Global Left Midweek — November 20, 2024

The fierce urgency of now

Billionaires Take Center Stage After US Elections

More present than ever in this year’s presidential campaigns, billionaires seem poised to play a more direct role in the U.S. government. Is this reminiscent of post-Soviet restructuring in the heart of imperialism?

Randy Newman’s Genius for Political Irony

Few singer-songwriters have such fun getting under listeners’ skin.

Four Myths About Kamala Harris’s Loss

In assessing Donald Trump’s victory, pundits have claimed the country turned right, the Harris campaign was too far left and woke, Biden’s presidency was robustly populist, and racism and sexism made the result inevitable. Those claims are all wrong.

Sanders Says US Complicity in Gaza ‘Must End.'

"The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Dispatches From the Culture Wars – November 19, 2024

Making sense of the new hell

Framed: Innocents in U.S. Prisons

Our problem with “innocents in U. S. prisons” shows more signs of increasing rather than diminishing.

This Week in People’s History, Nov 20–26

Image of a newsreel title: "Gen. Butler bares 'plot' by Fascists"
Did Wall Street Want FDR’s Ouster? (1934), A first for Song’s First Lady (1934), Tamir Rice Would Be 22 (2014), Women Workers Stand Up (1909), AFL Jump-Starts the Cold War (1944), Standing Up for Press Freedom (1929), The Gap Just Gets Bigger (2019

The LEADER Never Apologizes, Even to God

Donald Trump, our President-elect, is the head teacher of the Führerprinzip, the ‘Leader Principle.’ We only get to have one of them, nor do we need any more. ‘The Leader’ is all-knowing and infallible.

Who Is Carlos Trujillo?

Trujillo is a hard-line supporter of lethal economic sanctions against Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela. He reportedly played a key role in providing the pretext for the 2019 coup d’etat in Bolivia and supported antidemocratic leaders in other countries.
Read more

Culture

food

Why Egg Prices Cause So Much Angst

Stacey Smith Bloomberg
Egg prices were up 28% in last month’s price report.Typically, when the price of something rises by as much as eggs have this past year, people will buy less of it.That’s not the case with eggs. Demand for eggs is relatively inelastic.

poetry

To My Classless Motherland

Weijia Pan the Journal
Chinese Poet Weijia Pan offers a glimpse of the contradictions in a “classless” society.

film

‘Blitz’ Review: Love in the Ruins

Alissa Wilkinson The New York Times
McQueen makes a point of integrating into the film what is rarely seen in movies of this sort: a sharp depiction of racism among Londoners, the enraging sort that has so calcified it still surfaces when people are just trying to survive.

food

The Surprising Story of How Peaches Became an Icon of the U.S. Southeast

Meghan Bartels Scientific American
New research argues that after peaches were introduced by Europeans, they spread across the eastern U.S. with the help of Indigenous peoples who structured the ecology and the land to be appropriate for peaches to grow and they tended the plants.

Labor

labor

Worker Wins: Standing Together for Their Families

Kenneth Quinnell and Sydney Roberts AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO's latest roundup of worker wins includes numerous examples of working people organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life.

labor

Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Overtime Pay Rule

Daniel Wiessner Reuters
The rule would have required employers to pay overtime premiums to salaried workers who earn less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year, when they work more than 40 hours in a week.

labor

Labor’s Resurgence Can Continue Despite Trump

Chris Bohner and Eric Blanc Radish Research
Donald Trump will do his best to undermine unions. But the labor movement still has momentum on its side and numerous opportunities to seize. Trump’s presidency has to be a time for labor action, not despair.

labor

Blue Collar Empire

Ruth Needleman Special to Portside
A review of Blue Collar Empire:The Untold Story of US Labor’s GlobaL Anti-Communist Crusade by Jeff Schurhke.

labor

Ignoring Low-Wage & Low-Wealth Voters Cost Harris

Bob Hennelly Work-Bites
When Biden’s boosters were confronted with polling that most Americans felt negative about the economy, their response was to point to aggregate data. Yet, no one lives in the aggregate. You remember the day the sheriff puts you out of your home.

Friday nite video

video

What a Trump DOJ Will Look Like

It's more than Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. Trump is seeking to turn the Justice Department into his personal law firm, with bombshell consequences.

video

Separated | Trailer

The U.S. government’s role in developing and implementing policies that have kept over 1,300 children without confirmed reunifications. Airs Dec. 7.

video

We Have To Talk About Weed

Cannabis is finally being decriminalized, for good reason. But there’s a dark side. Let’s take an honest look at some of the latest research

video

Post-Election Call to Action | Maurice Mitchell

Working Families Party, MoveOn, Indivisible, and more than 200 other organizations come together to discuss the path forward to protect our democracy and activatw their local communities