In this episode of Requires Improvement, Co-hosts Tom and Lauren interview Andy Byrne, one of the committee members of Hammers United, a football fan club for West Ham. Andy speaks about the similar challenges fans face to educators and trade unionists when confronted with market forces, structural change and the need for ordinary people to have control over their cultural lives as well as in the workplace. Connections are drawn between how organisers in different sectors can learn from each other about effective approaches to building inclusive supermajorities and having an impact on real life events. Check out Hammers United's website here: hammersunited.com/ You can also find them on twitter here: mobile.twitter.com/hammersunited2?lang=en

New Syndicalist

Requires Improvement: Hammers United

This episode includes references to violence, sexual violence, abuse and suicide. It also contains a lot of spoilers. This episode we talk about feminism in horror films, with discussion of some feminist horror films you could watch to survive this second, yet more horrifying, lockdown. We explore some different feminist perspectives in horror films, including films with more realistic psychological points about women’s oppression, like the Babadook, as well as some sillier films like Teeth, with its focus on sexuality, rape, revenge and liberation. We discuss Sophie Lewis on the horrors of the patriarchal family and the search for less oppressive forms of belonging in Midsommar. We talk about how feminist themes in horror have changed and developed and what it could all mean. Finally we discuss how the new physical and mental horrors created by the fusion of life and work in the world of AI, big tech monopolies and liberal feminism can be found in Possessor, a new film by Brandon Cronenbourg, continuing in the same body-horror vein (pun intended) as father David Cronenbourg. 'The Satanic Death-Cult Is Real' by Sophie Lewis - https://communemag.com/the-satanic-death-cult-is-real/

Material Girls Ep 7 - Scream queens

After the chaos of another week being educators and union organisers on "Rainy Plague Island" in January 2021, the Requires Improvement team come together to discuss school closures, remote learning, the failures of certain apparent allies in various political parties and unions to stand alongside us, and finally Gavin Williamson and OFSTED's flooded inbox. Hosted by Lauren, she is joined by co-hosts Nik, Charlie, Tom and Lee. Our brains are already melted, but let's reflect together in solidarity always!

Lockdown Brain

Lockdowns have prompted union organisers to look anew at technologies that help connect workers together in communication, solidarity and struggle. We have previously published, for example, reflections on how messenger and video conferencing tools can be adapted to make organising more inclusive and that these lessons should be taken forward into a post-Covid world. In this episode of Talking Shop we are joined by Henry from the exciting new initiative Strike Map UK - a digital platform that aims to publicise and amplify the activity of the trade union movement in the UK. Strike Map was set up as a tool for rank-and-file trade unionists and aspires to be a worker-controlled resource to make organising and action for workers more accessible. Henry explains what motivated him and his colleagues to set up the project, how it is adapting and changing to the challenges created by Covid and what are his aspirations for the project moving forward.

Talking Shop: Strike Map UK

Our reboot episode of Talking Shop focuses on the dynamics of home-working (which we also published an article on earlier this year) and what demands union organisers could collectivise in this area. We also look at the recent actions of the education union NEU and their use of Section 44 to organise against the wider reopening of schools. Chris from the editorial team shares his experiences of working in schools during the pandemic and what organisation around these demands has been like on the ground.

Talking Shop: "Things Can Only Get Better"

When we started the New Syndicalist project one of our key aims was to create a platform for like-minded organisers who wanted to see unions and workplace organising play a more active role as a tool for transforming our society. We were delighted, therefore, to discover a few months ago a podcast by and for trade unionist educators focused on exactly these concerns and with the kind of "nuts-and-bolts" focus we also value at New Syndicalist. It is with pleasure, then, that we would like to welcome 'Requires Improvement' to the New Syndicalist family!  In this simultaneously reflective and forward looking 1 year anniversary episode of Requires Improvement, the team consider the current state of the education sector given the tumultuous events of the last six months both in UK politics and society at large. They start with a focus on the Labour Party and the sacking of shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, and then consider what deep organising and the thinking of Jane McAlevey can offer Trade Unionists in this moment. This is followed by a discussion about a surge of interest in anti-racist teaching in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and what decolonising the curriculum means, and concludes by discussing what we see as the dangers lurking ahead for a proposed September re-opening of schools. This episode is hosted by Anu, along with co-hosts Nik, Charlie, Tom and Lee. Links to discussed content: UTLA statement: www.utla.net/sites/default/file…iffboats_final.pdf McAlevey on organic leaders and deep organising : youtu.be/bl6P_2jt_Vs Eric Blanc article on current situation in US: www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/coronav…eachers-strikes Christian Cooper incident: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/amy-co…5?ri18n=true www.independent.co.uk/voices/amy-coo…vJ9-s-gvDmUiNU David Olusogah - Black and British: A Forgotten History www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b…-forgotten-history Akala - Oxford University Address & Q&A on Black History youtu.be/WUtAxUQjwB4 Clips: "Only had a few ales...get in the back of the van" www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ7SzAm92e4 "Meat and you: Partners in Freedom" www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_4h5A5z_A educationukneuteachingnationaleducationunionunionscoronaviruslabourcovidkeirstarmerdeeporganisingjanemcaleveydecolonising

