'This Is What Solidarity Looks Like'

"We want to let them know that there are thousands of people who see them, who love them and who will fight for them." Parents with their babies occupy ICE Field Director Office. Calling for swift reunification of children with their families.

Nazis Separated Me From My Parents as a Child

I know from experience that the Trump-sanctioned brutality at the US border with Mexico will scar its child victims for life. What is happening today is as evil and criminal as what happened to me and my siblings as children in Nazi Europe.

Creating a Viable Black Left

A viable, active left-wing formation is very much needed in Black America. A formation that has a grassroots membership rather than just a non-profit staff; a formation that is militant, if not audacious, challenging racial capitalism and imperialism

The Defiant Ones

As young girls, they fought the fierce battle to integrate America’s schools. They were African-American children, the vast majority girls, who were “firsts” in the years before and after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation.

Tidbits- June 21, 2018-Reader Comments

Reader Comments: Trump's Kidnapping, Concentration Camps and Resistance; Albert Einstein and Racism; Nicaragua and the Left; Study Medicine in Cuba; First Black-Led Union; How Christians Destroyed the Ancient World; Barbara Hillman; and more

Was Albert Einstein a Racist?

Albert Einstein in his office at the University of Berlin
The great scientist was a radical egalitarian—but subject nonetheless to some of the biases of his time.

Trumpism, Realized

People who would do this to children would do anything to anyone. Before this is over, they will be called to do worse.

No Plan for Reuniting Immigrant Families Torn Apart

No protocols have been put in place for keeping track of parents and children concurrently, for keeping parents and children in contact with each other while they are separated, or eventually reuniting them. Two thousand children taken from parents.

Nina Turner and Our Revolution

Our Revolution has three goals that form a triangle: 1) Run progressive candidates, 2) Organize around social justice issues, 3) Transform the Democratic Party. The groups that make up OR are at the center of that triangle.

Lula Speaks Out

I dream of being the president of a country where everyone has rights and nobody has privileges. To achieve this, we must unite the democratic forces of all Brazil, respecting the autonomy of the parties and the movements, and always solidarity.
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Culture

books

Perry Anderson's Long Goodbye to Gramsci's Hegemony

Bruce Robbins The Nation
Perry Anderson based his early Antonio Gramsci work on a reading of ruling class political hegemony based on consent. Now he insists that coercion is at history’s heart, a reading he also ascribes to Gramsci. Both propositions are overstated.

books

The Right Poetry Collection For Right Now

Walton Muyumba Los Angeles Times
This poet's sixth collection offers aims helping us reflect on our difficult times. Hayes, an African American poet, wrote this new collection during the first 200 days of the Trump administration.

tv

How ‘Pose’ Restores Pride to LGBTQ People of Color

Ashlee Marie Preston Mic
Most depictions of trans people in the media either position trans people as the butt of the joke, a victim on a crime show or a hypersexualized trope. Instead, Pose centers trans people of color from a first-person perspective.

poetry

Boy White American

Amy O'Reilly Tar River Poetry Review
Amy O’Reilly’s “Boy White American” puts her finger not so gently on the dangers in a Trumpian universe of gender roles.

books

The U.S. Government’s Border War Against Children

Scott McLemee Inside Higher Education
Reports of the forcible separation of parents and children at the border by U.S. immigration authorities tell only part of the story of the violence now being directed against hard-won norms of civil society.

Labor

labor

A Shining City on the Hill Treats Immigrants Humanely

Leo W. Gerard USW Blog
Although Trump signed an executive order forbidding splitting of children and parents, separations resulting from ICE raids continue. Yesterday, ICE raided Fresh Mark meat-packing facilities and arrested 140 workers, stranding their children.

labor

Why It Matters: The Consequences of D.C.’s Tipped Wage Vote

Khorri Atkinson Axios
While the Fight for $15 campaign has forced dozens of states and cities across the U.S. to increase their minimum wage in recent years, activists have finally begun to turn their attention to tipped workers.

labor

Inside the Dismantling of GE

Matt Egan CNN:Money
Starved for cash, an iconic American company takes apart the legacy it spent a century building.

labor

Oilcan” Ed Sadlowski, 1938-2018 Midwestern Grit

Rosemary Feurer LAWCHA
"I guess maybe I am a romantic, but I look at the American labor movement as a holy crusade, which should be the dominant force in this country to fight for working people and the underdog and make this a more just society." -- Ed Sadlowski (USWA)

labor

50+ Years in the Labor Movement (And Still Going)

Jane LaTour and Andy Piascik ZNet
Jane LaTour has been active in the labor movement since the 1960s. She has worked in factories and on staff for several unions including District 65, one of New York City’s best-known left-led unions. LaTour also worked for the Association for Union

Friday nite video

video

Stupid Watergate II

 
John Oliver explains how the president and his allies are going full O. J. in order to undermine the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

video

Where Did Viruses Come From?

 
There are fossils of viruses, of sorts, preserved in the DNA of the hosts that they’ve infected. Including you. This molecular fossil trail can help us understand where viruses came from, how they evolved and even whether viruses are alive.

video

Downtown Train | Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart performs the song by Tom Waits. First released on Waits' 1985 album If We Fall in Love Tonight.