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Employer Political Coercion: A Growing Threat

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez The American Prospect
Managers and supervisors can now legally require their workers to participate in politics as a condition of employment. For instance, in most states, managers have the legal right to mandate worker attendance at a political rally for a favored candidate—and fire or punish workers who decline to participate.

Burma: Much Talk About Democracy, Little About Ethnic Cleansing

Murtaza Shaikh OpenDemocracy
The Western media regards the status of the Rohingya people in Burma (Myanmar) as a minor detail in the wooing of a country known for its precious natural resources. While the electoral victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy represents a momentous event in Burma, the horrific treatment of the one million Rohingya Muslims who were denied the right to vote, stand for office, or even inclusion in a recent census, also demands our attention.

The Tragedy of the Commons, the Pope, and the System

Michael A. Lebowitz The Georgia Straight
The message of "On Care for our Common Home" is simple: the earth is our commons, it is limited, and we are not managing our commons in a way that is consistent with its sustainability and justice.

Chicago’s Police Problem

Simon Balto History News Network
It should shock no one that the odds are even longer if you’re not white, and awful if you’re black. Black Chicagoans lodged 61 percent of the complaints that comprise the CPDP data and white Chicagoans only about 20 percent. Twenty-five percent of the charges deemed sustainable were leveled by black people;58 percent were brought by whites.

Healthy Coffee and Cigarettes

Tabitha M. Powledge PLOS One
Coffee and cigarettes. Well, it turns out that one of them is good for you. As for e-cigarettes ... hold the conclusions.

Message to Black Clergy: Think of Trump's Rhetoric Before Meeting With Him

#TEAMEBONY Ebony
An open letter from more than 100 Black religious leaders and scholars to the African American ministers scheduled to meet with Donald Trump warn that such a meeting will serve to "de-radicalize the Black prophetic political tradition" and "give Trump the appearance of legitimacy" that he will use to harm Black communities.

'Suffragette' Foregrounds Working-Class Women

Linda Gordon Portside
Suffragette is the first film to depict a women's movement with major Hollywood stars. And Gavron's introduction, skyped in at the preview I saw, was superb, emphasizing global women's struggles and class and race inequality as well as the historical fight for suffrage. As more celebrities come out as feminists, we can hope for more.

 ISIS Wants a Clash of the Civilizations: Let’s Not Give In

Juan Cole The Nation
For Baghdadi to call his band of human traffickers, rapists, drug smugglers, and looters the “Islamic State” is rather like a Mexican drug cartel adopting the moniker “the Vatican,” and our adopting that term thereafter (“The Vatican kidnapped 30 people today”) when reporting on its violence. Journalists would resist such linguistic coercion in the case of Catholics; they should resist it in the case of Muslims as well.