Episode 36 – NYC Loft Tenants
Fight for universal rent control! We’re joined by Zefrey Throwell (@NYCLT), a filmmaker and long-time advocate of regulation that would make loft housing safer, and more stabilized. People have lived illegally in abandoned commercial space for generations (see also our Artwashing and Soho episode). In more recent years neoliberal economists have embraced this clear sign of societal decay, and artists are often used as pawns to sell luxury-branded converted spaces. We discuss this tension, and get a bit frustrated that different types of working class/poor people are pitted against each other by politicians and big real estate. If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor.
Learn more about the history of tenants rights in NYC, we reference their annual meeting this episode: http://www.metcouncilonhousing.org/
Capital City panel discussion at Verso (Gentrification and the Real Estate State): https://www.facebook.com/ben.mabie.7/videos/10205308465228030/?hc_location=ufi
QNU calls on Queens Arts Council to stop being complicit in displacement: https://www.facebook.com/QueensNeighborhoodsUnited/photos/a.659659297439222/2631245876947211/?type=3&theater
Episode 35 – Rick and Morty and Zardulu
Congratulations! Your dad pulled some strings and got you into The Nancy Reagan School for Wealthy Children!!! Consider this episode your orientation, welcome to hell, we deserve this. You’re pickle Rick, you’re the rat in the metrocard machine. If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor.
Check it out we were interviewed for this: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/art-world-wage-inequality-protests
Episode 34 – Columbia University MFA Students
Live from the beautifully crumbling Prentis Hall! It’s a round table discussion about art schools, debt, student organizing, and the bureaucratic nightmare labyrinth that is privatized education. Shout-out to Fontaine Capel for hosting us and solidarity with the Columbia Graduate Workers bargaining for a fair contract with UAW Local 2110 (@GWCUAW). We also read Lenin and defend a McDonald’s. If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor.
This is why we were talking about the ceilings having (4 million dollar!) nets on them: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/columbia-mfa-students-demand-tuition-refund-1276391
GWC-UAW’s open letter to Columbia: https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2019/02/25/bargaining-for-change-a-letter-to-the-columbia-community/#.XHP-uPObqHM.twitter
Lack of institutional support for teacher and student protest: https://hyperallergic.com/402219/protest-art-and-institutional-support-of-it-is-more-vital-than-ever/
Episode 33 – Fursonas as Class Consciousness
More museum protests! We talk about Liberate Tate’s successful demonstration against BP in 2011, and how groups like Art Not Oil (@artnotoil) and BP or Not BP (@reclaimourbard) are continuing to fight against corporate sponsorship of art exhibitions. To be honest we mostly talk about music, fashion, fucked up real estate, and how much we hate cops. Super fun one!! We just wanna be cool blue guys!! If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor.
Protests of oil sponsors: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/demonstrators-take-over-british-museum-to-protest-against-oil-sponsorships
BP or Not BP counter show: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/bp-p21
History of Liberate Tate demonstration: https://hyperallergic.com/288254/liberate-tate-activists-look-back-on-six-years-of-fighting-bp-sponsorship/
Billionaire Fantasy City Hudson Yards: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/hudson-yard-billionaires-fantasy-city.html
Wacky Pro Amazon Open Letter: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/open-letter-new-york-state-budget-director-robert-mujica-regarding-amazon
Paid Protest!! http://gothamist.com/2019/02/22/pro-amazon_protesters_reportedly_pa.php
I tried to find the “Netflix of the Left” thing, but I can’t, maybe they deleted their bad idea? I left the little talk we had about it on the end of the episode cause I think it was good anyway.
Episode 31 – #supportVAGstaff
The Vancouver Art Gallery workers on currently on strike (@VAGonstrike)! We spoke with long-time curator Grant Arnold about the conditions that led to the strike and how we can support VAG workers. One thing we can all do is write to the director and board chair at ksbartels@vanartgallery.bc.ca and david.calabrigo@canfor.com! If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor
Canadian Union of Public Employee’s Local 15: http://www.cupe15.org/
VAG Workers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vagonstrike/
Episode 30 – The Gas Leak
The dream team is back to get that goop!!! We talk Anime Marx, Venom, and after a long mental breakdown find hope in the recent wins of the anti-Amazon fight. If this episode is too NYC-centric replace “The L Train” with a local crumbling infrastructure of your choice!! If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor
Episode 29 – New Museum Union
UNIONIZE THE ART WORLD! This week we congratulate members of the New Museum Union’s (@newmuseum_union) bargaining committee Dana Kopel (@decafdana), Lily Bartle (@hole_earth), and Alicia Graziano. They won their vote to officially joined UAW Local 2110 last week! We discuss the conditions that led them to unionize, the inadequacy of liberal feminism, suggestions for other workplaces looking to organize, and the unexpected friendships they made along the way. If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor or https://d.rip/artandlabor
NewMuUnion: https://newmuseumunion.org/
Lily in Jacobin: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/new-museum-union-uaw-art-bargaining
Martha Rosler: “‘When workers tell you they need a union, then they need a union,’ Ms. Rosler said by telephone. ‘There is no question that the labor movement is what brought us to whatever good spaces we’ve been brought to socially.'” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/arts/design/union-vote-sparks-debate-at-new-museum.html
Subscribe to Lily’s zine: http://hole.earth/
Decolonize This Place’s video from the Whitney Town Hall: https://twitter.com/decolonize_this/status/1089556316950065153
Episode 28 – Nightlife and Labor Rights with Eric Shorey
We’re joined by Eric Shorey (@Eric_Shorey) to discuss the tricky business of wages and performance. We get into the particularities of trying to organize/advocate for better pay from venues, and how different types of performers are pitted against each other. Drag Queens additionally have to structure their nights around an increasingly more mainstream national television show that almost monopolizes drag content. Here’s our brand new Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor
Drag Queens, Labor Rights, and the Cruel Power Dynamics of Gay Nightlife: https://vinepair.com/articles/drag-queens-labor-rights-paid/
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ And Its Discontents: What Are The Show’s Effects On Local Drag Queens? https://nylon.com/articles/rupauls-drag-race-effect-local-queens
The Nobodies Watching Wrestling: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBnBe0NLOLk0KqlKs4KiXLg
Model Alliance: https://modelalliance.org/child-labor-legislation-press-conference
Stripper Strike: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nyc-stripper-strike_us_5a73880fe4b01ce33eb11c88
Episode 27 – Local 30 at MoMA PS1
More museum unions!! This week we were joined by members of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 30 at MoMA PS1 (@IUOELocal30) Chris Haag (@allwasalmost), Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein (@robinsreport), and Gary T Murphy. We discuss their modest demand for the same pay as their colleagues at MoMA 53rd street. Plus: the precarious nature of 1099s, the stagnation of wages in the face of increasing rents, and the variety of expectations placed on art installers. Support us and get our premium snackcast here: https://d.rip/artandlabor
Sign their petition:
More info on their recent protest:
Find Robin’s recent writing here:
A review of Uberland by Alex Rosenblat
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/feasting-on-precarity/
A review of Temp by Louis Hyman
Find Chris’ music “NO FAN” here:
