jonny

jonny, 2 days ago to random

Getting word that #UC has won their bid for a temporary restraining order against #UAW4811 to try and end the strike. Details completely unclear, hasnt been announced yet.

jonny, 3 days ago to random

The cool thing about cracked adobe products is that blocking their access to the internet is usually part of the crack. Piracy and privacy are besties

jonny, 4 days ago to random

Yall as someone who is striking and generally existing on a campus that is crawling with roughly one security guard per picketer from no fewer than 5 private security companies, if they even slightly change the laws so that private security get some form of qualified immunity or ability to use any amount of force we are totally fucked.

jonny, 4 days ago to random

found this old essay by ye olde #uaw4811 rank and file vs. elected leadership in the #AWDU, and i think that at least for ucla it can be said that it is different this time, and one of those ways is the increasing belief in the diversity of tactics and the ability to turn both stable modes of organizing into complementary rather than antagonistic ones, and it's my personal goal in the time i'm down here to work on the structural changes it would take to make that happen w.r.t. power sharing. an effectively structured union of 40k workers across all UCs would shake the heavens way more than it can right now, which is 'kinda surprisingly a lot but also still not as much as it should by a long shot' https://berkeleyjournal.org/2014/12/15/a-reality-check-for-social-movement-unionism/

jonny, 4 days ago to random

I had someone recognize me IRL from Online for the first time and it is such an odd experience. Like my mind went hello, are we friends? enemies? youre gonna have to show me a pfp. What version of online me do you know. But my mouth went "that is cool. Nice to meet you. Im going to go over here now"

jonny, 5 days ago to random

Over and over and over again in organizing contexts from coops, to roomates, to event planning, to all flavors of union organizing, to lab organization, research projects, experiments themselves, musical ensembles... each of them reinvents some form of informational "garden and stream," a way to communicate naturally in series linked to some stable and graph/tree-like set of documents. Optionally intermediated by some governance process where the garden constrains the stream so that it can reshape the garden. Trying to not resolve, but give form and fluidity to the many flavors of this basic relationship is one lens for looking at what ive been doing for the last 10 years or so. Our tools for this are so bad and it has material consequences for our ability to organize, in the many senses of that word.

jonny, 6 days ago to random

Yesterday #UAW4811 rank and file successfully picketed unionized maintenance and delivery workers trying to work on water damage in #UCLA's Engineering 4 building. Today that building is shut down due to water damage. THAT is how you strike

jonny, 6 days ago to random

What is our elected leadership even doing, they sent out an email at 9:30pm saying that all on campus strike events including pickets were cancelled and everyone should go downtown by 10am (aka leave west LA at 8am) to give comment at city council. Uh no we are still picketing loading docks and organizing targeted asks for TAs of large classes to not submit final grades and ignoring this top down order to do a pointless waste of time.

jonny, 6 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to Unions

"Today’s strike at the University of California challenges us to think big about what a labor movement is, and what it should do. [...] Graduate student employees at the University of California, in striking against UC-led police brutality and against their employers’ support for the war in Gaza, are [...] reminding us of the labor’s movement’s best self, when it links workplace issues at home, with civil liberties, with police repression, and with foreign policy and the fates of other working people abroad. That’s what solidarity looks like."

https://lawcha.org/2024/05/30/uc-graduate-workers-and-the-history-of-political-strikes/

#UAW4811 #Union #Unions #Labor

jonny, 6 days ago to random

I am finally finding a use case for these language models and wouldnt you know it the use case is spam.

jonny, 6 days ago to random

#SJP at #UCLA has led a walkout through campus, now occupying Westwood north of Le Conte, one of the main entries to campus, and is holding People's University in the street. Part of a week of planned escalations across from #UAW4811 on strike

jonny, 7 days ago to random

the fuck are y'all up to

jonny, 8 days ago to random

it feels so good to be in a place where i feel like i am learning things about organizing instead of searching for or teaching things.

jonny, 9 days ago to random

Learning a lot about how little i can trust my colleagues by how many of them see nothing wrong with scabbing during a strike. Being willing to abandon your colleagues and abandon the shared struggle for a better future means we have nothing in common with the way we see the world.

jonny, 9 days ago to random

UCOP and UCLA are trying every technique they have to intimidate, surveil, and bust our strike, but we go organizing merrily along, a lovely day in the sun together after a week of hard work. Solidarity forever

jonny, 10 days ago (edited 10 days ago) to random

Good morning. Today #UAW4811 wakes up to an amended request for injunctive relief where UC has described how an action by SJP, an entirely unaffiliated group, and picketers forcing trucks to "weave through" us have resulted in significant disruptions.

https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/UCSupplEvidISORequestforIR.pdf

And with that im off to cause further disruption, as that is the purpose of a strike.

Edit: apparently this was on the 29th but we were too busy to notice lol

jonny, 10 days ago to random

Yesterday an undergrad (ie. Not a member of #UAW4811 ) who was near our picket lines was arrested and has been being held without bail for more than a day. Private security (APEX) was repeatedly harassing them, getting in their face with a phone camera, and apparently when our friend went to clear their space the mall cop dropped their phone. The police then responded by arresting them under suspicion of battery, depriving them of access to time-critical medication in the process. Literally as I was writing this I finally got word that they were released. The police had previously threatened to hold them until arraignment for a MONTH.

TO BE CLEAR: the private security hired by the university provoked the mildest response from a student, and then the police used that as a pretext to arrest them. A month ago the university allowed a vigilante mob to send dozens of our students and colleagues to the hospital and then used that as a pretext to arrest hundreds more, all for having the audacity to peacefully demonstrate against a genocide.

This is why we are on strike.

jonny, 10 days ago (edited 10 days ago) to random

Dear computer friends - as information workers on strike at #UAW4811, im trying to think of some digital picketing strategies. Ways of incurring additional costs and disruptions to operation that are within the bounds of the law. One of the biggest levers we have is grading, and UCLA uses a fork (?) of Canvas (bruinlearn). Does anyone have any bright ideas for how to run up a cloud bill? Something along the lines of uploading enormous files to course pages, asking students to download a directory with millions of files as a .zip, that kinda thing. Something thats an arms length shy of CFAA but something that could let our students and remote colleagues help with the strike. Any ideas? Boosts welcome. (I do not speak for or represent UAW 4811 in any way as a rank and file member)

Edit: dm me for my signal if you are curious about such a topic and are not necessarily volunteering any information in the affirmative or negative

jonny, 11 days ago to random

Today #UAW4811 #UCLA rank and file are picketing loading docks again, and have been doing the work to coordinate with sibling unions to respect the picket line - sheetmetal workers local 105 is walking off, and roofer union working on Powell expected to follow shortly. Rank and file is doing the heavy lifting and coming with the strategy.

jonny, 11 days ago to random

#UAW276 has some uh very specific guidance in their picketing guidelines
https://region8.uaw.org/uaw-local-276/2023-gm-strike-updates/picket-line-dos-and-donts

jonny, 12 days ago to random

2am, rise and grind, that employer aint gonna economically disrupt itself

jonny, 12 days ago to random

So I knew that cars make you lose your perception of the humanity of others, but I guess I was a little surprised at just how many people were fully ready to ram their car directly into my body as I was walking a picket line. "I will do a vehicular assault to avoid having to walk 10 extra minutes" is peak LA culture.

#UAW4811 #UCLA

jonny, 13 days ago to random

6am, bright and early, the strike is on

jonny, 13 days ago to random

Fixing my bike and my cat has somehow stolen two screws. I had them in a container, and now they arent there. They are very grimy and surely taste like the road. What in her cat mind makes theft of a screw worth having to put it in your mouth. Does she just love property or is it the thrill of theft

jonny, 13 days ago (edited 13 days ago) to random

One way you can help out with the #UAW4811 strike at #UCLA is to donate to the kitchen committee, which is a mutual aid group (separate from UAW) that distributes food in west LA. They'll be feeding the picket line! - you can donate food, money, or time! Strike fund link forthcoming

https://linktr.ee/kitchencommittee