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Today, Instacart and Amazon workers are walking off the job to protect themselves.









Instacart workers across the country are walking off the job today. They say it’s an emergency protest against unsafe working conditions and low pay during the coronavirus pandemic.

Instacart allows customers to send in orders that workers then pick up at grocery stores and deliver to customers’ homes. Needless to say, it has become very popular in the last few weeks.

Worker-organizers wrote an open letter to management, saying “Instacart has turned this pandemic into a PR campaign, portraying itself the hero of families that are sheltered-in-place, isolated, or quarantined.” Instacart, workers say, is not providing adequate protective materials like hand sanitizer or paid sick leave. Nor are workers compensated for the time lost to delays due to long lines and empty shelves since they’re paid per job and not per hour.

All of this is happening during a purported boom in business for the company, which is claiming it will hire an additional 300,000 workers during the pandemic.







Read more of “This Walkout Is to Protect Instacart Workers”









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“My job description says have a high school diploma and lift fifty pounds. It doesn't say risk my life working during a pandemic.” We talk to a NYC Amazon worker about a walk-off to protect workers against the “epicenter of the next coronavirus wave.”

In chaotic times, New York governor Andrew Cuomo wants to convince you he is the calm, competent leader you need. It’s been effective — so effective you might miss that even in a pandemic, Cuomo is fighting to protect the rich and impose austerity, including devastating Medicaid cuts, on everyone else.

Texas and Ohio have ordered a stop to abortions, saying they’re not essential medical services. Other states will follow. Right-wing forces are using the pandemic as a pretext to crack down dramatically on abortion rights.

This crisis has exposed the absurdities of neoliberalism. That doesn’t mean it’ll destroy it.








This week on Stay at Home







A few times a week, Jacobin will host a left-wing thinker on our YouTube channel to explain an idea for around twenty minutes. Then we’ll take questions from our virtual audience for a brief Q&A.


Unless noted otherwise, all episodes will begin at 6pm EDT.




Mon, March 30: Karen Narefsky on why we demand public housing construction.

Tues, March 31: Leigh Phillips on why the free market can’t handle pandemics.

Wed, April 1: Vijay Prashad on the rise of Modi and Hindu nationalism in India.

Thurs, April 2: Tony Wood on how the transition to capitalism devastated 1990s Russia.

Fri, April 3: Sabrina Fernandes on how far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro took over Brazil.

Sat, April 4: Matt Karp on how it took a mass movement to end US slavery.

Sun, April 5: Grace Blakeley on the UK Labour Party after Corbyn.
[Will begin at 12pm EDT]




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