Shaun Richman
@shaunrichman.org
Labor guy in higher ed. Author, "Tell The Bosses We're Coming" (Monthly Review, 2020) & "We Always Had a Union" (U. of Illinois, 2025). Contributing writer: In These Times, Jacobin, American Prospect.
Pinned
Shaun Richman
@shaunrichman.org
· Apr 22
We Always Had a Union
www.press.uillinois.edu
My new book, "We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers’ Union, 1912-1953," is OUT NOW.
It's a sweeping history of one sustained early 20th century union effort, through craft unionism, the IWW, the Communist Party, gangster corruption, industry-wide bargaining, Cold War backlash & more.
It's a sweeping history of one sustained early 20th century union effort, through craft unionism, the IWW, the Communist Party, gangster corruption, industry-wide bargaining, Cold War backlash & more.
Please sign this petition.
Labor Studies is Vital for Working Hoosiers
In 2025, Indiana passed HEA/HB1001, a budget law requiring public colleges to seek approval for continuing low-enrollment degree programs. In response, universities—including multiple Indiana Universi...
act.aflcio.org
November 12, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Please sign this petition.
It's too bad we live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and there's absolutely no way to solve this problem.
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
It's too bad we live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and there's absolutely no way to solve this problem.
Whatever nonsense gets said in the next few weeks, let's just be clear that only one NYC Mayor in my lifetime tried to force his religion on the rest of us.
www.huffpost.com/entry/new-yo...
www.huffpost.com/entry/new-yo...
NYC Mayor Defends Comments Rejecting Separation Of Church And State
Democratic Mayor Eric Adams drew backlash for saying a week earlier that he "can't separate" his Christian beliefs from his government duties.
www.huffpost.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Whatever nonsense gets said in the next few weeks, let's just be clear that only one NYC Mayor in my lifetime tried to force his religion on the rest of us.
www.huffpost.com/entry/new-yo...
www.huffpost.com/entry/new-yo...
Nature is healing.
November 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Nature is healing.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
"'They’re spending more money than I would even tax them,' [Mamdani] said in an interview with MSNBC last week."
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
November 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
"'They’re spending more money than I would even tax them,' [Mamdani] said in an interview with MSNBC last week."
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
The Staten Island Advance tried to pretend that the results of the NYC Mayor came in too late for the morning print edition. But no problem calling NJ Governor.
November 5, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The Staten Island Advance tried to pretend that the results of the NYC Mayor came in too late for the morning print edition. But no problem calling NJ Governor.
This is at least my 2nd year in a row taking this mandatory sexual harassment training for NY state employees.
The specificity and clumsiness of the WFH scenarios (towels; "where the magic happens") make me think they were taken directly from Cuomo's inner circle.
youtu.be/A9gudpiQ40M?...
The specificity and clumsiness of the WFH scenarios (towels; "where the magic happens") make me think they were taken directly from Cuomo's inner circle.
youtu.be/A9gudpiQ40M?...
Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
YouTube video by NYSLabor
youtu.be
November 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
This is at least my 2nd year in a row taking this mandatory sexual harassment training for NY state employees.
The specificity and clumsiness of the WFH scenarios (towels; "where the magic happens") make me think they were taken directly from Cuomo's inner circle.
youtu.be/A9gudpiQ40M?...
The specificity and clumsiness of the WFH scenarios (towels; "where the magic happens") make me think they were taken directly from Cuomo's inner circle.
youtu.be/A9gudpiQ40M?...
Reposted by Shaun Richman
Good news, everybody! The completed manuscript for "So Long Dental Plan" has been submitted to the editors at @sunypress.bsky.social. Here are our chapter titles and authors.
November 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Good news, everybody! The completed manuscript for "So Long Dental Plan" has been submitted to the editors at @sunypress.bsky.social. Here are our chapter titles and authors.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
it's clear reading this @rtraister.bsky.social piece how little the Democratic Party thinks it erred in running Joe Biden at his age
Also this memorable quote: "Many can’t imagine doing anything in which they won’t be heavily staffed and relevant all the time.”
nymag.com/intelligence...
Also this memorable quote: "Many can’t imagine doing anything in which they won’t be heavily staffed and relevant all the time.”
nymag.com/intelligence...
It’s My Party and I’ll Leave When I Want To
Talking to the gerontocracy.
nymag.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:30 PM
it's clear reading this @rtraister.bsky.social piece how little the Democratic Party thinks it erred in running Joe Biden at his age
Also this memorable quote: "Many can’t imagine doing anything in which they won’t be heavily staffed and relevant all the time.”
nymag.com/intelligence...
Also this memorable quote: "Many can’t imagine doing anything in which they won’t be heavily staffed and relevant all the time.”
nymag.com/intelligence...
Greetings from 1973.
October 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Greetings from 1973.
Haha. No, they're not. They're going straight to "Dancing With the Stars!" The next redemption will literally involve never admitting guilt.
When he's finally gone, there is going to be this flood of books and tell all interviews from Republicans about how hard it was to be a Republican in Washington during this time and I am going to be galatically furious about it.
