Isabel 🇵🇸🍉

Exoplaneteer || @NSF graduate fellow || Union member || She/her || Anti-Zionist Jew #FreePalestine 🇵🇸

[California Federation of Labor Unions @CaliforniaLabor]

TODAY IS THE DAY! Show solidarity with REI Union members by making a pledge to boycott REI, both in-store and online, starting today through May 25!

In just one year on the job, REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton has chosen to break her promises and punish workers. After the largest member uprising in Co-op history, REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton promised to "return the Co-op to its roots." She LIED.

Instead, she has:
• Promised to "accelerate AI" as a priority for 2026
• Illegally implemented drastic cuts to union workers' pay and benefits
• Hired Trump's favorite union-busting law firm
• Made it harder for workers to get healthcare

Boycott REI. Let's send a message to REI loud and clear: No contract, no gear!

[Isabel 🇵🇸🍉 @exo__isa]

Two books that changed me a little this year:

[shﾑn @preset_2m3]

There is so much to read and learn about. There is so much to learn
I’m going to have a heart attack

[UCSC4COLA @payusmoreucsc]

Almost 5 months into bargaining, it's clear that talks at the table aren't going to be enough to win big. As we gear up for a likely strike in coming months, researchers across UC should read this & learn from the researcher strike that took things the furthest and won the most.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

One of the dockworkers leading the Genoa strike in solidarity with the Gaza flotilla — named Romeo, or course — says that his father, also a dockworker, joined a flotilla to Vietnam to break the U.S. blockade.

[Long-Haul @longhaul_mag]

Riley Collins recounts the history of interracial organizing in New Orleans during the great depression–when dramatic direct action “seeded a legacy of collaboration among white and Black teacher unionists acting ‘in treason to local mores’ of racial hierarchy.”

[Leroy @deadbeatregular]

You can’t just opt out of US imperialism. It is up to you to work tirelessly to throw yourself into its gears and grind the machine to a halt. You can only do that from the point of production, from the workplace.

[Isabel 🇵🇸🍉 @exo__isa]

Such a useful, clear-eyed reflection on striking as university researchers: https://t.co/dyDvRl7lV9

[Paolo Mossetti @paolomossetti]

Here's the translation of the speech of one of the dockworker's leaders in Genoa, before the departure of the ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

“I want this to be clear to everyone -- really to everyone: around mid-September these boats will arrive near the coast of Gaza, close to the critical zone. If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades, even for just twenty minutes, we will block all of Europe. I’ve written it down so I won’t forget it. Together with our union, together with all the dockworkers who stand with us, together with the whole city of Genoa… from this region 13–14 thousand containers leave every year for Israel, not a single nail will leave anymore.

We will launch an international strike, we will block the roads, we will block the schools, we will block everything. Our young women and men must come back without a scratch, and all this cargo, which belongs to the people and is going to the people, must reach its destination, down to the very last box. That's all I have to say.”

[איישע @protosemite]

🗣️

[Grant @grantdminer]

Many faculty buy into presentations from their colleagues about hard financial realities hook, line, and sinker because they think they’re important enough to get “the real info” about cuts. Unfortunately, you are not! The money IS there — it’s just being given to someone else.

[أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif @AnasAlSharif0]

This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.

Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.

I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.

I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you to take care of my family. I entrust you with my beloved daughter Sham, the light of my eyes, whom I never got the chance to watch grow up as I had dreamed.

I entrust you with my dear son Salah, whom I had wished to support and accompany through life until he grew strong enough to carry my burden and continue the mission.

I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers brought me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah grants her strength and rewards her on my behalf with the best of rewards.

I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan), from whom the war separated me for many long days and months. Yet she remained faithful to our bond, steadfast as the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend—patient, trusting in Allah, and carrying the responsibility in my absence with all her strength and faith.

I urge you to stand by them, to be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles. I testify before Allah that I am content with His decree, certain of meeting Him, and assured that what is with Allah is better and everlasting.

O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me with mercy, for I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it.

Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.

Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025

This is what our beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom.

[Justin Gilmore @prouns_]

Really interesting piece. In addition to the need for worker-student solidarity is the cross-pollination of tactics. The SFSU encampment used an "open bargaining" approach taken from the troublemakers wing of the labor movement—making negotiations with admin more democratic.

[MIT Coalition for Palestine - Commentary @m1t_caa]

If you didn't know, here's the context for Megha Vemuri's speech. @MIT laboratories take MILLIONS of dollars from the IDF for projects with obvious military and surveillance applications. @MIT_CSAIL @MITLIDS and Biological Engineering especially.

https://t.co/c10jZaY7D0

[Isabel 🇵🇸🍉 @exo__isa]

UC workers, sign here to push for open, hybrid bargaining: https://t.co/AKVyTyFOWz

[UCSC4COLA @payusmoreucsc]

Workers of UAW 4811 might soon anticipate a triumphant announcement from their bargaining team (BT) lauding the “win” as they pushed the UC to commit to “open bargaining.” Those workers should be wary of any double-speak. 🧵(1/14)

[DSA Communist Caucus ♠️ @DSACommunists]

A deeply important and broadly relevant insight: "'Militant' workers in this strike were defined less by radical opinions they might profess as individuals than by their confidence in taking risky action because they were moving with their closest coworkers"

[Isabel 🇵🇸🍉 @exo__isa]

"Over time, networks of trust within departments build a higher bar for what workers feel they deserve, an appetite for winning, a culture of collective deliberation and decision-making, & an analysis of how strike leverage emanates from the direct conditions of work."

[Long-Haul @longhaul_mag]

One year ago today, academic workers at UC Santa Cruz assembled at the base of campus and raised a picket, launching the first significant strike in solidarity with Palestine as part of the wave of activism that surged across US universities that spring.

https://t.co/44khz66CXy

[Isabel 🇵🇸🍉 @exo__isa]

@OGBlackRedGuard How can you organize in a way that sticks, if not with the workers themselves? https://t.co/QToUXqHalm

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

Someone made a helpful guide to accessing scientific papers: