Rudi Batzell

flier for LABOR's Big Book Forum featuring pics of the participants and the registration link: go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025

Don't forget to mark your calendars for LABOR's Big Book Forum (Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET, via Zoom) featuring @rbatzell.bsky.social's new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery. The event is free and open to the public. Register today! go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025

Registration details for Friday, October 17, 2pm to 4pm ET: https://umd.zoom.us/meeting/register/FCXIyoNuQf6R3AA-ymF2uA#/registration

Very much looking forward to discussing "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" with @rbatzell.bsky.social, Lara Vapnek, Richard Price, and & Naomi R. Willians in @lawcha.bsky.social's 2025 Labor Book Big Forum, Friday, October 17, 2pm to 4pm ET online ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Just landed in Atlanta for @asalh-bhm.bsky.social and excited to be participating in this new books roundtable this afternoon with Gus Wood and Naomi R Williams. So honored to have Joe Trotter as chair.

A flier that says: 2025 Labor Big Book Forum; Friday Oct 17 2-4 ET ; Register Today! with the link: go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025 ; and has a picture of the book "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" which features four sets of raised fists, alternating between red and blue.

We are excited to announce Labor's Big Book Forum for 2025! Scheduled for Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET via Zoom, this year we feature Rudi Batzell's (@rbatzell.bsky.social) new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social)

a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer Alt: a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer typing frantically

248 pages. 80,000+ words. 10 years in the making. It’s out of my hands (for) now. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Read the Sun-Times article here: chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-t...

Quoted the great WEB DuBois in a letter to the Chicago Sun Times on OSHA nominee David Keeling, infamous for making UPS drivers cook, and why the history of slavery that Trump wants to hide from matters because it helps explain why US workers are so likely to be killed at work.

@rbatzell.bsky.social discussed his new book, "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery," on today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast. Check out the latest installment in the Labor 131 series via the link below.
www.podbean.com/media/share/...

Here's an update on the strike as it reaches 2.5 years inthesetimes.com/article/work...

I am very sorry for publishing an OpEd with the Post Gazette while the @pghguild.com continues its strike. I am very embarrassed and sorry this happened. I was unaware of the strike. Still, there are no excuses for crossing a picket line.

Sorry I genuinely didn't know that this paper was actively being picketed

Rudi Batzell: ICE's 1850 precedent almost got a Pittsburgher kidnapped into slavery In June of 1851, Charles Wedley was kidnapped in Pittsburgh, marched to Maryland, and nearly sold to a slave master. He was a nineteen year old Black man...

Link www.post-gazette.com/opinion/insi...

OpEd this weekend using the history of the fugitive slave law and the story of Pittsburgh man kidnapped into slavery to examine the oppression and terror of ICE enforcement in immigrant communities

"Resistance to ICE Recalls Resistance to Slavery in the 1850s" - excited and honored to have a guest Op-Ed in the West Coast's oldest and largest Black newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel lasentinel.net/resistance-t...

The resource that I've been working on for the past year has recently been released. It gathers the lost debates of the Irish Parliament from 1776-1801 - a period of deep upheaval in Ireland and the Atlantic world. Please explore at: virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/i...

BE CAREFUL ON CALIFORNIA SOUTH OF DEVON SOUTHBOUND.

On my way to the Chicago Cycling Club Monday night group ride I hit the seam between the asphalt and concrete and came down hard on my right side. Broken hip and wrist, was in the hospital for a week with major surgery on hip.
#cycling #chicago

Was incredible to talk with the great Dr. Gerald Horne about my book, Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery, on his show Freedom Now a few weeks ago. Just found out it aired on @kpfk907fm.bsky.social this morning.

As soon I can walk, I'm tracking down the seemingly harmless seam in the road that did this to me. Cyclists look out for gaps/steps between asphalt roads and the concrete pads installed at many bus stops in Chicago.

Immigration raids in LA Where things stand in protests and response

A lot happening all at once here in LA. So much that is shared online, while fascinating, may be more atmospheric than informational. Reporters @laist.com have thorough update and no paywall. Support public media! laist.com/brief/news/f...

I so agree, @rbatzell.bsky.social. The AHA needs to face up to its problem with democracy

Very disappointing to see this 'letter' on the AHA elections that completely ignores the actual reasons the regular slate is being challenged: AHA members voted overwhelmingly for a resolution condemning scholasticide in Gaza and the executive council vetoed it.

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

If you are in Chicago next Thursday night, please join me and some bad-ass folks for a National Day of Action teach in on the Assault on Science, Humanities, and Human Rights:

Thanks, your work really shaped and informed the project!

My book has arrived! Thanks to @uchicagopress.bsky.social for making sure it shipped in time for the @oah.org roundtable! Grateful, excited, and a bit nervous to have such an amazing crew respond to the project.

My book 💙📚 has a cover! Strange to have so many years of work distilled into a single image, but the designers @uchicagopress.bsky.social did a great job!

MLK in 1968 speech to mark Du Bois' 100th Birthday

Kicking off parental leave with a lentil turkey stock soup improvisation that grew to unexpected proportions

Excited to be in New York for the AHA, panel tomorrow on Race, Labor, and Empire. Just catching the tail end of the conference but get in touch if you're around.

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica | The Art Institute of Chicago The first major exhibition to survey Pan-Africanism’s cultural manifestations gathers together some 350 objects, spanning the 1920s to the present, made by artists on four continents: Africa, Nor...

I’m not remotely unbiased but this show is so, so good—incredible to see a big museum show with this kind of conceptual coherence through hundreds of pieces from across a century and much of the world