Jacobin Radio: Lizaveta Merliak and Sarah Mason

Suzi talks to Lizaveta Merliak, International Secretary of the Belarussian Independent Trade Union BNP, about the massive protest movement in the streets in Belarus since August 9, when the blatantly fraudulent election results were announced. President Lukashenko claimed he won 80% of the votes in a deteriorating economic situation and escalating pandemic -- which the government ignored, while spending lavishly on WWII parades. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets, workers have downed their tools to go on strike and join the protest movement – while President Lukashenko has dug in, doubling down on repression and shocking the world with the regime’s brutality.

Sarah Mason, a former Lyft driver and DoorDasher, now a grad student studying platform mediated labor, talks to Suzi about the California Supreme Court decision and Assembly Bill 5, which have determined that Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Doordash and Postmates are not tech apps, but driving companies, and their workers are employees, not independent contractors. The Court has issued an injunction against the companies, and they in turn have threatened to halt services in California until November when voters will vote on their sponsored Proposition 22, which would give them a carveout, an exemption to the law to deny their drivers rights and protections like minimum wage, sick leave and safety protections.