Skip to content
menu
search
Labor

The Incredible, Winding Path of a Working-Class Nurse in Wisconsin

A conversation with long-time artist, activist, and registered nurse Susan Simensky Bietila in Milwaukee.

Maximillian Alvarez

Longtime activist artist and registered nurse Susan Simensky Bietila speaks with TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez in her home in Milwaukee on June 2, 2021. Screenshot/TRNN.

To commemorate Working People​’s 200th episode, we have a special installment of our series of conversations with teachers, organizers, scholars, and activists in Wisconsin that TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez, Cameron Granadino (TRNN), and Hannah Faris (In These Times) recorded in the summer of 2021 as part of a special collaboration between The Real News Network and In These Times magazine for ​“The Wisconsin Idea.” In this episode, Alvarez talks with longtime artist, activist, and registered nurse Susan Simensky Bietila in Milwaukee. Hearkening back to the episodes we published in the first season of Working People, this is an extended conversation that traces the incredible, winding path that Simensky Bietila has taken in life, from growing up in the projects in New York to drawing and collaging for The Guardian, the radical US newsweekly, during the height of the Vietnam War, to protesting at the Wisconsin State Capitol in 2011 during the Wisconsin Uprising.

Additional links/​info below…

Permanent links below…

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive at freemu​si​carchive​.org):

  • Jules Taylor, ​“Working People Theme Song”

Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InThe​se​Times​.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.

Have thoughts or reactions to this or any other piece that you'd like to share? Send us a note with the Letter to the Editor form.
More articles by Maximillian Alvarez
LaborInterviewPodcast
“Patients should not be treated like commodities”: Baltimore Nurses Are Fighting for a Transformative First Contract
Understaffing leaves nurses pulled in multiple directions and unable to offer optimal care. These nurses are fighting to change that.
Maximillian Alvarez
LaborInterviewPodcast
Flooding in Brazil Has Displaced More Than 600,000 People From Their Homes as States Slash Prevention Funding
“Underneath is this deep-seated trauma that will last for years and decades and sometimes lifetimes for people.”
Maximillian Alvarez
LaborInterviewPodcast
Liz Oliva Fernández on Life in Cuba Under U.S. Embargo
“I didn't know how the sanctions affected me or my friends.”
Maximillian Alvarez
Similar articles
Labor
With Few Workplace Safety Protections, Latino Worker Deaths Are Surging
The statistics are sobering, and it's likely we're still undercounting: Only one-fourth of injuries suffered by Latino workers on small construction jobs are regularly reported, one study found.
Stephen Franklin
LaborInterviewPodcast
A Major Seattle Sandwich Chain Fired a Union Organizer, Sparking Backlash—and Change
Workers at Homegrown voted overwhelmingly to unionize with UNITE HERE in late 2022. They’ve been fighting for a contract ever since.
Maximillian Alvarez
LaborIsrael & Palestine
The AFL-CIO Squashed a Council's Cease-Fire Resolution. What Does It Say About Labor Right Now?
The move illustrates larger dynamics currently at play within the U.S. labor movement as the assault on Gaza rages on. While some unions and labor activists are advocating for an immediate end to the onslaught, most officials are keeping quiet.
Jeff Schuhrke
Get 10 issues for $19.95

Subscribe to the print magazine.

Subscribe Now