Requires Improvement - It's Not The Summer Of Love

As governments across the globe, including the UK, start to implement policies of "lockdown easing" in response to the Covid pandemic knowledge, communication and enforcement of health and safety protections within workplaces has become of critical importance. In particular Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act (1996) has been touted as a key right workers can use when asked to return to a workplace that they believe is unsafe. In this episode we are joined by Petros of the United Voices of the World- a grassroots trade union of low paid, migrant and precarious workers. Throughout the pandemic UVW has been at the forefront of organising in the Capital , defending members who have been denied access to furlough schemes, Personal Protective Equipment or expected to continue to work during the lockdown. We discuss some of these organising efforts, lessons learnt from lockdown organising and the strengths and limitations of Section 44 as both a legal protection and organising tool.

Talking Shop - Covid and Section 44

Sex may seem an ironic or even unfair choice of topic at the moment, but, perhaps perversely, we found it provided a good diversion from some of the horror of everyday life during Covid. In what could be our least structured podcast ever we discuss sex. Is it good or bad? What do feminists think about it? What were the feminist sex wars, and are they over or still going on? What is straight sex and what are we really doing when we do it? Plus, find out about feminist events you can take part in online, and discover who we've put in Cancelled Corner this month. Reading - Undoing Sex: Against Sexual Optimism - Lies Journal: http://www.liesjournal.net/volume1-02-undoingsex.html https://libcom.org/library/marriage-and-love-emma-goldman

Material Girls Ep 6 - Let's talk about sex

"Who cares for the carers? Well, it just turns out its other carers." Care work has, for decades, been an undervalued and under-appreciated industry in the UK. Subject to a creeping wave of privatisation and outsourcing it is now largely provided by a complex patchwork of under-regulated and often outright parasitic companies who seek to drive up revenues and drive down costs by attacking workers' pay and conditions. The result is that the majority of care workers share a common experience of poverty wages, long and unsociable hours, precarious conditions, lack of safety equipment and adequate training. These are issues that we have discussed previously in New Syndicalist - here and here - where workers disclosed the often nightmarish scenarios themselves and their clients were forced to accept as "part of the job". The Covid pandemic has shone a spotlight on these same conditions which have had absolutely devastating and deadly consequences for the vulnerable people who depend upon these services as well as the people who support them. Gemma and Andy from our Editorial Team took this opportunity to talk to Gemma - a care worker, member of UNISON and organiser for the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) - about how Covid has impacted their work, what their colleagues are doing to support each other during this crisis and what they see as priority areas for organising in the industry for the future.

Talking Shop - Covid and Care Work

We decided to record a special mini-episode of material girls over Skype, partly as a way to try to stay sane and connected as we live through the coronavirus pandemic. We discuss the ways patriarchy and capitalism are bound up with our responses to coronavirus, including discussion of the disproportionate burden borne by women doing care work, and how misogyny shapes public views of nurses. We also talk about what coronavirus lockdown by household means for the nuclear family and those who live within it as well as the impact on those who don’t. We discuss the availability of medical abortion at home and the demands we should be making to reorganise the world when the pandemic is over.

Material Girls Ep 5 - Coronavirus: Everything Is Cancelled

What else could we possibly have talked about for this month's episode of Talking Shop? Chris, Gaby and Lydia from the editorial collective talk about our weird weeks at work and at home, and think about what we can learn from them about organising during and after coronavirus. More than ever, we'd like to hear from our listeners and readers about their experiences. How is coronavirus affecting your life and work? Are there aspects of this crisis you feel aren't being covered in other media? We'd particularly like to hear from the front lines of the fight against coronavirus, and for a better world afterwards. This certainly won't be our last episode on the topic. Stay safe and take care of each other.

Talking Shop - Coronavirus

On this episode of Material Girls, we take a look at the nuclear family from an anti capitalist feminist perspective. So many of us grow up in nuclear families, and raise our own children in them, that it's easy to think that we always organised our lives this way. In reality, the origins of the family are closely tied to the development of capitalism - the nuclear family is an efficient unit for producing and reproducing the workforce. This unit requires a high degree of social control and oppression to function. As a result, women are far more likely to be raped or abused by members of their own family than by a stranger. On a day to day basis, women take on a disproportionate amount of the domestic labour involved in family-making. It's no surprise, then, that marriage improves mens' life expectancy, and diminishes womens'. We want a world with more love, more care, and more bonds, where we don't have to stay with a partner because we can't afford to live alone or with friends. In that case, what options do we have? We discuss ways we could extend the idea of 'kin' to people outside of the couple, and how this might allow us to raise children in a more collective way to the benefit of all of us. We’re looking for guests who’d like to join in the discussion or be interviewed. We’d particularly love to hear from women of colour, black women and trans women, who are not represented by our regular hosts. You can also let us know if you’re doing some feminist organising that you’d like us to plug, especially if it’s happening outside of London. Email us at materialgirlspod@gmail.com. Subscribe to New Syndicalist on Soundcloud or your favourite podcast app to keep up to date with Material Girls, Talking Shop, and our other audio content.

Material Girls Ep 4 - The Family

In the latest Talking Shop we discuss the resounding defeat of the Labour party in the General Election. What does it mean? What do we do next? Why did it happen?

Talking Shop - Autopsy (WTF happened?)

The third episode of Material Girls is about reproductive justice. We talk about 'choice' in a capitalist, racist, patriarchal society, and what this means for our bodies, our lives and our families. We were also extremely lucky to speak to Maev McDaid about the campaign for free, safe, legal and local abortions in the north and south of Ireland. Reproductive justice is the framework used by some anti-capitalist feminists to explain the impact that social forces have on our ability to make free decisions about how we live. Low wages, borders, high rents and cuts to services shape our lives in ways which have more or less impact on us depending on our class, race, gender, sexuality or ability. If you're an undocumented migrant and your options are a £1300 bill for an abortion or a £4000 bill for a birth, how can your choice be said to be meaningful? Around the world people are caught between policies which prevent them from accessing abortions and other reproductive healthcare, and policies which deny them the material support they need to raise children in comfort and safety. But people are fighting back. Maev tells about the Repeal campaign in the south of Ireland, and about the push to extend abortion rights to the north. She talks about the solidarity that extended across the border, and about how they resisted attacks from the anti-choice campaign by talking about practical support and care on the doorstep. At a time when right-wing governments are pushing a nationalist, heteronormative 'family values' agenda, learning lessons about how we win is more important than ever. We’re looking for guests who’d like to join in the discussion or be interviewed. We’d particularly love to hear from women of colour, black women and trans women, who are not represented by our regular hosts. You can also let us know if you’re doing some feminist organising that you’d like us to plug, especially if it’s happening outside of London. Email us at materialgirlspod@gmail.com. Links to recommended reading - https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/articles/britain-as-the-spoils-of-empire/ https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/goodbye-good-friday-agreement/ https://www.versobooks.com/books/2951-full-surrogacy-now Subscribe to New Syndicalist on Soundcloud or your favourite podcast app to keep up to date with Material Girls, Talking Shop, and our other audio content. Do you like the content on New Syndicalist? Why not donate 50p to our project? Your donations can help make New Syndicalist advertisement free, improve our audio content and bring New Syndicalist to new listeners and subscribers. https://www.patreon.com/newsyndicalist

Material Girls Ep 3 - Reproductive Justice

In the UK it is General Election time! For the next 6 weeks politics, policy, controversy and what each party leader is having for breakfast is the top news item. Is this just a side show Syndicalists should ignore? Do the parties have anything useful to say for those of focused on workplace organising? This election has been called the Brexit election, but there is a hell of a lot more up for grabs. In this episode Dave, Gaby and Andy will be chatting about what the different parties in the election are offering, and what if any, relevance it has for organisers. Obviously this podcast in a personal capacity only, nothing in here is an official endorsement, we pinky promise!

Talking Shop - General Election Special!

A resource for trade union activists & organisers.

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New Syndicalist

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