
Tre Kwon
Tre is a writer and editor for Left Voice. She is a nurse and member of NYSNA.
Capitalism Breeds Pathogens: An Interview with Epidemiologist Rob Wallace
Evolutionary epidemiologist Rob Wallace speaks with Left Voice healthcare workers Mike Pappas, Tre Kwon, and Cliff Willmeng on the origins of Covid and capitalism’s failure to respond to the crisis.
Tre Kwon
September 7, 2021An ER Nurse, Fired for Demanding Protective Equipment, Fights for his Job
Cliff Willmeng, a registered nurse in Minneapolis and newly-elected board member of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), was fired from his job at United Hospital, Allina Health Corporation for standing up for his and his coworkers’ safety. Today, he is fighting for his job, safer working conditions, and a new anti-racist labor movement.
Tre Kwon
December 14, 2020Tre Kwon: “Frontline Workers Show the Working Class Has Solutions for Society’s Ills”
In a speech given at the international rally of the Trotskyist Fraction this May Day, socialist nurse and editor of Left Voice Tre Kwon speaks about how the present crisis has revealed the contradictions of capitalism, in particular the undervaluation of “feminized” social reproductive labor. She shares her experiences as a frontline worker in the middle of a pandemic and the need to build an independent organization of the working class that fights for working and oppressed people.
Tre Kwon
May 7, 2020Capitalism Is a Virus: Interview with Two Socialist Healthcare Workers from New York
As thousands die each day, bodies are piled into mass graves --- these are the surreal images coming out of the world’s dominant imperialist power. This situation was by no means inevitable, but it was prepared by decades of neoliberal policies, as explained by nurse Tre Kwon and Dr. Mike Pappas from New York, members of Left Voice.
Tre Kwon
April 15, 2020Neither Trump nor Cuomo: Socialist Healthcare Workers Tell Us How to Fight the Pandemic
Capitalism has birthed a nightmare. Nearly two million people around the world have already fallen ill as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals like ours have been completely overwhelmed by the rush of patients. The bodies of the dead are being held in refrigerated trucks. Those who can’t be identified are buried in mass graves. Unemployment may already be as high as 13 percent in the U.S.
Tre Kwon
April 14, 2020Black August in LA: Month of Meaning and Resistance
Organizations across the country are holding events throughout the month to commemorate Black August. For Black revolutionaries and communities, the month of August is emblazoned with the struggles, sacrifices, and resistance of Black people in the United States.
Tre Kwon
August 21, 2019Bronx Nurses Vote Down Contract, Continue to Fight for Safe Staffing Ratios
Despite NYSNA’s official endorsement and best efforts to ratify the tentative agreement, rank-and-file nurses at Montefiore Medical Center rejected the deal. Meanwhile, nurses at other facilities are demanding a re-vote.
Tre Kwon
April 27, 2019A Strike, Deferred: Did NYC Nurses Win Safe Staffing Ratios?
While the union’s headlines claim a historic win, a groundswell of rank-and-file nurses are staunchly opposed to the deal.
Tre Kwon
April 16, 2019At Breaking Point, Nurses Fight for Union at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Left Voice interviews a nurse organizing at the front lines of health care in Baltimore.
Tre Kwon
March 23, 2018Historic Earthquake Shakes Mexico
An urgent action has been called by Section 22 of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) to organize relief brigades for the regions devastated by last night’s earthquake.
Tre Kwon
September 8, 2017The DSA in the Democratic Party Labyrinth
Left Voice’s second issue, “Women on the Front Lines”, is now available for purchase. For every magazine sold, we are donating $1 to a worker controlled factory in Argentina. “When you going to stop selling us out?” Days after police officer Darren Wilson gunned down Michael Brown in August 2014, activists cornered Rev. Jesse Jackson […]
Tre Kwon
June 19, 2017La Migra and Their Unions: Not With Us
Unions representing the Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were among the first to endorse Trump’s nomination for presidency. Several months later, despite federal stays, they carry out detention and deportation orders under Trump’s xenophobic ban on refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly-Muslim countries. The CBP and ICE unions have no place in our labor movement.
Tre Kwon
February 3, 2017Death to Public Programs: Pro-Privatization Hawk to Head Medicaid
With Seema Verma appointed Trump’s head of Medicare and Medicaid, we can expect the acceleration of privatization and dismantling of current government health insurance programs. In the coming months, millions will face the threat of losing their minimal coverage.
Tre Kwon
January 14, 20175 Takeaways from the Huge Socialist Rally in Argentina
A soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, brimming with people: nothing to call home about. An arena packed with over 20,000 Trotskyists—combative rank-and-file unionists, LGBT activists, women organizing against femicide and for abortion rights, university students and youth resisting austerity: a different matter altogether.
Tre Kwon
November 28, 2016US Elections Are a Sham
There’s been a flood of explanations for Trump’s victory. Interpretations aside, his triumph is a measure of how undemocratic the electoral system is.
Tre Kwon
November 16, 2016Black August in LA: Month of Meaning and Resistance
Organizations across the country are holding events throughout the month to commemorate Black August. For Black revolutionaries and communities, the month of August is emblazoned with the struggles, sacrifices, and resistance of Black people in the United States.
Tre Kwon
August 12, 2016Google Erases Palestine from the Map
Google Maps has erased Palestine from the world map in one unannounced moment, replacing it with the word, “Israel.” By doing so, the multinational giant sinks the stake deeper into the heart of the Palestinian people, under siege and under occupation by the Israeli regime for over 60 years.
Tre Kwon
August 8, 2016Before the DNC, Thousands March for Clean Energy
Yesterday in Philadelphia, an estimated seven to ten thousand people marched for “A Clean Energy Revolution” from City Hall to Independence Mall.
Tre Kwon
July 25, 2016Cops Out of Our Unions: A Demand to the AFL-CIO
Workers can organize a united labor fightback against police brutality. One step is to demand that union leaders disaffiliate cop organizations from our unions.
Tre Kwon
July 12, 2016Who Killed Alton Sterling
On Tuesday morning, two police officers murdered Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in cold blood. Footage of the murder quickly circulated and people have begun to protest in the streets. Numerous local and federal agencies have stepped in.
Tre Kwon
July 6, 2016A Year After the Baltimore Uprising
During the last five years, a barrage of police killings and racist hate crimes—many caught on tape—spurred protests that claimed the slogan Black Lives Matter and crescendoed over the course of two years. Until these events broke out, the liberal hegemonic discourse insisted on the idea that we had achieved a post-racial society, especially with Obama's election. Oppressed people and Blacks in particular—with their daily encounters with systemic racism—could not afford the luxury of these illusions.
Tre Kwon
May 19, 2016Healthcare Workers, Stand up: Silence is Not Health
Thousands of public sector workers across the country went on strike yesterday, with the largest concentrations in Buenos Aires Province. Among them were faculty and professors , judicial employees , and healthcare workers. In several cities, their voices could be heard as they marched through the rain, shouting, “Unity and struggle for victory!”
Tre Kwon
April 21, 2016We’ll Take All the Plazas
Around 6 thousand people marched with the PTS to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the military coup.
Tre Kwon
March 25, 2016The Brazilian Crisis in 10 Points
What you need to know about Brazil’s current situation.
Tre Kwon
March 20, 2016Trump and Clinton Win Big on Super Tuesday
Hillary and Trump emerged victorious after last night's round of primaries, securing significant leads in the race for the presidential nomination.
Tre Kwon
March 2, 2016Day of Action Against the Criminalization of Protest
On Wednesday, multiple actions took place around the country calling for the release of long-time social movement referent Milagro Sala, as well as an end to the criminalization of protest, anti-terrorist laws and repressive legislation.
Tre Kwon
January 28, 2016Argentina’s Rude Awakening
In Argentina, a shifting terrain. Macri takes office in an anti-worker tour de force. Layoffs and economic austerity policies, championed as solutions of “urgent necessity.” Disparate displays of worker resistance.
Tre Kwon
January 16, 2016South Korea: The Fight Against Labor Reform and State Repression
In South Korea on Wednesday, about 80,000 workers from 26 companies including Kia, Hyundai, and GM Korea went on strike. The strike was called for by the KCTU, a national confederation of trade unions, in response to the government’s labor market reforms, escalating repression, and the arrest of KCTU President Han Sang-Gyun less than a week ago.
Tre Kwon
December 17, 2015In Baltimore, the Fight for Justice Continues
The last few weeks, Baltimore protesters have returned to the streets to call for justice as the criminal prosecution of the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death begins. New developments in the trials and an out-of-court settlement raise questions about the path to justice through the legal system.
Tre Kwon
September 11, 2015From Buenos Aires to NYC, ‘the Working Class is One and has No Borders!’
On Thursday, August 27, activists and left militants of New York City gathered at the Brooklyn Commons to have a conversation with the workers of MadyGraf, Buenos Aires. The factory was taken over a year ago and has been operating under worker control ever since.
Tre Kwon
September 1, 2015