CIWO and our partners in the Bargaining for the Common Good Network are thrilled to announce a new issue of The Forge: Organizing Strategy and Practice -- Bargaining for the Common Good: Organizing in the Coronavirus Era and Beyond. This special issue, authored by many members of the Bargaining for the Common Good Advisory Committee, includes pieces by CIWO's Marilyn Sneiderman, Sheri Davis, and Todd Vachon. Links to all pieces can be found below. We are so excited to be sharing this work with you, especially at such a critical moment for social, racial, and economic justice. Please read these articles, share widely, and give us your feedback!
A Call to Action in This Moment: When the Bargaining for the Common Good team began preparing this issue, the coronavirus pandemic had not hit the United States. Many of the authors have revised their contributions to reflect our new reality. COVID-19 lays bare the failures of neoliberalism, of the racial, economic, and political order that structures inequality. The Bargaining for the Common Good approach makes an important case for its unique brand of solidarity, vision, and organizing.
We Want Bread and Housing Too: Bargaining for the Common Good an Intersectional Feminist Strategy: Sheri Davis Faulkner, Lauren Jacobs, Marilyn Sneiderman and Renata Pumarol describe how BCG is part of the “Bread and Roses” historical legacy, rejecting the divide between home and work, between community and labor.
Bargaining for Climate Justice: Todd Vachon, Gerry Hudson, Judith LeBlanc and Saket Soni detail the importance of Bargaining for the Common Good as a tool to help unite labor, climate and environmental justice organizations in the fight to save our planet.
Transforming Higher Education in this Moment: Uniting to Bargain for the Common Good: Malini Cadambi-Daniel and Patrick Nowlan call for the movement to approach higher education organizing through a BCG lens, reimagining what we collectively want the system to be for all of us.
Going Up the Money Tree: Saqib Bhatti and Kevin Connor draw out the linkages between going up the money tree to those really in power and the Bargaining for the Common Good approach.
Bargaining for the Common Good as Racial Justice: Maurice Weeks and Liz Perlman describe the racial justice analysis undergirding BCG by telling the story of an AFSCME local organizing in the University of California system.
We Fight Back to Thrive, not Survive: Bargaining for the Common Good in Puerto Rico: Armando Santiago Pintado and Manuel Rodríguez Banchs discuss how Puerto rican movement leaders are fighting to transform their communities using the BCG approach.
Luchamos para vencer, no para sobrevivir: negociamos por el bien común en Puerto Rico: Armando Santiago Pintado y Manuel Rodríguez Banchs discuten como líderes puertorriqueños del movimiento están luchando para transformar sus comunidades usando la herramienta de Negociación por el Bien Común.
Engaging Membership Through Popular Education as a Key Tool in Building Bargaining for the Common Good Campaigns: Harmony Goldberg and Valery Alzaga describe how combining popular education and Bargaining for the Common Good helps build a powerful movement army from the ground up with a shared analysis of how the super-rich are driving injustice in all our communities.
Bargaining for the Common Good and the Fight for Better Banks for Our Communities: Erin Mahoney and Rita Berlofa draw out how bank workers around the world are gaining ground by using a Bargaining for the Common Good framework, uniting tellers and consumers who are both victims of these large financial institutions.
We all need a home: It’s Time for The Labor and Housing Movements to Unite: Christina Livingston, Afua Atta-Mensah and Sara Myklebust draw out the importance of home in this moment, how housing has become a commodity and the need for a labor-community partnership to fight for the shelter we all deserve.
The Origins and Urgency of Bargaining for the Common Good: Merrie Najimy and Joe McCartin share the historical context for BCG and how it builds on centuries of labor and community organizing for social and economic justice to take on this moment and create an equitable world.
Lessons from the LA Teachers Common Good Campaign and Strike Victory: Webinar with Alex Caputo-Pearl, Amy Schur, Rudy Gonzalves and others who led the January 2019 United Teachers’ of Los Angeles (UTLA) strike and discuss strategies and lessons learned in this ongoing fight for LA communities.
Chicago Teachers Strike for the Schools Our Students Deserve and the City Our Community Deserves: Webinar with Stacy Davis-Gates, VP of the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU), and Amisha Patel, ED of Grassroots Collaborative, discussing the recent Chicago educators’ strike for the City our Communities Deserve. Facilitated by Marilyn Sneiderman.
Bargaining for the Common Good is a co-lead by the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University (KI), and the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR).
