The movement opposing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has transformed this country’s conversation about Palestine. This achievement, and the passion and political creativity displayed since October 2023, opens the path to forcing a change in US policy—and to putting internationalism at the center of the progressive movement’s agenda.
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.
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.
