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The Class Struggle in Silicon Valley

Cory Doctorow Project Syndicate
Deteriorating working conditions have led to a shift in perspective, sparking an unprecedented wave of worker activism.

This Week in People’s History, Mar. 12–18

Portside
Huge pile of abandoned streetcars on the scrap-heap Who Wrecked the Trains? (in 1949), Forward Ever, Backward Never! (1979), Take Your Blacklist and Shove It! (1954), Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round (1964), Paris Commune and Marx (1884), Terror in Nicaragua (1984), Terror in Arkansas (1899)

The Landlord’s Game

Sasha Archibald The Public Domain Review
Lizzie Magie and Monopoly's Anti-Capitalist Origins (1903)

Monopolywood: Why the Paramount Accords Should Not Be Repealed

Vaughn Joy Red Pepper
Repealing the Paramount accords could set independent cinema back in favour of corporate giants. When larger studios can buyup properties or drive competitors out of business, that monopoly over our cultural media is truly dangerous.

Big Tech’s Monopoly on Congress

Chris Lehmann The Nation
Lawmakers have tried to introduce legislation seeking to advance antitrust reform. Google, Amazon, and Meta have spent millions fighting it.

How We Broke the Supply Chain

David Dayen, Rakeen Mabud The American Prospect
Rampant outsourcing, financialization, monopolization, deregulation, and just-in-time logistics are the culprits. Our supply chains were designed for maximum profit rather than getting things to people, problems that arose in the pandemic folded in.

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Can Journalism Be Saved?

Nicholas Lemann The New York Review of Books
The evolution (or devolution) of journalism from reporting of facts through investigatory exposes to today's spread of Internet chatter.

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Monopoly and Its Discontents

Gerald Berk The American Prospect
It's no Marxist critique of class power--would that it were--but Matt Stoller's Goliath, aimed at moving the Democratic Party off dead center, slams all the right enemies in urging the resuscitating of the anti-monopoly tradition of the 20th century
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