire that has shone throughout the world that got us to where we are as a union in Minneapolis some people might argue with me if we had March for Philando or Jamar or George I'm not sure we would have had the Hutzpah to go on that strike but we did go on a historic strike because we understood the power of collective action we stood in it we stood in that power and I'm going to tell you real good I've been a teacher for a while I've been a teacher in the Midwest for a while and the powers that be sees our racialized and gendered occupation and thought that we wouldn't have what it takes to get out on that line and they were wrong because we were already in practice we had already been out on them streets we had been out walking the highways we had been out on University Avenue and Lake Street we had already had the practice so when we were standing for our profession, when we were standing for our colleagues, when we were standing for our communities, when we were standing for those kids, when we were standing for our polling they couldn't make us sit down they tried to but they couldn't they could not make us sit down yeah teacher stand up when education is under attack what do we do when education is under attack what do we do what do we do what do we do you better believe that shit we stand it up and we fighting back and don't get it twisted this is a labor union a labor union a labor union it is not a protest it is not a demonstration y'all better use the power to strike you better be willing to stand you better be willing to stand on that line hold the line y'all need to because if you don't hold that if it's not a recent look listen we understand the power of collective action we understand it but we need to stand in it and let me tell you we can stand in it but if your movement don't got a wheelchair ramp I don't want no part of it if your movement if your action don't have an interpreter you want no part of it it needs to be accessible it needs to be because black liberation is for the liberation of everybody they say no war but class war y'all better start digging in deep and figuring out who's sitting beside you are you going here are you going here the front of the house and the back of the house because y'all know what the front and the back be looking like when we go on strike or when we do negotiations for a union in education we had to think about what at the front of the house and the back of the house look like what did the teacher chapters look like what did our ESPs look like eh that's some hard conversations especially in the midwest and especially for the middle class y'all don't want to talk about the fact that as much as teachers complain about our pay as much as we complain about our pay there's a reason why they pay our helpers our associated staff the pay that they got it's relative deprivation and relative wealth they pay them so low to make us feel good about the pay that we got and if that don't sit right with you you need to stand up if it don't sit right stand up if it don't sit right stand up y'all front of the house, back of the house y'all need to be careful with that Tony Morrison said I don't need nobody on their knees for me to feel tall we don't need anybody on their knees for us to feel tall so when you're thinking about fair wages, when you're thinking about equity, when you're thinking about the ways in which y'all negotiate look to your left, look to your right look in the front of the house and the back of the house and make sure that everybody's represented in all the class war but if I'm still a nigger, we got problems we got problems listen I sit every single day at 38th and Chicago at two years and I think 16 days we are the longest running political occupations zone in the United States history I say no justice you say no streets no justice no justice no justice and we mean that shit we mean it we will not cede unless the 24 demands of justice resolution 001 are met but listen what we've learned from them two years dealing with the mayor the county, the government the governor and the justice department of the United States of America we have to negotiate with all of them so dealing with Minneapolis public schools should have been a cakewalk but I had to get on a truck every day when we were doing our rallies and inoculate folk and tell them hey we might win because they got the money but they gonna kick going down let me talk to ya I'm a country girl you can bop a animal on the head they gonna kick going down so again if you doing movement if you doing negotiations if you doing actions just so you know they real good right now with retaliation you better be prepared for that you need to be prepared for that retaliation is a whole thing and I need you to factor that in not to make you shy away you need to strategize you need to make sure that you harden your skin a little bit and understand the ways in which they gonna try to come around they ain't gonna win not eventually cause we the workers saying who got the power who got the power who got the power alright we got the power but you need to stand in it because what they wait is for you to get comfortable again and you forget and you start whispering about your raise and not talking to each other alright they gonna wait and you get good and comfortable again and they're going to do that clawback thing that they do now many apples public schools you may have heard we had our school year extended they kick going down yeah we did school day extended as well they kicked going down they messed up with that cause I love the kids I love the kids but we understood what was happening I need y'all to know the correlation between this fight for black lives and our fight for our kids in public school it's the same fight it's the same fight thank y'all very much they want us to be on European time so it's time to go to our workshops I'm gonna ask you to go directly there so we can stay on schedule but before we go I want you to stand up and take the hand of the person next to you or take an elbow if you're not comfortable taking their hand okay alright they divide us by our color they divide us by our tongue they divide us men and women they divide us old and young but they'll tremble at our voices when they hear these verses sung that the union is the backbone of democracy solidarity for solidarity for solidarity for thank you