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Rudi Batzell

@rbatzell.bsky.social
136 followers 128 following 25 posts

Book: "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" with UChicago Press. Historian of capitalism, labor, race, and gender inequality. Chicago DSA, motorcycle maniac, parenting fanatic.

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UCP Workers Guild @ucpworkersguild.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
UCP’s starting pay for a FT employee is less than $40K. This doesn’t line up with Chicago's COL or its average rent and home prices. We understand the value we bring to our jobs, and we believe our wages should align with the real costs of living a comfortable life in the city where we work.
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UCP Workers Guild @ucpworkersguild.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Read more about our union in the Chicago Sun-Times: chicago.suntimes.com/work/2026/05...
chicago.suntimes.com
University of Chicago Press workers form union
Nearly 140 employees are eligible to join the new guild at one of the country’s largest and oldest university presses.
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UCP Workers Guild @ucpworkersguild.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
We’re unionizing! Workers at UCP are forming a union with the Chicago NewsGuild, TNG-CWA Local 34071, joining the nationwide movement for a stronger publishing industry.
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Jessica Ann Levy @jessicaannlevy.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
If you’re @oah.org in Philly come hear @benchansfield.bsky.social @rbatzell.bsky.social @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social Patrick Chung and I discuss our new books on race and capitalism in the US and the world this afternoon (1:30-3pm)
Text image with information about conference Book Talk: New Books on Race and Capitalism in the US and the World
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Excited to talk about my book with my favorite economist Ellora Derenoncourt and her econ pals at the Princeton Program for Research on Inequality. If you're around April's 1, I'd love to see you
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
I discovered Tom Alter's work when I was tracing the legacies of Irish agrarian radicalism and I came across his research on the collaboration between Mexican and Irish radicals in the Texas Socialist Party.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Tom Alter has been fired after a supposed "due process" hearing. This is an extremely dangerous violation of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Please donate and sign. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fr...
gofundme.com
Donate to URGENT: Tom has been fired! Defend him and free speech now!, organized by Kim Gasper-Rabuck
The Unthinkable has happened! Dr. Tom Alter has been term… Kim Gasper-Rabuck needs your support for URGENT: Tom has been fired! Defend him and free speech now!
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LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History @laborlawchajournal.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Don't forget to mark your calendars for LABOR's Big Book Forum (Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET, via Zoom) featuring @rbatzell.bsky.social's new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery. The event is free and open to the public. Register today! go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025
flier for LABOR's Big Book Forum featuring pics of the participants and the registration link: go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Just landed in Atlanta for @asalh-bhm.bsky.social and excited to be participating in this new books roundtable this afternoon with Gus Wood and Naomi R Williams. So honored to have Joe Trotter as chair.
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LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History @laborlawchajournal.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
We are excited to announce Labor's Big Book Forum for 2025! Scheduled for Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET via Zoom, this year we feature Rudi Batzell's (@rbatzell.bsky.social) new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social)
A flier that says: 2025 Labor Big Book Forum; Friday Oct 17 2-4 ET ; Register Today! with the link: go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025 ; and has a picture of the book "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" which features four sets of raised fists, alternating between red and blue.
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Noah Blan @noahwblan.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
248 pages. 80,000+ words. 10 years in the making. It’s out of my hands (for) now. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
media.tenor.com
a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer
Alt: a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer typing frantically
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The University of Chicago Press @uchicagopress.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Read the Sun-Times article here: chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-t...
chicago.suntimes.com
OSHA nominee likely to fail at the job of protecting workers
Given his record of denying workers protections at UPS, David Keeling isn't the right person for the job. Also, protecting voters, drivers ignoring stop signs, sports stadiums and Trump.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Quoted the great WEB DuBois in a letter to the Chicago Sun Times on OSHA nominee David Keeling, infamous for making UPS drivers cook, and why the history of slavery that Trump wants to hide from matters because it helps explain why US workers are so likely to be killed at work.
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LAWCHA: Labor and Working-Class History Association @lawcha.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
@rbatzell.bsky.social discussed his new book, "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery," on today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast. Check out the latest installment in the Labor 131 series via the link below. www.podbean.com/media/share/...
podbean.com
Rudi Batzell, UAW | Ken Margolies, Union Search
This edition of Labor 131, presented by the National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, features Rudi Batzell, Associate Professor of History at Lake Forest College and former UAW...
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
I am very sorry for publishing an OpEd with the Post Gazette while the @pghguild.com continues its strike. I am very embarrassed and sorry this happened. I was unaware of the strike. Still, there are no excuses for crossing a picket line.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
OpEd this weekend using the history of the fugitive slave law and the story of Pittsburgh man kidnapped into slavery to examine the oppression and terror of ICE enforcement in immigrant communities
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
