from thecollective
Heralded for decades as the darling media outlet of working class struggle, Anarchist News laborers known as “thecollective” carried their fight for union representation to a celebratory conclusion today. The employees of the popular publication formally filed with the Department of Labor in late 2019 and suffered a serious blow to organizing capacity when Department operations slowed for the Covid-19 pandemic in the following year. Deemed “essential workers” due to the massive reliance on their service, thecollective kept hope alive through the lockdowns and has been fighting tooth and nail for 5 years to certify themselves as an official card shop with the Industrial Workers of The World.
Due to overwhelming public support in the form of phone zaps, letter campaigns, and strategic consumer boycotts – tactics often used by antifa and the YPG in the liberation of the global working class from the fascist capitalist class – Anarchist News management opted to pre-empt the DOL ruling due later this week by voluntarily recognizing the employees as a bargaining unit. Early estimates of the ballot count show 90% support for the union.
The 10th floor “Anews HQ” offices in Manhattan were flooded with a chorus of cheers at the announcement. Supporters of thecollective crowded for blocks and spilled into the lobby before building security barred entry citing fire marshals. Though this decision covers the writers, editors, journalists, and field reporters for the print and web editions, the DOL handed down a judgment separating the Anews Podcast staff from the bargaining unit citing a fundamental difference in job description, compensation, and managerial roles. The Hollywood-based recording complex hopes to conclude their own revolutionary struggle by 2027.
“It is high time the people rose up to defend what is rightfully theirs,” said one labor hero and member of thecollective. “This is the start of something huge. This is the manifestation of the fire that burns in the hearts of all who toil, and this is the path that fire scorches toward liberation!”
“The working class and the employing class have nothing in common,” another brave and glorious grassroots leader toward the horizontal world of tomorrow added, “and we have nothing to lose but our chains also. Oh, and when we are united we can never be defeated! Umm, I think there’s one about needing us more than them or something, hold on.”
One precious, unimpeachable worker-saint whose blood lubricates the gears that run the very society we live in said, smiling a perfectly imperfect working class smile that reminded us all of Rosie the Riveter but simultaneously more punk rock and modernly grown-up, “I really don’t give a shit about worker rights, I just think the wobblies are cool cause of the whole prohibition thing.”
Anarchist News parent company Nash Holdings, LLC did not respond for comment by time of publication.
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