NWU Joins NYTWA Protest At Uber HQ

On February 2, NWU joined the NY Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) protest in front of Uber headquarters in Long Island City. The rally was to protest Uber’s attempt to break the one-hour strike against Trump’s Muslim ban at JFK, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s plans to join Trump’s Business Advisory Group. Just before the rally […]

NWU at Women’s March on Washington

About 50 members of the National Writers Union and our friends and family rose before dawn on January 21. We put on our pussy hats—or reasonable facsimile thereof—and climb aboard a fleet of UAW buses that formed a caravan from New York City down to the Women’s March on Washington. We demonstrated in support of […]

NWU is on Women’s Marches from Coast to Coast

NEW YORK “On Election Day, I went in my room and cried. Ever since, I’ve been feeling depressed and scared. I was going to bring my daughter today, but I was scared and kept her at home. But after today, I feel hopeful and confident again.” That’s what one woman, a member of a small […]

Preparing for Trump’s Attacks on the Press

NWU is working more closely with other writers’ groups to develop a strategy to combat the Trump Administration’s hostility towards a free press and the public’s right to know. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s opening press briefing, where he attacked the media and took no questions, and Kellyanne Conway’s theory of “Alternative Facts” are […]

SoCal Meets, Eats, Reads and Plans

Members and friends of the So Cal chapter gathered at Mi Vida boutique in Highland Park, CA, for a holiday meeting and public reading on Sunday, December 18. A delicious assortment of goodies, including Mexican hot chocolate, welcomed the crowd of about 15, roughly a quarter of them NWU members. New member David Marques emceed […]

GSU Infringes on Writers’ Copyrights

In a “friend of the court” brief filed earlier this month, the NWU joined a diverse coalition of writers and photographers to oppose the wholesale scanning of books and journals that are being used for university classes without payment to the original authors or publishers. Instead of having students buy the books for their classes, […]

2016 Year in Review

All in all, it was a very busy year at NWU and we’re better off for it. The elections aside, we still have many challenges ahead, the main one being how to grow, be more active, and better serve our members while, at the same time, cutting back on spending. This is a perpetual riddle […]

NWU Defends Journalists Worldwide

We’ve recently reported on, and denounced, threats of vigilante violence and criminal prosecution against US journalists for doing their jobs. With the President-elect openly encouraging supporters to attack journalists at campaign rallies, we fear attacks on journalists who cover controversial topics in the US will escalate. While we speak out against attacks on US journalists, […]

International Solidarity, International Advocacy

In addition  to our international connections through the UAW, the NWU is affiliated with three international organizations specifically related to our work as writers. In November, I traveled to Europe to meet with them, representing the NWU at meetings of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Authors Forum (IAF), and the International Federation […]

French Law on “Out of Commerce” Books Struck Down

Acting on a lawsuit brought by French freelance authors and supported by the NWU, the European Union’s  Court of Justice has ruled that the French law permitting  distribution of digital copies of books deemed “out of commerce,” without the consent of the authors, violates their rights and is invalid. We think the court was correct […]