October 30, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Haha. No, they're not. They're going straight to "Dancing With the Stars!" The next redemption will literally involve never admitting guilt.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
The absolute decimation of my industry has been an extremely horrible thing to bear witness to
Just total devastation frankly
Just total devastation frankly
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
October 28, 2025 at 3:38 AM
The absolute decimation of my industry has been an extremely horrible thing to bear witness to
Just total devastation frankly
Just total devastation frankly
Reposted by Shaun Richman
'No Neutrals There' is out TODAY. I hope it's useful for understanding how US unions have been deeply involved in Palestine for the past 100+ years & why today's unionists have a special responsibility to aid the cause of Palestinian freedom. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2608-n...
October 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
'No Neutrals There' is out TODAY. I hope it's useful for understanding how US unions have been deeply involved in Palestine for the past 100+ years & why today's unionists have a special responsibility to aid the cause of Palestinian freedom. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2608-n...
This woman just gets hotter and hotter.
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
This woman just gets hotter and hotter.
At my union's semi-annual semi-convention, a resolution simply calling Israel's actions in Palestine a "genocide," and directing leaders to be open to future actions and resolutions along those lines failed by two votes.
October 25, 2025 at 1:08 AM
At my union's semi-annual semi-convention, a resolution simply calling Israel's actions in Palestine a "genocide," and directing leaders to be open to future actions and resolutions along those lines failed by two votes.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
I think a lot about how most big-city newspapers used to have a a couple of movie critics, a theater critic, a few book critics, an architecture critic, a music critic or two, an in-house cartoonist, at least two or three foreign correspondents, a fashion writer, and a whole staff of photographers
October 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I think a lot about how most big-city newspapers used to have a a couple of movie critics, a theater critic, a few book critics, an architecture critic, a music critic or two, an in-house cartoonist, at least two or three foreign correspondents, a fashion writer, and a whole staff of photographers
Reposted by Shaun Richman
Radical idea: The next Dem nominee should run on making bribery actually illegal. In every way.
October 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Radical idea: The next Dem nominee should run on making bribery actually illegal. In every way.
What a hopeless situation with no potential solution whatsoever.
October 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
What a hopeless situation with no potential solution whatsoever.
Arrest him and deliver him to the Hague.
I genuinely believe that the next president should arrest Trump first thing. Simply make a national security determination - a thing which falls within the "core powers" of the presidency! - and dare Roberts to overturn his own ruling
Here's a fun little nugget from Trump's demand that DOJ pay him, personally, $250 million: In his memo, he argues that prosecutors "should have foreseen" that he has "immunity from prosecution for officials acts." Thank you John Roberts, great rule of law-ing, sir! static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...
October 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Arrest him and deliver him to the Hague.
The question of "what did the 'organize or die' era of Sweeney/Trumka/CtW accomplish" would make for a great anthology or three.
Maybe even more organizing would have made the difference and there were left-critiques of the Sweeney era that made that point. I don’t know. It might have just been too late. In any case, without Sweeney’s takeover, the union movement would be in even worse shape today.
October 23, 2025 at 1:28 PM
The question of "what did the 'organize or die' era of Sweeney/Trumka/CtW accomplish" would make for a great anthology or three.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
Would any body be interested in an anthology of biographies pf lesser-known union activists (Communists, environmentalists, in'l solidarity, etc.) who were "canceled" for their politics? Anybody interested in writing a chapter?
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
October 21, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Would any body be interested in an anthology of biographies pf lesser-known union activists (Communists, environmentalists, in'l solidarity, etc.) who were "canceled" for their politics? Anybody interested in writing a chapter?
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
Would any body be interested in an anthology of biographies pf lesser-known union activists (Communists, environmentalists, in'l solidarity, etc.) who were "canceled" for their politics? Anybody interested in writing a chapter?
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
October 21, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Would any body be interested in an anthology of biographies pf lesser-known union activists (Communists, environmentalists, in'l solidarity, etc.) who were "canceled" for their politics? Anybody interested in writing a chapter?
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
Brainstorming a next project...🗃️
I actually saw a not-insignificant number of signs saying something along the lines of "No Kings But Jesus," so I think these fuckers are starting to lose the sincere Christians. However many of those are left.
Chip Roy: "The truth is the marxist, radicals, and Islamists the Democratic Party promoted this weekend, they cannot handle the truth. The truth is that there is a king and that king is Jesus. And the president has been willing to say it, & Charlie Kirk was willing to say it & he got killed for it."
October 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I actually saw a not-insignificant number of signs saying something along the lines of "No Kings But Jesus," so I think these fuckers are starting to lose the sincere Christians. However many of those are left.
Legislators who run for president always have someone else to blame for why a policy did or didn't happen while they were in office. You can judge a governor by his vetoes. It literally would be law if he didn't personally stop it.
Newsom's annual vetos of dozens of progressive bills, particulary blocking those that hold his corporate donors accountable, is why he should never be Dem nominee.
Dem Congress in future should not have to worry about vetos by Dem President.
Dem Congress in future should not have to worry about vetos by Dem President.
First sentence says it all: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use." Read the rest of the story though. from @ianjames.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...
October 17, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Legislators who run for president always have someone else to blame for why a policy did or didn't happen while they were in office. You can judge a governor by his vetoes. It literally would be law if he didn't personally stop it.
Reposted by Shaun Richman
If I could offer students one bit of…advice: be brutally traditional about what is printed on your degree.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
The danger is that degrees are regarded as worthless as nobody believes students have acquired any skills any more, at least not ones they couldn't have hot from just going into an office job from school.
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
If I could offer students one bit of…advice: be brutally traditional about what is printed on your degree.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.