"Resistance to ICE Recalls Resistance to Slavery in the 1850s" - excited and honored to have a guest Op-Ed in the West Coast's oldest and largest Black newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel lasentinel.net/resistance-t...
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Joel Herman @joelherman.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
The resource that I've been working on for the past year has recently been released. It gathers the lost debates of the Irish Parliament from 1776-1801 - a period of deep upheaval in Ireland and the Atlantic world. Please explore at: virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/i...
virtualtreasury.ie
The Irish House of Commons, 1776–1801 - Virtual Treasury
Virtual Treasury
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
BE CAREFUL ON CALIFORNIA SOUTH OF DEVON SOUTHBOUND. On my way to the Chicago Cycling Club Monday night group ride I hit the seam between the asphalt and concrete and came down hard on my right side. Broken hip and wrist, was in the hospital for a week with major surgery on hip. #cycling #chicago
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Was incredible to talk with the great Dr. Gerald Horne about my book, Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery, on his show Freedom Now a few weeks ago. Just found out it aired on @kpfk907fm.bsky.social this morning.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
As soon I can walk, I'm tracking down the seemingly harmless seam in the road that did this to me. Cyclists look out for gaps/steps between asphalt roads and the concrete pads installed at many bus stops in Chicago.
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Toby Higbie @thigbie.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
A lot happening all at once here in LA. So much that is shared online, while fascinating, may be more atmospheric than informational. Reporters @laist.com have thorough update and no paywall. Support public media! laist.com/brief/news/f...
laist.com
Immigration raids in LA
Where things stand in protests and response
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Julie Greene @greeneland.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
I so agree, @rbatzell.bsky.social. The AHA needs to face up to its problem with democracy
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Very disappointing to see this 'letter' on the AHA elections that completely ignores the actual reasons the regular slate is being challenged: AHA members voted overwhelmingly for a resolution condemning scholasticide in Gaza and the executive council vetoed it.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 18/04/2025
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.
Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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Katherine Franke @katherinefranke.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
If you are in Chicago next Thursday night, please join me and some bad-ass folks for a National Day of Action teach in on the Assault on Science, Humanities, and Human Rights:
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
My book has arrived! Thanks to @uchicagopress.bsky.social for making sure it shipped in time for the @oah.org roundtable! Grateful, excited, and a bit nervous to have such an amazing crew respond to the project.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
My book 💙📚 has a cover! Strange to have so many years of work distilled into a single image, but the designers @uchicagopress.bsky.social did a great job!
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
MLK in 1968 speech to mark Du Bois' 100th Birthday
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Kicking off parental leave with a lentil turkey stock soup improvisation that grew to unexpected proportions
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Excited to be in New York for the AHA, panel tomorrow on Race, Labor, and Empire. Just catching the tail end of the conference but get in touch if you're around.
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Gabriel Winant @gabrielwinant.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
I’m not remotely unbiased but this show is so, so good—incredible to see a big museum show with this kind of conceptual coherence through hundreds of pieces from across a century and much of the world
artic.edu
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica | The Art Institute of Chicago
The first major exhibition to survey Pan-Africanism’s cultural manifestations gathers together some 350 objects, spanning the 1920s to the present, made by artists on four continents: Africa, Nor...
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Gabriel Winant @gabrielwinant.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Everyone who thinks invoking "settler colonialism" and decolonization" = moral simplicity is revealing that they haven't thought in any detail about these ideas and refuse to do so
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
It's been a good semester of bike commuting. One last ride up and back for final exams. #cycling
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Gabriel Winant @gabrielwinant.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Concluding our regional series is this incredible episode on the West, covering violent and internecine workers’ struggles in agriculture, freight, canneries, and logistics (connected industries), as well as the wartime aviation boom podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
podcasts.apple.com
The West Coast
Podcast Episode · Haymarket Originals: Fragile Juggernaut · S1 E16 · 2h 34m
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Grant Hayden @granthayden.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
“Intellectual diversity is essentially a fake problem that is used to create cover for ideologically committed, far-right faculty who are not intellectually honest.” Craig Campbell, UT anthropology professor. www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-11...
austinchronicle.com
The Right-Wingification of UT
Texas targets liberal enemies within one of the top U.S. schools
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Julia Gaffield, PhD @juliagaffield.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I am thrilled to share the cover of my forthcoming book, I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom (June 2025 @yalepress.bsky.social) The stunning painting is by Haitian-American artist Ulrick Jean-Pierre (ulrickjeanpierre.com) yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Now here's some good news for the weekend. A unit of nearly 10,000 workers!
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 27/10/2024
I wish everyone would accept that things really can change – in either direction: It really could get much, much worse. But it could also get better. There is nothing inevitable about either doom or progress, nor are we fated/guaranteed to experience the status quo for all eternity.
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Rudi Batzell @rbatzell.bsky.social · 19/10/2024
Too many platforms and apps, I can barely figure this stuff out. Is this where things are going?
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