Fernando Gapasin

Picture of Fernando Gapasin

Fernando Gapasin

I am Fernando E. Gapasin, a Chicano/Pilipino/American, working class, male, age 62, who was born and resides in the U.S.A. I am also a Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) President, Labor Educator and author. I come from a family of farm workers who were founders of agricultural unions before the UFW and were themselves founders of the UFW. In 1963, I was involved in my first union strike and I have been an activist in a dozen different unions and three different central labor councils. I am an activist in both the Chicano/a movement and the U.S. union movement for 45-years. For the past 34-years I have been committed to the vision of creating a politically relevant international movement for socialism. As president of a small labor council in a rural area I have been committed to the idea of creating an on the ground model of what my co-author, Bill Fletcher, Jr. and I ,in our book, Solidarity Divided, describe as social justice unionism. My focus has been wrapped around the idea that unions can't organize workers by themselves and that it takes a whole community to organize workers and keep them organized. For the past 7-years we have been committed to developing cultures of solidarity especially around the idea of democratic rights for all immigrant workers. I am attracted to the Reimagining Society Project because I believe that before the people can create a world for all the people we have to recreate a vision for an alternative world that contrasts with the world of international capitalism. I want to expand the discourse for creating cultural values that enhance cultures of solidarity that promote self reflection, open mindedness, appreciation for all life, compassion and optimism. This ultimately manifests itself in political projects that improve the living conditions of all people by creating a societal base that provides shelter, health care, transportation, education, a healthy environment and fulfilling employment for all.

Subscribe

All the latest from Z, directly to your inbox.

Institute for Social and Cultural Communications, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Our EIN# is #22-2959506. Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

We do not accept funding from advertising or corporate sponsors.  We rely on donors like you to do our work.

ZNetwork: Left News, Analysis, Vision & Strategy

THE WIND CRIES FREEDOM

The Wind Cries Freedom, the new book from Z co-founder Michael Albert, is a sweeping oral history of a future American revolution.

Through thirty interconnected chapters, it draws out the strategies, failures, turning points, and hard-won wisdom of a movement that called itself the Revolutionary Participatory Society. These are not the polished memoirs of politicians: they are the unfiltered accounts of people who organized in neighborhoods, hospitals, universities, stadiums, courthouses, and places of worship, and kept a shared vision alive through cynicism and exhaustion.

The result is speculative political fiction that reads like history: messy, human, and quietly hopeful in the way that only real experience and long thought can produce.

Get your copy and peruse more features on the book’s website below.

“Read it, argue with it, but don’t look away. The future it recalls is one we must still fight to deserve.”

Yanis Varoufakis

“The most unusual and intriguing combination of prophecy, manifesto, and movement building manual that I have ever encountered.”

Bill Fletcher Junior

“This work fills a huge gap in our social movement literature.”

Cynthia Peters

You've just read your article on Z this month.

DOES Z'S SURVIVAL MATTER?

You keep coming back for a reason: serious political analysis, movement reporting, and debate beyond the priorities of corporate media. Today, Z is in a precarious financial position. If Z is part of how you understand the world, help keep it going. The readers who give monthly are the reason this work survives between fundraisers.

Z is in a precarious financial position. If it’s part of how you understand the world, help keep it going.

Number of donors707
Our goal1,000

Sustainers at $9/month or more receive the digital Z Magazine.

Already a sustainer? Click here and we won’t ask again. Thank you!

Your reading count is stored only in your browser and is never sent to us.

Sound is muted by default.  Tap 🔊 for the full experience

CRITICAL ACTION

Critical Action is a longtime friend of Z and a music and storytelling project grounded in liberation, solidarity, and resistance to authoritarian power. Through music, narrative, and multimedia, the project engages the same political realities and movement traditions that guide and motivate Z’s work.

If this project resonates with you, you can learn more about it and find ways to support the work using the link below.

Z is in the most precarious financial position in its history.

Z is a place to think beyond the limits of the present.

For decades, Z has brought together political analysis, movement reporting, debate, and visions of a different future from writers and activists around the world. That work is more than journalism. It is movement infrastructure: movements need places to develop ideas, test arguments, learn from experience, and imagine what comes next.

In the first two days of this fundraiser, 19 donors and 8 new monthly sustainers stepped up. Help us reach 1,000 donors who keep Z independent, for everyone.

For decades, Z has published the analysis, debate, and visions movements need, free of paywalls, ads, and billionaire owners. If that work should continue, Z needs your support now.

Number of donors707
Our goal1,000

Sustainers at $9/month or more receive the digital Z Magazine.

Subscribe

Join the Z Community – receive event invites, announcements, a Weekly Digest, and opportunities to engage.