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William Lawrence

William Lawrence

5 articles and 32 podcasts

William Lawrence is an organizer and social movement strategist from Lansing, Michigan. He was a co-founder of Sunrise Movement, where he helped shape and popularize the Green New Deal. He is currently the Coordinator of the MI Rent Is Too Damn High coalition, fighting for rent control, tenants rights, and social housing in the Great Lakes State.

Contributions from William Lawrence

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What We’ve Learned. Where We Go Next.

Hosted by
In this solo season finale, William makes his case for his approach to voting in this year's presidential election. Looking ahead, he lays out his vision for where left movements need to start building infrastructure next, regardless of the election outcomes, based on what he learned from his guests this season about international solidarity.

Protecting Our Migrant Neighbors, with Jacinta González

Hosted by
Mijente Policy Director Jacinta González joins William for this episode. Jacinta is an expert in organizing against immigration enforcement and criminalization of Latinx and immigrant communities. Their conversation explores how local, in-person community organizing is key to defending migrants threatened by increasingly violent, aggressive, and isolationist US border and immigration policy.
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Labor Internationalism, with Carl Rosen & Bob Master

Hosted by
This episode features a conversation with two experienced unionists about the history of, and barriers to, solidarity between US workers and those abroad. Carl Rosen is the General President of UE, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America. UE is a famously democratic, progressive, and independent union, and they have done arguably the best work of any US union in building mutual alliances of solidarity with labor unions abroad over the last several decades, including a long collaboration with the Mexican Frente Auténtico de Trabajo. Bob Master recently retired after 45 years in the labor movement, the last 36 with the Communications Workers of America. He was a founding co-chair of the New York State Working Families Party, and remains a member of the WFP National Executive Committee. Bob is also a big-picture strategic thinker, strategist and writer about matters of US politics, political economy, and class struggle.

Grassroots Internationalism, with Cindy Wiesner

Hosted by
Cindy Wiesener of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance joins the show to share reflections on her 35 years of internationalist organizing on the US Left—from the global justice movement of the 1990s and early 2000s, through the antiwar movement of the 2000s, to the growing international climate justice movement of the 2000s–2010s. Throughout that journey, she has been working to build power from the grassroots in the US, and with allies across the globe, especially in the Americas. She shares her perspective on that trajectory, and where we find ourselves now.

Flows and Chokepoints, with Tim Sahay

Hosted by
Tim Sahay returns to the show provide a world tour of the flows and chokepoints of goods and finance that make up our global economy.  While the US economy is supposedly doing better than ever, it's a very different story in the Global South, which is suffering from lack of investment capital and economic sovereignty. Tim helps explain why, and we speculate about potential sites of leverage for reforming the international economic order.

Understanding Primacy, with Van Jackson

Hosted by
Van Jackson (@realvanjackson) joins the show to discuss the dangerous strategy of global primacy that drives US foreign policy. Van Jackson is a scholar of international relations specializing in East Asian and Pacific security, critical analysis of defense issues, and the intersection of working-class interests with foreign policy. He worked in the defense department under the Obama administration and has since become an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. He writes the Un-Diplomatic newsletter and is the author of several books.
Hegemonicon Podcast episode artwork featuring episode title "The Global Conjuncture" and photo of guest, Tobita Chow

The Global Conjuncture, with Tobita Chow

Hosted by
Will talks with Tobita Chow to set the stage for our series on internationalism. We talk about the breakdown of US global authority, the twilight of the neoliberal era, and the turn to economic nationalism in the United States and abroad. Toby helps us to see Bidenomics as a response by US capitalists to a global crisis of profitability. We try to understand the likely consequences of Bidenomics: Whether it is likely to succeed or fail on its own terms, and what either would mean for the shape of global politics to come. We speculate about the prospects for building a left internationalist power bloc from within the United States.