English for Activists

This is an interview with Stephen Lerner, on the website of The Progressive, a magazine I subscribe to. (Mavens would say, "to which I subscribe.")

Lerner is director of the Justice for Janitors campaigns for SEIU and is the architect of the SEIU's strategy of consolidating unions and prioritizing organizing. He speaks very clearly about that strategy in this interview.

Right now, there is a major strike in Houston that is part of the Justice for Janitors campaign.

Takasu Hirohiko has a Japanese version of an SEIU video about Justice for Janitors that covers the early years of that campaign.

I have been critical of the SEIU strategy, for several reasons, primarily because I believe it is building an undemocratic and authoritarian form of unionism. But Lerner has many smart observations, raises good questions, and has done very important work.