APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 12, 2025, 11.59pm

Course title: The Anatomy of Strikes—How to Build a More Militant and Effective Labor Movement
Instructors: Bob Master, Pam Galpern
Dates: Alt. Tuesdays 6:30–8:30pm • Jan. 28, Feb. 11, Feb. 25, Mar. 11, 2025
Location: Sixth Street Community Center, 638 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009 (Betw. Ave. B+C)(Course is in-person only)
Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers

Course description:

This course will examine the major factors that have shaped historical and contemporary strike waves, and the impact of those strike waves on the development of the labor movement. What were the political, ideological, and organizational factors that opened the door to periods of major strikes? What was the basis of workers’ mass organization during periods of heightened strike activity and how did strikes contribute to workers’ radicalization? What impact has the institutionalization of collective bargaining had on strike activity? Why have we seen such a drastic reduction in the annual number of large strikes since 1980, even with the modest uptick in strike activity in the last several years?

In addition, we will dig deeply into several recent major strikes and near-strikes—Verizon 2016, UAW Big 3 2023 and UPS 2023—and analyze the lessons of those experiences. How do we assess the successes or shortcomings of those strike’s (and near-strikes) ? What do those contract campaigns tell us about the state of the labor movement? What’s the role of socialist activists and organizations in organizing strikes and strike support?

Instructor biographies:

Bob Master retired in July 2022 from his job as the Assistant to the Vice President of CWA District One, with responsibility for legislative and political and contract mobilization activities. During his 36 years at CWA, he played a major organizational role in eight different strikes, primarily in telecom but also in health care and manufacturing. He is a graduate of CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies, where he has been adjunct faculty for courses on “Labor and Politics” and “The History, Theory and Practice of Strikes” in recent years.

Pam Galpern is a field technician at Verizon and Organizer/Mobilizer with CWA. She’s been on strike three times in her 25 years as a telecom worker, and was the Mobilization Coordinator for her CWA Local during the 2016 Verizon strike. She’s a long-time labor activist and a graduate of CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies masters program.

About the NYC DSA Academy for Socialist Education:
Education, broadly defined, is and always has been a vital function of revolutionary socialist movements. The NYC DSA Academy aims to enhance the ongoing political education efforts of the New York chapter of DSA. Designed to connect the history and theory of socialist struggles with the work of today’s activists, the Academy aims to offer a rigorous but accessible curriculum for working adults to develop their understanding and strategy.