Dave Kamper
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dskamper.bsky.social
Dave Kamper
@dskamper.bsky.social
Avuncular unionist, uxorious husband, labor historian, cat guy. "Who's Got the Power?: The Resurgence of American Unions" coming in 2025 from New Press. Lives in Minnesota. Posts are personal. The cat in the profile pic is Laverne, aka Peanut.
Pinned
Omigodomigodomigod it’s a real book and everything.

On sale October 14th!
Reposted by Dave Kamper
The thing about immigration is that xenophobia and racism are the elite centrist position. Here's a senior fellow at Brookings, spouse of CRFP head Maya MacGuineas, explaining the mere presence of foreigners in Germany is a "problem" that someone must solve with "speed and determination."
November 30, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
🗣️ ain't no power like the power of a union, cuz the power of a union won't stop!

We're EIGHTEEN DAYS into our national ULP strike and only getting louder. Let's hear it for baristas in Gardner, MA for holding the line! #nocontractnocoffee
November 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Rosenkranz and Guildenstern Are Dead tonight in memory of Tom Stoppard.
November 30, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Laverne update
November 30, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Labor gaining just the tiniest amount of power relative to capital a few years back absolutely broke employers' brains
November 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Those are made at the Rochester Tailored Clothing factory in Rochester, NY (formerly known as the Hickey Freeman factory before they offshored production). This is a unionized workforce with immigrants from around the world, some of whom have been with the factory for 50+ years.
November 29, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Italian Pie Shoppe is the best Twin Cities option for Chicago style stuffed pizza.
If you haven't been to Italian Pie Shoppe, Life Juices, Lost Foxes, Roots Wellness Center, Vikings and Goddesses... have you been to runners-up 620 Club, Tease Salon, Cancun Mexican Grill & Cantina, 106 Group and Phe Coffee? St. Paul's 9th Annual Business Awards: www.twincities.com/2025/11/28/s...
St. Paul recognizes five businesses with annual award
The award recognizes five businesses that offer essential services, engage with the community, invest in employees and demonstrate a commitment to equity and diversity.
www.twincities.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Gus the Neighborhood Feral Cat update:

He’s really not a fan of the heated shelter, but last night about 3:45 he went in to eat some food we left for him.
November 29, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
"Western civilization," the font, the 11 stars - 11 states in the confederacy, for the record.

Why is this never news? Why are we letting our government agencies do this sort of thing while the news agencies report on hallucinated trade deals and act like everything is normal
November 29, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I’ve known @megl.bsky.social for fifteen years. She’s smart, passionate, and deeply committed to fighting for a better world. She would make a great legislator.

If you’re able, please consider making a donation to her campaign!

www.megfor64a.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Meg is seeking the DFL endorsement.

Showing an ability to raise money is a big deal for winning the endorsement. It’s one of the reasons why pro-corporate types get endorsed so much.

Help a real champion of working families win by helping her demonstrate she can raise money, too!
November 29, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Labor organizer’s greatest ire is reserved for timid labor lawyers who are too scared to support action.

Meg Luger-Nikolai is THE exception to that rule, the best labor lawyer I know and a helluva human being, and now she’s running for the Minnesota House. Please support her!

www.megfor64a.com
Meg Luger-Nikolai
www.megfor64a.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Today's the last day to submit for our end-of-year publication lists. We're soliciting monographs, journal articles, and book chapters by contingent historians with a 2025 pub date! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians
Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...
contingentmagazine.org
November 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Gus the Neighborhood Feral Cat update:

He’s really not a fan of the heated shelter, but last night about 3:45 he went in to eat some food we left for him.
November 29, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Neighborhood turkeys
Neighborhood opossum
Neighborhood coyote
Sea lion (not in neighborhood)
Mountain goat (also not in neighborhood)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Grizzly bear
Wolf
Orca
Moose
Sea otter
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Moose
Beaver
Black bear
Caribou
Wolf
November 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Guy was making $275,000 a year since 2016 and he stole $290,000.

Seems to me that kind of unnecessary greed is exactly what the Chamber of Commerce stands for.
Strib quotes its own board member saying disgraced Minneapolis Chamber CEO Jonathan Weinhagen’s downfall “could make a TV movie“ though I don’t think they’d characertize other fraudsters that cutesy. Anyway, Weinhagen pal & beneficiary Jacob Frey ducks comment. www.startribune.com/jonathan-wei...
Former Minneapolis Chamber CEO’s downfall ‘could make a TV movie’
Erstwhile wunderkind Jonathan Weinhagen hastily left the chamber after an internal investigation discovered $290,000 missing. He is expected to enter a plea Monday on fraud charges.
www.startribune.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
There has literally never been a universal basic income trial program that didn't deliver real and measurable results above and beyond any other form of social welfare, and every time another concludes with the same findings the powers that be go "interesting! Anyway," and pretend it wouldn't work.
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM
This is the sort of thing you see when the leader of the party is perceived to be a liability down the ticket. And when you’re less afraid of being his enemy than being his friend.
h/t @adamwren.bsky.social

Michael Bohacek, a Republican state senator from Indiana who has a daughter with down syndrome, says he will vote against redistricting in Indiana after Trump used the word "retarded."
November 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Hegseth is a cold-blooded murderer. There's no way to dress it up. He's a criminal. And his was precisely the kind of illegal order that those Dem members of Congress urged the military not to follow. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Also recognize that this unambiguous use of the military to commit murder of helpless noncombatants as they fought for life is a direct reflection of the virulent white supremacy that has seized our government, where every Latino man is a gangbanger in a de facto state of war against White America
November 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
Labor peeps: best book/article on the 1930s labor upsurge from the AFL’s point of view?

Seems everything I read is the CIO’s perspective, with the AFL playing the villain. Want to see the opposite perspective, ideally something produced in this century that has some historical analysis.
November 28, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
So this may seem obvious to you and me, but it's important to repeat and underscore to every normie we can: Trump's goal was always to end *legal* immigration for anyone he deems not white.

A *lot* of Trump voters believed the lie that only "illegal" immigrants would be targeted.
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Labor peeps: best book/article on the 1930s labor upsurge from the AFL’s point of view?

Seems everything I read is the CIO’s perspective, with the AFL playing the villain. Want to see the opposite perspective, ideally something produced in this century that has some historical analysis.
November 28, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Dave Kamper
This day in Labor History: November 28, 1901. A strike among Cuban cigar workers in Tampa, Florida collapsed after workers inspired by the Cuban revolutionary Jose Martí sought to create a cross-racial organization to resist employer oppression and fight for Cuban nationalism!!!
November 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM