C ✊ UVW-CWA

🔥PREORDER NOW: Historical Materialism VANGUARD EDITION🔥

FINALLY!! Part 2 of our book series is now available for preorder after nearly 3 years of hard work!

Starving child in Gaza was killed minutes after receiving aid, former US military contractor says Anthony Aguilar, who worked at the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), says the child kissed his hand and thanked him before he was shot dead by Israeli forces

Middle East Eye: "📰 A former US Army Special Forces officer, who resigned from his role at the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) last month, has said that an emaciated child was shot dead by Israeli forces moments after receiving aid.

It doesn’t get any more evil than this folks

Here's a photo from Jordan. Chris Smalls will be flying into Newark Friday morning

Grateful to the folks who have made this matching donation period possible.

QGCon needs your help -- please spread the word and donate if you can. At a time where queer art is increasingly being censored, help us provide much-needed resources for our presenters! 💖💖💖

🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨
After 4 years of work, my solarpunk game finally has a title, a trailer, and a Steam page!

Wishlist... Future? No Thanks!
👉 futurenothanks.com

Labors of love and organizing for solidarity within, across, and beyond the cultural industries | National Council on Public History At NCPH's annual meeting in Montreal this year, one session focused on how workers across industries are demanding structural change through an unprecedented wave of labor organizing.

A great blog post by @amandatobinripley.bsky.social about our panel discussion on worker organizing in the cultural industries at the National Council on Public History Conference earlier this year. It was an honour to be there alongside some amazing organizers/researchers.
ncph.org/history-at-w...

PANEL It's Dangerous To Go Alone: The Road To Our Union Giselle Francis (She/Her) Carolyn Jong (She/Her) Roland Quiros (He/Him) James F. Wright (He/Him) While the game industry attracts talented, passionate workers the world over, it's notorious for rewarding those workers with low wages, long hours, and layoffs. But workers have been changing this with their collective power, often led by the most vulnerable, including developers of color. In this panel, we'll hear from labor organizers about their experiences making this industry do better by them and their fellow workers. We'll explore what led them to organize, the victories, the defeats, the comebacks, and how they navigated spaces that were not built with them in mind.

Attending @gdocexpo.com? A few of our organizers will be hosting a panel about their experiences. See you there! ❤️

The government of Israel is exterminating every man, woman and child in Gaza. And our governments, and most leaders of liberal institutions in "the West" - parties both left and right, the press, universities - are doing all they can to support this. This is the central political fact of our time.

Know Them By Their Fruits Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Know Them By Their Fruits

Those tiny skeletal bodies you’re seeing on your social media feed are the fruits of the empire. The shredded, eviscerated, decapitated children you’ve been seeing in footage from Gaza since 2023 are the fruits of the empire.
www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/know-them-...

*slams fist on table* THIS! So many people care! I’ve been talking about Palestine since I was ten and I’ve NEVER seen such mass support, such changed minds. Millions care so much and our governments aren’t listening and THAT is the problem. And it goes far beyond the US.

An update: management has chosen not to recognize our Product, Engineering, and Humble Bundle colleagues as part of IGNCG, instead insisting on a time-consuming NLRB hearing, which took place last week.

Help us spread the word: we will not be divided. We are IGN, and we will always stand together.

YouTube video by Anna C. Webster A Brief History of Labor in the USA and What It Has to Do With The Modern Games Industry (REUPLOAD)

Due to popular demand, I re-uploaded my YouTube video about labor history in the USA and what it has to do with the modern games industry, now with no sudden volume increases! :)

youtu.be/g1rlCfaRT1I

You want to know how to get some job security in this volatile industry? This is how. This right here. When you're in a union, if you get laid off, your layoff is NEGOTIATED, not just dropped on you as a traumatic event you have zero control over.

First part of the ZeniMax Online Studio United-CWA statement that reads, Earlier this month, Microsoft indefinitely shelved an unannounced MMORPG at ZeniMax Online Studios, a shock to the 222 ZOSU-CWA developers working on the project. It has been heartening and validating to see our game mentioned in the press and by players that would have loved to see the results of our work. Undoubtedly, a future has been stolen from many of us and our community will never experience an amazing game. However, despite discussions regarding the status of our employment, the fact is: we have not yet been laid off. While we understand that for most of us something like a layoff is inevitable, last December both the teams behind The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) and the unannounced project voted overwhelmingly to form a union and establish ZeniMax Online Studios United-CWA (ZOSU-CWA). Worker-volunteers elected to represent the interests of our union are currently bargaining with Microsoft for the benefit of our impacted teammates. While Microsoft and ZOSU-CWA bargain over how we move forward following the project closure, the developers behind the unannounced project remain employees of ZeniMax Online Studios with full pay and benefits.

Second part of the ZeniMax Online Studio United-CWA statement that reads: On July 2nd, our lives were upended without prior notice or communication from Microsoft leadership and without clear understanding about the status of our employment. In light of this, our union came together with urgency, gathering and distributing information and resources to our affected members. Where Microsoft has failed to support the talented craftspeople who have generated billions in revenue, our union has stepped up to provide clarity and support. It is true that a layoff may be in the future for some of our members. However, as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity. More importantly, the work of ZOSU-CWA will continue so that our remaining teammates — the stalwart developers of ESO — can follow in the footsteps of our colleagues across other departments and studios at Microsoft, including our union siblings at ZeniMax Workers United (ZWU-CWA). We look forward to other units who will soon ratify fair contracts that will guarantee the rights we all deserve. In solidarity, ZeniMax Online Studios United-CWA (ZOSU-CWA)

On July 2nd, Microsoft announced they were shelving an unannounced project at ZOS, a shock to over 200 of our devs working on the project.

However, despite discussions regarding the status of our employment, the fact is: we have not yet been laid off.

Our full statement can be found below.

“In appearance, [American imperialism] is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of; it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain.”

I haven't fleshed it out into a full article, but at DiGRA last year I presented this talk which was a Marxist analysis of the tendency of (indie) developers becoming publishers after a big hit. Maybe of interest to the current discourse I'm seeing around publishers

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ey014...

OKAY HERE IT IS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LABOR IN THE USA AND WHAT IT HAS TO DO WITH THE MODERN GAMES INDUSTRY

youtu.be/OmV1QTzfyRo?...

In a scene that embodied the highest values of brotherhood and humanity, all the neighborhood residents joined forces to rescue Hajj Abu Imad Younis after his home was bombed in the Nuseirat camp, central Gaza Strip.

You may be thinking "How can an entire political party be organized around the policy of taking from everyone and giving to the rich? No one would vote for them." Well that's where Lying comes in

The capitalist class is on its way out. Things are horrible now because they’re getting more and more desperate, and trying harder and harder to squeeze blood from a stone, but the future belongs to us.

a medieval-style digital art piece. In the center, there’s text reading “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.” written in black gothic script, with a colorful blue, pink, and green dragon hanging upside down acting as the capital L. There is also a smaller red, blue, and yellow dragon as a filler at the end of the text. There’s a thin, blue and white border around the edges.

anyway, in the wise words of @prisonculture.bsky.social :

all workers in US/Canada, unemployed, freelancers: uvw-cwa.org
take an organizer training: code-cwa.org/organizer-tr...

quebec 🚩
join game workers unite montreal: gwumtl.com
contact the CSN national union campaign: sesyndiquer.org/jeux-video

An argument I've seen against unionization is that workers demanding better from employers will only incentivize bosses to replace them with AI. There is nothing you can give to or give-up for a growth-obsessed CEO that would discourage them from trying this regardless. Fight for what's yours now.

We’re Done Playing Video game workers strike back. Over the last few years, game workers have been struck by unprecedented mass layoffs, driven by corporate greed and short-term profit seeking. While employers treat us...

Mass layoffs affecting thousands of workers. Cancelled development cycles sweeping years of hard work under the rug.

We have seen time and again how little the worker matters to corporate leadership.

🪶 Sign & share the first step for change:
actionnetwork.org/forms/were-d...

If you’re in North America, PLEASE consider joining @videogameworkers.bsky.social. We cannot allow these robber-baron execs to keep doing this to our profession and art form. We deserve dignity.

Unemployed workers and freelancers/contractors are all welcome in our union. We MUST fight back.

A lot of people are working really hard behind the scenes to try to make things better, but for those efforts to succeed, the majority of game workers need to get involved. Collective action can shift the balance of power, but it's gotta be all of us together.

We’re Done Playing Video game workers strike back. Over the last few years, game workers have been struck by unprecedented mass layoffs, driven by corporate greed and short-term profit seeking. While employers treat us...

If you're mad about these layoffs (and every other layoff that's happened over the last few years in this trashfire of an industry) please sign & share this petition. Channel that rage into action. It's just a small 1st step, but it's an important one.
actionnetwork.org/forms/were-d...