Tag Archives: unions

What If Trump Makes Sense?

October 3, 2026

chauvinism, civil rights, democracy, elections, politics, strategy

Progressives as well as everyday “neutral” reporters can’t make sense out of what Donald Trump says and does. They write it off as stupidity or chronic character deformation. I wish it were true.

A good example came when Trump had his entire Dallas audience pledge to “cheat like hell” in the election. His polling numbers were already in a deep dive and dropped further.

The pundits, and even the progressives, can’t reconcile his statements and behavior with any intention to win the coming election. Even some of the Republicans, including Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, have said that Trump is dragging them backward.

What If Trump Were Making Sense?

When someone throws away their chance of winning an election, and if you assume they are rational, what conclusion would you draw? It has to be obvious: the Trumpsters aren’t prioritizing getting the most votes on November 3! They must have something else in mind to keep and increase their power.

Look at other news. Last week, Trump’s clone who runs the military announced further firings of top generals and admirals. They have been removing military leaders and replacing them with loyalists all through this administration.

Also, the most loyal of the domestic coercive forces – specifically ICE – are getting gross amounts of funding at the expense of programs for the general population, especially children.

Lastly, the administration has pushed every possible form of chauvinistic division onto us. Racism is at its core, but it includes transphobia, islamophobia, homophobia, fanatic religious discrimination and anything else that might serve to disunite us.

The Trumpsters intend to get what they want from us by force. What other conclusion can you draw?

Their Scenario

If you assume that the Trumpsters are acting rationally, and you cannot afford to assume otherwise, then they must be intending to maintain and extend their power by force. In the international arena, they have fully exposed their plan. They intend the same in domestic policy.

Certainly they will participate in the November 3 elections. But to establish credibility for what they do afterward. When they lose, they will claim “fraud,” as they have before, and then use extralegal methods to overthrow the elections, just as they did in 2020. Only this time, they intend to use their control over all the coercive forces that they can command.

What Do You Do About It?

Ultimately, the American people hold the power. If we are informed and organized, no one can force us into slavery. Informing and organizing, then, are the key. But only action will make a difference.

We need the biggest possible mobilization at the polls. If critical elections are close, then the cry of “fraud” may make more sense to some. Landslide elections are harder to contest. But if the Trumpsters use force, then November 4 and afterward will be more important than November 3.

Join the organizations capable of mobilizing. Progressive political organizations and the union movement are priorities. Civil rights and civil liberties organizations will also be important. Those who tell us to rely completely on the legal system are incorrect. We are going to need the full power of mass mobilization in strikes and boycotts to win.

The organizations that can win are seeking new members. Strikes and boycotts are already underway. Don’t wait.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM every Saturday at 9AM Central Time. I post all around the internet and have a personal site at https://lilleskole.us

High Noon in Dallas

July 29, 2026

civil rights, democracy, elections, history, politics, strategy, unions

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I’ve always liked the movie “High Noon” from 1954. It seems like a pretty good analogy for Dallas on September 9-10, 2026. In both cases, a very bad guy has announced that he’s coming to town to do his bad business. The local people scurry around to protect themselves.

At first Mr Trump announced that they were holding the Republican Party’s first ever “Mid-Term Convention.” But later they admitted that there won’t be any convention, it’s just a fund raiser and a Trump extravaganza. In fact, most news reports include the idea that they are only doing it because Ken Paxton is losing his race for Texas Senate. They need something to buoy the boy.

Apparently, their big plans for fund raising were a little too big. A week or so after the announcement, they cut the price for a Trumpster ticket by 50%. In the electoral arena, nothing is going very well for the Trumpsters.

The movie was supposed to be a typical cowboy shoot-em-up, but things went wrong and they turned out one of the greatest movies of all time. The screenwriter had been blacklisted, so arch anti-communist John Wayne did all he could to destroy ticket sales. In fact, the real-life story of the production and eventual success of the movie is very parallel to the story in the movie: Values of courage and communal spirit are pitted against pure evil. In the movie, the local law enforcement personifies every cowboy hero in every cowboy story ever told.

As soon as the Marshall finds out that Mr Evil and his gang are coming, the Marshall’s bride-to-be tells him to run. In fact, she says she will leave him if he doesn’t. No pressure.

His loyal deputy, a total opportunist, tries to make a deal before agreeing to help, then he defaults completely. The old judge would like to help, he says, but his hands are too shaky nowadays. The Marshall’s old sweetheart, once the consort of Mr Pure Evil and more lately the deputy’s squeeze, is packing her bags to run. Katy Jurado was magnificent in this role.

As a teenager, I was proud to copy and sing the Frankie Lane popular version of the Title Song, but the Tex Ritter version on the original sound track, while not very accessible, was far better.

Now, I hear that tune when I think about the Trumpsters coming to Dallas.

“Oh to be torn twixt love and duty,

S’posing I lose my fair hair beauty?

Look at that big hand move!

Nearin’ High Noon…”

The townspeople here aren’t scurrying around in fear the way they did in the movie. We’re organizing.

ELECTION OPTIONS FOR PROGRESSIVES

July 19, 2026

democracy, elections, politics, strategy

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As the election “season” begins, activists are weighing several options:

Ignore the elections
Outreach independently
Outreach for a candidate or the Democrats
Outreach along with progressive organizations
Outreach with the labor movement

The best tactic will be the one that correctly understands the situation and anticipates what will happen.

The situation is that the Republican hold over their previous voters is slipping. Democrats are gaining slightly in the polls, but there is no clear shift in power from one party to the other. Republicans are doing everything legally possible to undermine and rig the elections. The Democratic Party’s response is to complain, but their basic strategy is the same as any other election – to get as many votes as possible.

It should be obvious to all that the Trumpsters running the Republican Party will desperately cling to power no matter what it takes, legal or extralegal. We already know that they resorted to extralegal measures in 2020, and they will of certainty do so again if they lose in 2026 – only with a lot more firepower. It is entirely possible that they will even try to cancel the elections. Certainly, they will not hesitate at overthrowing them.

THERE ARE REALLY TWO GREAT CHALLENGES

The first challenge is to beat the Trumpsters decisively on November 3. The second major challenge is to overcome the Trumpster effort to overthrow the electoral process beginning November 4.

The easy way to win on November 3 is to work hard for the Democrats. But they will be incapable of leadership during the assault on democracy beginning November 4^th.

WHICH OPTION IS BEST?

The first option listed above is ridiculous. The second one is best because it advances the possibility of winning both on November 3 AND November 4. But independent outreach work brings a risk of being isolated and could even endanger participants. It would require substantial participation.

The third option listed above works for November 3, but not for November 4. The 4^th option works for both, but its effectiveness on November 4^th depends on the strength of the organization supported.

The 5^th and final option listed above is effective for November 3 and November 4. Unions are the strongest part of the working class and will be the backbone of the fight that begins November 4. It is also the safest choice.

In summary, if the progressive movement has the substance to carry out an independent outreach program, that would be best. If not, working with labor is best.

What We’re Talking About

May 23, 2026

civil rights, democracy, economy, elections, politics, strategy, unions

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We’re on KNON radio every Saturday at 9AM central time. They keep the recordings on KNON.org for 2 weeks, so you can still listen to “Gene Lantz” or “Workers Beat.” They put my weekly podcasts on Soundcloud under “Workers Beat Extra.”

On May 23, the first caller spoke about the odd proposal to tear down our Dallas City Hall. Apparently, Mrs Adelson, the big Trump sponsor, wants to build an arena there for her Dallas Mavericks basketball team. The caller said the only problem was a leak in the basement, and that they need to get a better plumber. Bonnie, my Co-Host, said they need a union plumber.

I had a newspaper article on the topic: “A group of businessmen and architects propose 47 acres of city-owned land for the Mavericks. Their opposition wants to tear down City Hall and says the building is ‘unpopular.’ ” Dallas Morning News

During the next lull, I got to talk about something I’ve been wanting to say for weeks: the reason that Trump wants lower interest rates even as inflation rises. Normally, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates as monetary policy to fight inflation, but Trump wants the reverse — lower interest rates despite inflation.

Fiscal policy — government expenditures — are also fanning the fires of inflation. During the past week, I had accumulated several examples:

“Trump wants $1.2T to put weapons in space. $1.5T for miliary budget. $350B for present war.” New York Times

White House Approves $9 Billion for Spy Agencies to Catch Up on A.I.

NYT

$1.7 billion contract awarded “for border wall in Big Bend” amid public confusion over construction plans. TX Tribune

“Trump is setting up a $1.8B “weaponization fund.” “The massive fund would give Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump a mechanism to seek taxpayer payouts for their claims of government overreach.” NBC News

Justice Department gifts Trump with slush fund Salon

“Trump Officials Decline to Rule Out DOJ Payouts to Jan. 6 Rioters Who Assaulted Police.” Time

“There has never been an example of presidential corruption like this.” NYT editors

“Never in 250 years has America witnessed a sitting president shield himself and his family from tax scrutiny, after leveraging policies that benefit his own businesses and personal portfolios, as Donald J. Trump has done… In doing so, he has set a precedent — once so unfathomable as to be laughable — that it’s OK for presidents and family members to make billions off deals affected by government decisions, then use the Justice Department to secure lifetime protection from scrutiny of their past tax returns.” AXIOS

After a couple more callers, I was finally able to give my take on why Trump keeps driving up inflation and demands lower interest rates: he wants to continue “borrowing” taxpayer money and driving up national debt in order to fund his plans for military and internal coercive forces, especially ICE. In other words, he doesn’t care about his sagging popularity. He intends to take what he wants, internationally and domestically, BY FORCE!

Dallas political analyist Carolyn King Arnold called, as she often does, to urge everybody to vote. She said that voting is “the only way” that people can change anything. After she finished, I disagreed.

Voting is important, but hardly the “only way.” People need to organize. Bonnie and I agreed that the best organizations are those closest to the union movement. Unions are the largest and best organized part of the progressive movement. I also recommended NAACP as a good organization to join.

Another caller reviewed his own article in PeoplesWorld.org. It was about an important voters’ event held last week in Friendship West megachurch. They set a goal of 75% turnout for Black voters. And they will do the work! He recommended working with Dr Frederick Haynes. I do, too.

With the subject of voting on hand, Bonnie and I could hardly resist talking about Trump’s seemingly insane endorsement of Ken Paxton to head the Republican ticket in Texas as the nominee for U.S. Senate. The caller who brought it up said that Republican voters “must be crazy.” I disagreed again.

I had two reasons. Firstly, even though Trump’s endorsement is winning Republican primaries all over the country, I don’t think that all rank-and-file Republican voters are nuts enough to elect Paxton on our May 26 runoff election day. There was a letter-to-editor in the Dallas newspaper demonstrating my point:

This article was also in today’s paper: “After Trump endorsed Paxton, Republican turnout in early voting dropped.” DMN //it proves that Republicans are not necessarily crazy//

And from last week, “Paxton and Cornyn race gets uglier and uglier.” DMN

My second argument goes beyond whether or not Trump is crazy or otherwise incompetent. I think that the billionaires behind Trump have a plan that largely disregards the question of winning elections. I think they intend to try to overthrow any election they don’t win, and Ken Paxton, famous for oceans of frivolous lawsuits, is just the kind of lawyer they need to help overthrow elections. His opponent, John Cornyn, may still believe in the Constitution.

My friend Arash called to talk about a mural unveiling for ICE victims and other civil rights issues. I wished we had more time to talk about civil rights and the current and next Trump wars, but it’s just a talk show and it’s just an hour. I was loaded up with recent articles on those subjects.

Civil Rights Being Decimated

“Thousands rallied in Montgomery for voting rights. ” Ap in dmn

“NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs over voting rights” Courier Texas

“Texas is the death penalty capital and Tarrant is the capital of that. 92% of death penalty cases are against people of color. ” Jane.harper@dallasnews.com

“Texas executed a man with a tested IQ of 70. ” Jamie.landers@dallasnews.com

“Justice Dept. Accuses U.C.L.A. Medical School of Bias Against White and Asian Applicants.” nyt

“Trump’s border wall is desecrating Native American site.” Ap in dmn

Trump’s Wars Worsen

New York Times ran a poll asking how many people support Trump’s war in Iran. 30% do, but it’s 70% for Republicans and 5% for Democrats.

“Israelis bomb Lebanon during truce.” NYT

Trump says “It looks like I’ll be the one that does it,” about invading Cuba. AP in dmn

And Everything Else

I had dozens of articles and opinions about this perilous economy and, especially, about artificial intelligence. But we get only an hour.

–Gene Lantz

We’re on KNON.org every Saturday at 9AM and they keep the recordings on for 2 weeks afterward. My podcasts are under “Workers Beat Extra” on Soundcloud and my personal web site is http://lilleskole.us.

Just Look At What We Have Done!

May 18, 2026

civil rights, democracy, economy, elections, history, politics, strategy, unions

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If everything looks bad, it’s only because our enemies are flooding the world with lies. In truth, they are cornered rats. I’m not saying that cornered rats are not dangerous, but they can be stomped!

Take a look at what we have already accomplished in 2026:

Crowds at No Kings events have surpassed all previous American protests!

Our labor movement broke 70 years of precedent by condemning Trump’s wars

Our labor movement broke even longer precedent by promoting May 1, International Workers Day

The Alliance for Retired Americans, which has never gone beyond immediate retiree issues, unanimously passed a hot resolution against the war in Iran. It’s a very long and detailed resolution. You can read it on http://retiredamericans.org. Here’s just one paragraph:

”Whereas the price of oil has already risen dramatically and will lead to sharp increases in the prices of many products that are daily necessities for American families, and the cost of this war will fall squarely on the working people of our country, and on our military service members who are being asked to wage a war and sacrifice their well-being, perhaps their lives, with no clear reason or end plan.”

Let me mention a few other items from today’s news:

Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and 28 co-sponsors introduced the Fair Trade for Working Families Resolution, which outlines new principles for international trade that would prioritize the interests of working people over the profits of multinational corporations.… The resolution is endorsed by the United Steelworkers (USW), United Auto Workers (UAW), AFL-CIO, International Association of Machinists (IAM), Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC), Rethink Trade, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, the National Family Farm Coalition, and BlueGreen Alliance.

This seems like a good time to note that critical alliances are being formed in the progressive movement!

Here’s more from today’s news:

NYT asked “Do you think Donald Trumps decision to go to war with Iran was the right decision or the wrong decision?” Democrats said yes by 5%, Republians by 22%. And the general population by 30%.

Thousands rallied in Montgomery for voting rights. Ap in Dallas newspaper. It’s important to show that the fight goes on.

The Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine says he wants to change the system. NYT

Editors who usually choose to endorse candidates on the basis that they are probably going to win have chosen labor-endorsed Colin Allred on CD33, Venton Jones on TX100 and Nathan Johnson for Attorney General. Texas primary runoffs are May 26.

Mexican Government Reaffirms Support for Michelle Bachelet’s UN Secretary-General Candidacy Telesur This one is important because we might get a very progressive Secretary-General, but it also matters considerably that the President of Mexico does not cringe before Trump!

