Episode 6: Lester Spence

In this sixth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Lester Spence, Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University. We began the episode by defining the Black Left and power. We spoke about the changes in Black politics because of the advent of neoliberalism. We also had a long conversation about policing and we used that issue as a way to explore the complicated issues of power-building, the value of cross-class Black alliances, and the value of cross-race class alliances. We closed by examining the role of the Black Left in this time period.

Om Podcasten

Black Work Talk is a show that elevates the voices of Black labor, workers, leaders, activists, and intellectuals in discussions on the connections between race, labor, capitalism and culture in the struggle for progressive governing power. On season three of Black Work Talk, new hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers explore the impact of 2023’s strike wave in conversations with rank and file workers from unions that have fought or are still fighting for better, more equitable contracts in 2023; including the UAW, Teamsters, Writers Guild of America and more. Where did the energy for this wave of labor movements come from, what does it mean for black workers, and where does it go from here? They also open the conversation by calling in the 90% of American workers who have yet to organize in their workplace with an ongoing accessible and educational series on the process of organizing and filing to start a union from scratch.