Unions are winning some big victories:

United Airlines Flight Attendants have new contract: The five-year contract includes a 31% base pay rate increase this summer; boarding pay (which averages an 7% to 8% increase to compensation); $741 million in retroactive pay; expanded job security; restrictions on red-eye flying; sit pay for scheduled and rescheduled sits over 2.5 hours; per diem and 401(k) contribution increases; 10 weeks’ paid maternity and two weeks’ paid parental and adoption leaves; elimination of 24 hour on-call reserve and more. Aflcio

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Texas workers at George R. Brown Convention Center and Houston Entertainment Center just won massive 46% raises! TX AFL-CIO

I’m not positive how to evaluate this, but I think it’s big news:

Trump went to China, but came back empty handed. One interpretation of Trump’s war in Iran is that it was caused by the undermining of the “petrodollar” by the BRICS countries. Brazil, Russia, India, China and their 25 or so new partners have been trading for everything, including oil, in their own currencies instead of bowing to the United States and using dollars. If this is the reason for the war, and I think it is, then don’t expect it to be over soon. I’ll go so far as to say that the war in Iran will not really be over before the end of November.

–Gene Lantz. I’m on KNON radio at 9AM every Saturday. They podcast it on knon.org. They podcast my “Workers Beat Extra” podcasts on Soundcloud. I podcast them on Spotify under my own name. If you were curious about what I really think, you might look at https://lilleskole.us.

We Cannot Fail!

January 3, 2026

civil rights, democracy, history, politics, strategy, unions

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As I write this on January 3, 2026, the nations of the world, even moderate nations, are condemning the U.S. invasion and occupation of Venezuela. For American workers, the best news is that the national labor movement, the AFL-CIO itself, has joined the international labor community in condemnation.

The AFL-CIO’s action opens the way for discussions and resolutions in every labor body in America. The obvious demand is to remove all U.S. military forces from Venezuela immediately. Everyone must participate!

What we face in the United States goes much further than the invasion of a sovereign nation. We are facing a government that has committed itself to the use of bullying and brute force in order to achieve its aims. That bullying will not stop in Venezuela, nor will it stop in other invaded nations. It is, and has been for some time, the regular practice of the Trump Administration within the United States.

We can expect violence from them as they try to stop us from exercising our rights as citizens. They will be attacking protesters. They will be, they already are, looking for ways to frame anybody who stands against them.

And yet we will protest. We will demand our rights, including the right to vote unfit people out of office. This is the greatest test of the democracy in our history since the Civil War. We cannot fail.

Wear Solidarity Red on Thursdays

December 26, 2025

history, strategy

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by Gene Lantz

One of the simplest and easiest things that labor leaders could do is to ask people to wear a certain color on a certain day of the week. The fact that they don’t do it and have never done it is the saddest evidence that we aren’t employing the simplest tactic for bringing union members and our allies together into an effective movement.

There are some obstacles, but they are technical and barely worth mentioning. They have to do with “what color” and “what day.” The first question is the easiest to answer because red has been the color of the workers’ movement since 1789.

My UAW local promotes wearing red on Wednesdays.” By giving away free red shirts during contract negotiations, we’ve increased participation. The AFT in Dallas promotes wearing red on the Thursdays when they go to school board meetings. Various unions promote a color and a day during times of great need such as during contract negotiations, but they choose color/date for contrast, not unity, and limit the whole idea to their particular members.

The only union with an effective program is the CWA, which promotes red on Thursdays since one of their members was killed on a picket line some years ago. Because CWA is big and because they have by far the most effective color/day program, I recommend that everybody adopt red on Thursdays, even if their union has another color or wears red on a different day. It’s not that hard to choose a color twice a week, and it doesn’t have to be a shirt.

If labor leaders are just too timid to pick a color and a day, I recommend that they run a short and cheap on-line survey of members. It wouldn’t be binding and wouldn’t even be scientific, but it would be a start and at least a formalistic indication that we intend to build a movement.

All the small stuff aside, the easiest thing would be to make a motion in every labor meeting that we ask all supporters to add wearing something red on Thursdays to their other clothing plans.

Buckle Seat Belts for 2026

December 26, 2025

democracy, economy, history, politics, strategy

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By Gene Lantz

“Expect the worst and hope for the best.” – Accountant’s credo

The Worst

The world economic system will continue to tremble and quake

American manufacturing and the stock market will rise without improving the jobs situation

Artificial intelligence will gobble up jobs and tremendously worsen the jobs crisis that is already underway

Income disparity, juiced up by Trump policies, will drastically worsen

Communications, especially cell phone communications, may end healthy competition and become even more of an oligopoly

In the electoral arena, candidates will be straining to find a “middle” in an increasingly divided electorate

Mister Trump, who has already shown that he will stop at nothing to maintain and extend his power, will likely start a war and implement martial law as his continuing drive toward fascism continues

Unions will refuse to recognize the new situation and continue the exact policies that have so far lost nearly ¾ of our peak density

Millions will not be able to afford decent health care. Emergency rooms will be overrun

The Best

In the electoral arena, candidates will be forced to clarify their intentions during 2026. Where I live in Dallas, labor will pressure all candidates to reveal their stand on Gaza

Unions will be more aggressive in the electoral arena. Where I live, we are working on two union members running in the January 31 special election. Two Steelworkers have filed for statewide races in the coming primaries.

A growing but unguided mass movement against dictatorship has exploded

More and more people are figuring out the dangers and what to do about it

Some unions are discarding old ways and implementing a larger reliance on our magnificent popularity in the general population of workers

Youth and retirees, two sectors recently encouraged by the labor movement, are growing and adding muscle

The Starbucks workers, using a combination of strike and boycott simultaneously, are showing all workers how use labor’s popularity against the bosses. On December 22 alone, 19 Starbucks stores signed up for union elections.

The Indicators

Nearly all of this analysis comes from information gathered during the past week, and especially on Christmas Day when the Washington Post published ten charts describing the current U.S. economic situation.

Gold and silver prices set new records. The usual “gold bug” speculators are buying precious metals of course, but major investors and some governments are also buying them. Precious metals pay no dividends, but they are a haven of safety for those who think a worldwide financial crisis is imminent.

Two major financial indicators, a soaring stock market and an expected increase in manufacturing, are both rooted in investment in artificial intelligence. Investors are buying into it and energy-gobbling data center building way up and projected to be gigantic. At the same time, the labor movement is “cool.” Although Trump’s anti-labor policies explain some of the labor market problems, the main problem now and in the future is job-killing artificial intelligence. The same thing lifting the stock market and manufacturing in America is driving down the jobs market.

The union response, so far, is to try to contain artificial intelligence through union contracts. Even if this were possible, it wouldn’t solve the problem because most workers, more than 90%, have no union contracts. As the bosses without unions implement artificial intelligence to lower their production costs, they will undermine all workers, including those with union contracts.

Income disparity is the illness afflicting all workers worldwide. Among the many alarming reports comes this sentence from the current week by Politico: “Bank of America says its top account holders saw take-home pay climb 4 percent over the last year, while income growth for poorer households grew just 1.4 percent.” Even though inflation held at 3% during the past year and dropped to 2.7% for November, it’s still a lot higher than income growth for poorer households.

All of the major tech companies have hitched themselves to the Trump agenda, and for good reason. They produce artificial intelligence, and they all know that artificial intelligence is Trump’s main hope to lower production costs enough to outperform China and other worldwide economic competitors. “Lower production costs” is a euphemism for fewer jobs.

Elon Musk, in many ways the master tech investor, has practically cornered the market in communications satellites. He has already bought the software and established the partnership with T-Mobile that he needs to change all cell phone communications to satellite. Everybody who currently works in cell phone tech is in danger. The Communications Workers of America have a vital boycott against T-Mobile, but it hasn’t yet achieved nationwide participation.

Just two recent election results are sufficient to show the strain in the electoral arena. Mister Trump successfully used the power of the United States government to overcome the progressive government of Honduras. He failed to do the same in the New York Mayoral race. Candidates in 2026 will find it difficult to dodge the issues important to working people. For example, the Dallas Central Labor Council voted to pressure all candidates who apply for endorsement to reveal their positions on the genocide in Gaza.

War in Latin America is imminent. The Trump Administration has already discarded every aspect of international law and human decency in its attacks against Venezuela. So far, they have managed to resist the provocations, but Trump isn’t finished. He needs the popularity of a wartime presidency and, if it becomes necessary to maintain power, he needs an excuse to implement martial law and end democracy once and for all.

Our unions have taken hardly any positions on the coming war nor on any of the pressing international questions. Domestically, we continue to try to organize more workplaces under the rules set in the early Roosevelt Administration. We continue to try to use our diminishing membership base to affect legislative change, just as we have since around 1947 when we had 35% of the American workforce organized. Today, we have closer to 9%.

So… Why Are We Smiling?

Clearly, the Trump Administration and the billionaires it leads are flailing around in desperation. They aren’t acting out of strength nor confidence, but like boat wreck survivors trying anything and everything to cling to life. They have very little thought of what they are doing, and they are being led by an unstable person.

Democracy has taken hits, but is a long way from disappearing in a country convinced, for 250 years, that democracy is best. The worldwide system of governance is very weak against a super power, but it has the credibility of all caring people.

Our anti-war movement may seem small, but the structures created in earlier upsurges still exist and are ours to use. Our unions may seem small and timid, but we still have the power to shut down the major intersections of economic and social life. Organizations close to the unions, especially the youth and senior movements, are growing stronger.

Candidates in 2026 will be pressured to take our side, and more of them will

People are catching on. We have the communications ability for accelerated strategic progress. We haven’t yet agreed on a plan of coordinated mass resistance, but we are clearly headed that way.

Labor Needs a Communications Standard

October 24, 2024

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I wrote this to Communications Department of Texas AFL-CIO:

Hi Katie and tech-savvy Texans,

As Ed Sills retires, it seems to me that email blasts are on the wane. Someone needs to come up with a new standard for labor communication and start trying to get all labor activists to use it.

We need to complete the move from our computers to our phones. A standard for labor communications would bring together the energies presently being thrown this way and that and make a coherent and more effective system.

I think Angi DeFelippo of Tarrant County might have done more work on this. I believe she uses WhatsApp, the most popular texting service.

It is significant that Action Network now offers free mass texting. The labor radio podcast network now has about 200 podcasters. Heaven knows how many labor bloggers there are.

What I want

For my part, I’m technologically challenged so I may not know very well what the options are, but I know what I want. I want free and open access for everyone with info or an opinion; but at the same time I want one-way, top-down, info from elected leaders. Ideally, the elected leaders would have a person or a method of monitoring the many comments (I call them blabbermouths) and discerning what really needs to go out to all activists. Serious activists don’t have time to chat all day, but some information is vital.

I understand that Telegram offers both channels with full access to chat and one-way top down channels that people can subscribe to. I think they call it “broadcast.”

I also understand that Facebook Messenger has some good features. People can chat away all day on it, but the elected leaders can “broadcast” from official FB pages or Instagram.

I don’t think encryption matters. In fact, I’m not sure it’s even a good idea, since we want to reach the public as much as possible.

Travis tells me that his union has already developed a special app for their members. A special “Texas labor” app might be the answer we need, but I imagine that some of the free services might be as good. They might be even better because, again, we want to reach the public.

Nearly all proposals, including this one of mine, are free.

If you agree with me that we need to set a standard for labor activist communication, why not convene a meeting of labor communicators with some proposals and try to reach a decision?

In solidarity

Gene in Dallas

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM every Saturday at 9AM Central Time. If you are curious about what I really think, visit my personal web site